Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Wikipedia
No dis on this site at all. But it is NOT a valid source to quote from like World Book or Britannica Encyclopedia. There is NO oversight. There is no fact checker. There is no centralized editorial system. Quit quoting it like you are quoting a renowned literary text or scholarly reference book. That goes doubly for other websites floating out there in cyberspace. People, listen up. Just because you can hyperlink to like a hundred sites doesn't make you an expert on any given subject. Any information on the web should be triple-checked for accuracy. Anyone who took basic college English or went to half-way decent high school should know that references and citations are a serious venture. You just don't start citing things willy-nilly. You might as well say my Uncle Remus said "all roses are red" and he never lies. Or Aunt Marge said that "dinosaurs never exists" and she's a Christian. Do you see my point? Some random website does not a valid source make. So the next time you start quoting some website as your authority, think twice, sheesh, think four or five times because you have the potential to sound like a freaking idiotic moron.
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I love Wikipedia...
Information is great period. Unfortunately somepeople don't double check think. I recall reading an article about Wikipedia where Coke was upset. You can post what ever you want IF the site isn't locked which is sometimes the case. However COKE was upset because people were giving less than flattering information about them. The interesting aspect is that the INFORMATION was not untrue. It was in Coke's view outdate and not completely accurate...(hmmm) One of people in the article mentioned that Wikipedia should be used as a STARTING point and not the end. It's a LIVING encyclopedia, even in school I'm sure many of you used the encyclopedia for papers and such...however the teacher...called that the easy way and admonished you to USE OTHER sources! What I like about Wikipedia IS that you can add and delet things. IT IS CHECKED...not often but checked. AND depending on the topic, there are usually OTHER SOURCES FOR YOU TO CONTINUE your research. Also it's reader friendly!:)
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