4 ms·

I cannot recall the last time I used Wikipedia. The hyperaccurate wikis make even the most benign research task a daunting experience. It's like there are perfe

I cannot recall the last time I used Wikipedia. The hyperaccurate wikis make even the most benign research task a daunting experience. It's like there are perfectionists out there that won't stop tweaking the wiki's. I think Wikipedia has served its usefulness and should be allowed to be absorbed or recreated into something better. For now it's just a trust fund for Jimmy Wales.

lacksconfidence 6y ago
How is it a trust fund for Jimmy Wales?
- 20after4 6y ago
  Simple: it isn't.
t0astbread 6y ago
Isn't that sort of accuracy natural for an encyclopedia? Of course, depending on your familiarity with a subject, articles might be hard to read but I think in general Wikipedia does a good job at distilling its sources down to a useful summary.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
belorn 6y ago
May I ask, do you ever look up trivial information online? I do believe there exist people who never look up information online. Such people must exist somewhere and thus I should not exclude them from existence. For the rest of people I strongly believe they either use a search engine, a virtual assistant, or go directly to Wikipedia. The search engine scrape Wikipedia, the virtual assistant use the search engine to find answers and Wikipedia is Wikipedia. In either case it is highly likely that one is using Wikipedia directly or indirectly.
- approxim8ion 6y ago
  Looking up trivial information is my #1 use case for wikipedia. For instance, I use it to look up movies/series, their cast and public reception all the time. It's presented much better on Wiki than Google/IMDB and just works for me.
ncmncm 6y ago
As with traditional newspapers, lately if you examine a topic you know something about, the entry is fundamentally misleading. However, the reasons for the discrepancy are different. Many articles are defended by petty tyrants, against improvement by people who know better than they do, but have less free time to spend un-reverting work. Often enough the tyrants are self-righteous tenured or emeritus professors who imagine themselves holding back the deluge as they enforce interpretations they picked up decades ago and have not kept up on.

lacksconfidence 6y ago

How is it a trust fund for Jimmy Wales?

20after4 6y ago
Simple: it isn't.

t0astbread 6y ago

Isn't that sort of accuracy natural for an encyclopedia? Of course, depending on your familiarity with a subject, articles might be hard to read but I think in general Wikipedia does a good job at distilling its sources down to a useful summary.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

belorn 6y ago

May I ask, do you ever look up trivial information online? I do believe there exist people who never look up information online. Such people must exist somewhere and thus I should not exclude them from existence. For the rest of people I strongly believe they either use a search engine, a virtual assistant, or go directly to Wikipedia. The search engine scrape Wikipedia, the virtual assistant use the search engine to find answers and Wikipedia is Wikipedia. In either case it is highly likely that one is using Wikipedia directly or indirectly.

approxim8ion 6y ago
Looking up trivial information is my #1 use case for wikipedia. For instance, I use it to look up movies/series, their cast and public reception all the time. It's presented much better on Wiki than Google/IMDB and just works for me.

ncmncm 6y ago

As with traditional newspapers, lately if you examine a topic you know something about, the entry is fundamentally misleading. However, the reasons for the discrepancy are different. Many articles are defended by petty tyrants, against improvement by people who know better than they do, but have less free time to spend un-reverting work. Often enough the tyrants are self-righteous tenured or emeritus professors who imagine themselves holding back the deluge as they enforce interpretations they picked up decades ago and have not kept up on.