4 ms·
The article asks Wales: "Worried about the accuracy of Wiki?" His reply: "We make it as good as we possibly can, but we know it isn’t perfect. On the other han
by akolbe 5y ago
The article asks Wales: "Worried about the accuracy of Wiki?"
His reply: "We make it as good as we possibly can, but we know it isn’t perfect. On the other hand, it’s pretty good."
Well, people need to understand that the Wikimedia Foundation – which Jimmy Wales founded and still is a board member of today – is a platform provider, just like YouTube or Twitter. As such, they don't really impact the quality of the content directly. That is all done by unpaid volunteers.
By the way, there was a thread on the Wikimedia Foundation's wealth and the Wikipedia fundraising banners yesterday. (I think it's safe to assume that this homely WSJ piece coming out on the same day the fundraising banners went up on Wikipedia wasn't entirely a coincidence.)
See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29402716 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29402716 and https://www.dailydot.com/debug/wikipedia-endownemnt-fundraising/ https://www.dailydot.com/debug/wikipedia-endownemnt-fundrais... for more Wikipedia financial info.
- akolbe 5y agoJust yesterday, someone posted on Twitter: "I'm never sure when is a good time to share that I made up a person on Wikipedia sixteen years ago and he is still there" https://twitter.com/aobate/status/1466101687773503493 https://twitter.com/aobate/status/1466101687773503493 The biography still exists today (though probably not for much longer, so here is an archive link as well): https://archive.md/BBRC4 https://archive.md/BBRC4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Farrow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Farrow It reads: ---o0o--- Dr. William Henry Farrow (20 June 1805? – 17 November 1876) was a physician born and trained in England. Farrow practiced in Montreal, Quebec and Toronto, Ontario. He is most notable for providing one of the first detailed descriptions of synesthesia.[1] Farrow reported the details of the illness, (in this case temporary) in an article published in the Lower Canada Journal of Medicine.[2] Footnotes 1. New, Chester (1929). Lord Durham. Oxford University Press. pp. 374–376. 2. "An Analysis of Confusion Occurring between the Senses". The Lower Canada Journal of Medicine. The Medical Society of Lower Canada. 12: 56–62. September 1838. ---o0o--- It's always worth remembering that Wikipedia has different sorts of quality problems from conventional encyclopedias. Its quality control system, for example, is not systematic or methodical, but completely haphazard, because everything is done by volunteers. And volunteers volunteer for what they feel like doing.
- akolbe 5y agoHere's a few more historical "quality issues": https://www.theregister.com/2017/01/16/wikipedia_16_birthday_fails/ https://www.theregister.com/2017/01/16/wikipedia_16_birthday... Also: "The greatest movie that never was" https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/wikipedia-hoax-yuri-gadyukin-nitrate-movie/ https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/wikipedia-hoax-yuri-gadyuk...