5 ms·

The encyclopedia is giant and highly decentralized. It will elude any simple characterization like this. Wikipedia's vast and distributed community of editors m

The encyclopedia is giant and highly decentralized. It will elude any simple characterization like this. Wikipedia's vast and distributed community of editors maintains a policy that it is not a place for original research. Thus, in general, Wikipedia is not a source for anything - it is a medium for information from other places. Personally I think the fact that it is a good model for how to distribute information since it is unequivocally open in terms of viewing the history and discussions around an article. Any claim can be contested by anyone willing to take the time and make their case. I realize that both of these steps are unrealistic for a large number of people but these are also the minimal requirements of any non-centralized source of information.

AnonCoward42 4y ago
> The encyclopedia is giant and highly decentralized. At least in Germany it's highly centralized for any topic that is even slightly political. I forgot the exact percentage, but it's in the realm of 95%+ is editted by a few dozen people for all topics that are even slightly political and spreads a numbers of expertises they seemingly have. Most German Wikipedians probably know Felikz and Kopilot or the Politburo of Wikipedia in general. edit: It's Kopilot not Copilot.
herculity275 4y ago
> Thus, in general, Wikipedia is not a source for anything - it is a medium for information from other places How you choose to present that information + which particular sources you choose to cite on a given topic is absolutely susceptible to bias and propaganda efforts.