5 ms·

Why Wikipedia is not so great

21 points by makimaki 18y ago

ashleyw 18y ago
The only problem for me is its so complicated; if I found obvious vandalism which hadn't got caught by any of the active members, it'd take me 10 mins to work out how to revert it correctly — it'd not be much harder to use it from the command line!
- snprbob86 18y ago
  Yeah, I think that MetaWiki is overly complicated and heavily lacking in ease of use. Maybe someone could treat Wikipedia as a back-end and implement a cleaner, simpler, and more powerful UI on top without having to fork the entire database?
  - randomwalker 18y ago
    My preferences --> gadgets --> editing gadgets. Between the various gadgets there, I'm sure you can find what you want. And you can write your own too. There are a variety of user-contributed stylesheets and scripts listed elsewhere on the site. Unless you're trying to do admin tasks, I'm not sure what you mean ease of use. Just click the edit button and start typing. If the formatting is wrong, someone will clean up after you.
    - snprbob86 18y ago
      I had no idea that was there... I'm sure most people don't.
- InVerse 18y ago
  i agree with you in spirit. for me, the social/political difficulties are even larger obstacles than the technical. well, you did say obvious vandalism. anything other than nonsense could be a trial by fire to "correct". there was a satire making the reddit rounds (and presumably hn?) a few months back in which editing wikipedia was extrapolated to time traveling, complete with inane policy discussions. found it: http://www.abyssandapex.com/200710-wikihistory.html http://www.abyssandapex.com/200710-wikihistory.html
- jonursenbach 18y ago
  The versioning system in MediaWiki definitely needs work.
bonaldi 18y ago
By jove, that Wikipedia page is accurate and well-written!
Prrometheus 18y ago
It's great for math.
- brent 18y ago
  Except for the inaccuracies. I find MathWorld to be a safer bet.
  - jcromartie 18y ago
    I second MathWorld. Sometimes I spend hours reading it.
timmorgan 18y ago
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:A9H3pqjznZwJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Wikipedia_is_not_so_great+Why+Wikipedia+is+not+so+great&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:A9H3pqjznZwJ:en.wikipedi... This page has to be deleted and undeleted by admins, yes? So editors with privileges are helping to write this and reinstate it from time to time? Interesting.
- jrp 18y ago
  So does Wikipedia let you look at deleted pages? I thought they did but from the article link I couldn't find it. edit -- I was thinking of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Why_Wikipedia_is_not_so_great&action=history http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Why_Wikipedia_is_n... I guess not.
- halo 18y ago
  Someone killed the redirect because it was in article space. The original article is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_Wikipedia_is_not_so_great http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_Wikipedia_is_not_...
rejoyy 18y ago
although i agree with the points raised here, am inclined to be critical of the uh, critic... when all is said and done, wikipedia provides a lot of info we can use and THAT is what matters... ps: it would be to wikipedia's own good if it could reflect on the points raised by the "critic"... aren't we all for self improvement, eh?
Ardit20 18y ago
So basicaly wikipedia reflects the society we live in and the many varied views and tactis we humans use. Intresting.

21 points by makimaki 18y ago

The only problem for me is its so complicated; if I found obvious vandalism which hadn't got caught by any of the active members, it'd take me 10 mins to work out how to revert it correctly — it'd not be much harder to use it from the command line!

snprbob86 18y ago
Yeah, I think that MetaWiki is overly complicated and heavily lacking in ease of use. Maybe someone could treat Wikipedia as a back-end and implement a cleaner, simpler, and more powerful UI on top without having to fork the entire database?
- randomwalker 18y ago
  My preferences --> gadgets --> editing gadgets. Between the various gadgets there, I'm sure you can find what you want. And you can write your own too. There are a variety of user-contributed stylesheets and scripts listed elsewhere on the site. Unless you're trying to do admin tasks, I'm not sure what you mean ease of use. Just click the edit button and start typing. If the formatting is wrong, someone will clean up after you.
  - snprbob86 18y ago
    I had no idea that was there... I'm sure most people don't.
InVerse 18y ago
i agree with you in spirit. for me, the social/political difficulties are even larger obstacles than the technical. well, you did say obvious vandalism. anything other than nonsense could be a trial by fire to "correct". there was a satire making the reddit rounds (and presumably hn?) a few months back in which editing wikipedia was extrapolated to time traveling, complete with inane policy discussions. found it: http://www.abyssandapex.com/200710-wikihistory.html http://www.abyssandapex.com/200710-wikihistory.html
jonursenbach 18y ago
The versioning system in MediaWiki definitely needs work.

bonaldi 18y ago

By jove, that Wikipedia page is accurate and well-written!

Prrometheus 18y ago

It's great for math.

brent 18y ago
Except for the inaccuracies. I find MathWorld to be a safer bet.
- jcromartie 18y ago
  I second MathWorld. Sometimes I spend hours reading it.

timmorgan 18y ago

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:A9H3pqjznZwJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Wikipedia_is_not_so_great+Why+Wikipedia+is+not+so+great&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:A9H3pqjznZwJ:en.wikipedi... This page has to be deleted and undeleted by admins, yes? So editors with privileges are helping to write this and reinstate it from time to time? Interesting.

jrp 18y ago
So does Wikipedia let you look at deleted pages? I thought they did but from the article link I couldn't find it. edit -- I was thinking of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Why_Wikipedia_is_not_so_great&action=history http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Why_Wikipedia_is_n... I guess not.
halo 18y ago
Someone killed the redirect because it was in article space. The original article is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_Wikipedia_is_not_so_great http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_Wikipedia_is_not_...

rejoyy 18y ago

although i agree with the points raised here, am inclined to be critical of the uh, critic... when all is said and done, wikipedia provides a lot of info we can use and THAT is what matters... ps: it would be to wikipedia's own good if it could reflect on the points raised by the "critic"... aren't we all for self improvement, eh?

Ardit20 18y ago

So basicaly wikipedia reflects the society we live in and the many varied views and tactis we humans use. Intresting.