Wikipedia

Wikipedia (i/ˌwɪkɨˈpiːdiə/ or i/ˌwɪkiˈpiːdiə/ wik-i-pee-dee-ə) is a free, collaborative, multilingual Internet encyclopedia supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles (over 3.8 million in English alone) have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site, and it has about 100,000 regularly active contributors.

How did we know that? We looked it up on Wikipedia! The Punch must have some kind of superpower, because Wikipedia was “blacked out” for 24 hours to protest against proposed US anti-piracy legislation they say will restrict the freedom of the internet. But it let us in for a bit.

Do you use Wikipedia? Do you trust it? Are you worried about the legislation? Talk about these burning issues, or anything else on your mind, below.

Something you probably missed over the weekend: Wikipedia’s in crisis, Gawker reports. Jimmy Wales, the site’s founder (whose head dominates fundraising request advertising banners once every year) says the ranks of Wikipedia editors are thinning rapidly. Old editors are leaving and new eds aren’t taking their place.

I think Wikipedia’s a great resource. It’s one of the most awesome repositories of human knowledge of all time. And plus, I think I’m far away enough from high school to say it sure gave me a helping hand with those Biology assignments in Year 11.

But this probably means you’re more likely to see some “facts” on Wikipedia that just don’t seem quite right (or for that matter, politically correct). Like Bernie Madoff being “a very clever asshole who stole shitloads of money to better himself and his family”. Or conjunctivitis being caused by “someone farting all over your pillow”.

On that tasteful note: it’s Monday! What’s the best howler of an edit you’ve seen on Wikipedia? What else is on your mind?

The dodgiest place to go for information used to be Wikipedia.

In 2006, its burlesque unreliability was parodied on the satirical web site The Onion which suggested the on-line encyclopedia was celebrating 750 years of American independence.

This fake news story said that, according to the Wikipedia database, America was 212 years older than the Eiffel Tower, 347 years older than the earliest-known woolly-mammoth fossil, and a full 493 years older than the microwave oven.

Continue reading "Conservapedia: a beacon of truthiness in dark times" »