Wikipedia’s mixed reactions

By on February 14th, 2008 In Social Media

“Anyone who wants to get a sense of just what brand of fruitcakes one is dealing with in Wikipedia World should try reading the English Wikipedia Discussion List for a month or two,” retorted one reader on the news that an associate prof at the University of Texas was recommending his students read the discussion and history pages.

Do fruitcakes keep Wikipedia alive? Whenever I ask, people have mixed reactions. Mostly positive, but the people who think the open source model is flawed don’t exactly distrust Google searches and book reviews.

Or is it fashionable to slam Wikipedia? A senator introduced a bill to ban it last year. There was a professor who had banned students from using it, but (as TechCrunch pointed out) had her own Wiki entry. Yes the senator, too, has a wiki entry.

Closer to home, ever peeked behind the curtain and checked the discussion pages of Scottsdale on Wikipedia? Much more contentious than what goes on behind Tempe‘s Wiki entry, except for one deletion of a “ghetto-rific suburb” reference.

Comments

Eric Reid Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 10:30 am

Well it isn’t terribly surprising. I mean, Wikipedia is open to anyone who wants to write for it, or worse, edit it. So it is made up of the average intelligence. Since the average person isn’t a research scientist, journalist, professor or author… how great can the everyman quality of Wikipedia really be?

Taran Rampersad Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 12:18 pm

It was my first time traipsing through there. My initial impression is that most of the discussion is well balanced, and it seems to be balanced by the select few.

It is interesting, especially for someone who stopped editing the Wikipedia- especially the reactions to Wikipedia criticisms.

Angelo Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 4:41 pm

I came across an interesting bit of research from Pew Internet & American Life. http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Wikipedia07.pdf
Wikipedia users tend to be younger and more educated. That was in April last year, though.

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