How often do you use Wikipedia and what do you think of it?

[Torsten]

How often do you turn to Wikipedia to look something up? What do you think of Wikipedia as a source of information?
As for me, I use it quite often because it seems to cover a lot of different topics. The articles are good to get an overview of certain subjects and sometimes Wikipedia provides some in-depth information too. It also seems to quite up to date. Anyway, what's your take on it?

Regards,
Torsten

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[Konstantin]

For me it's one of the most useful source of information for several reasons. At first when I hear any new word I'll try to find an explanation not in the Russian part of the Internet but in English part because I could improve my English at the same time. So I visit WP quite often. Also if I must do any report about a history event or fine art trend I always start with the reading of Wikipedia's article. Unfortunately, there is a lot of information that isn't very precise since the WP is free moderated.

[Yankee]

Hi Torsten

I look at Wikipedia quite often. It is a handy resource -- especially for anything very current (e.g. brand new technology), since "regular" encyclopedias have trouble keeping up-to-date. But that advantage also has its drawbacks since there may be errors or misinformation included in the articles.

Did you know that the word 'wiki' was added by the OED this month as an official English word? :D

Amy
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Torsten]

Hi Amy, that's very interesting. And what the OED definition of the word "wiki"?

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[Torsten]

[NinaZara]

Hello Torsten, seeing you a lot these days :wink:

I use Wikipedia to look up the things that I've never heard of and most of the time I look for the links on a particular subject that it provides because different search engines from different countries give you different results when you google.

Nina

[Aereal]

I constantly use wikipedia, because the links to it are always within the top few Google results. However, as Konstantin mentioned, it is free moderated, so I don't always trust the entire content and get the information rather critically. To say the truth, there are very few internet resources I trust.

P.S. Scientific part - in order to gather info for homework or get definition of unknown phenomena/words - I used to visit http://scienceworld.wolfram.com. It was even before wiki became that popular. However, after wiki emerged, I noticed that the articles on wolfram were still more accurate and informative. At this moment it seems wolfram is not updated as often as wiki, and surely wiki covers broader area.
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[Yankee]

Hi Torsten

You can also find the definition of 'wiki' at Dictionary.com:
"A collaborative website whose content can be edited by anyone who has access to it."
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=wiki&r=66

The fact that it's been added to the OED is stated here (unfortunately, without the OED definition):
http://www.oed.com/help/updates/Prakrit-prim.html

Amy
_________________
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[NinaZara]

[Prezbucky]

I mostly like Wiki... but if I were writing a research paper, I would not base anything on what I read on a Wiki page. I'd go to at least one additional source for verification.

But for basic information, I think that it's great.
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[Pamela]

Though Wiki abounds in different interesting and important subjects concerning different fields, I also resort to the help of any additional source in order to compare and check the provided materials.