Why you should never trust Wikipedia
A while back I discovered, quite by accident, that the Wikipedia contains an entry for brilliant Dallas Morning News editor Nicole Stockdale. For many years, she blogged at A Capital Idea. She tapered off about a year ago. I miss reading her stuff very much.
Anyway, Here’s a portion of her Wikipedia page:
Very interesting, right?
But scroll down a bit further and you’ll find careful attribution of vital facts about Nicole.
That’s right:
Use Wikipedia for your personal amusement. Have fun with it. But don’t rely on it for anything you plan to publish. You never know where that information is coming from!
May 1st, 2008 at 11:00 am
Man, they’ll let any kind of garbage onto wikipedia
But that is good advice though. I use wikipedia as a starting point for research to point me in the right direction, but I always try to track down some original document rather than use info from wikipedia. I find the “external links” feature very helpful.
May 1st, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Well that is THE last straw for Wikipedia. I knew to be careful, but that certainly proves it, if drivel like that is allowed to be cited as a “real” source. What next for journalism? My or My oh My!
May 1st, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Maybe Nicole should now write Charles’ Wikipedia bio. As she obviously is good enough to draft her own and have it published. She certainly owes our graphics guru a volley back into his court.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
I wince when I see a reporter attribute a fact (usually in an infobox) to wikipedia. I’m with John on how it can be properly used.
May 6th, 2008 at 9:59 am
And the natural question: is it wrong?
May 6th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I don’t think it’s wrong, Alex. I just question their using me as a source. It struck me as funny.
.
Also, for what it’s worth, I’ll bet Nicole didn’t write this herself. If she had, she wouldn’t have cited me as a source of her birthday.