Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2008 14:05:13 -0700 From: Gary Kline <kline@thought.org> To: Wojciech Puchar <wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> Cc: Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com>, FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: OT: anyone been crazy enough to mirror wikipedia? Message-ID: <20080702210513.GA64418@thought.org> In-Reply-To: <20080702211133.Y2931@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> References: <539c60b90806301348l4b09cd90n3972b41339276d6f@mail.gmail.com> <20080702143434.J9414@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> <20080702184345.GC4709@kokopelli.hydra> <20080702211133.Y2931@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl>
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On Wed, Jul 02, 2008 at 09:12:33PM +0200, Wojciech Puchar wrote: > >> > >>wikipedia is just a pile of junk. everyone can put in it, and > >>unfortunately do. > > > >Meanwhile, in print encyclopedias, I see that with restricted writing > >access and strict editing processes there are typically systemic biases > >and subtler mistakes that are much easier to overlook -- and the mistakes > >not only persist until the next edition, but often exist for decades, > >whereas finding a mistake in Wikipedia is fixable within five minutes. > > and 3 others are added. > > >The key is that an encyclopedia should never be the *end* of your > >research. It's basically just a place to look for key terms to research > > actually what i do - to get the first glance on subject, THEN checking > more precisely. > > but quite often it's crap even at the first glance I'll add my dime's worth, given the years of pure research I've done in recent years. wiki-anything is usually *not* my first choice; but if there are citations that i can find on-line or at my local library in a wiki article, I'll use them. point of fact: i just spent some 45 minutes tracking down an obscure quote. the citation (from the Feb. 1981 ACM) was in a German PDF file. no help from wikipedia, but an example of how much effort it takes to get things right. (or as close-to right as possible.) > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" -- Gary Kline kline@thought.org www.thought.org Public Service Unix http://jottings.thought.org http://transfinite.thought.org
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