Instant gratification can be had for good and bad. For the most part you don't have to wait to go to the bookstore when you can download. Pizza can now be ordered online and it's process of construction, oven entering, and delivery can all be viewed while waiting. It's great, it's progress, but we must remember to use our intellectual skills to realize when it can be misleading.
I love to look things up on Wiki at times. If it's for fun I'll read it, maybe click on a link or two, and I'm done. But if it's something that I really need a trusted answer for then I will see what Wiki states and then research it by way of trusted sources.
They don't have the manpower (I believe the article mentioned 4 or 8 employees) to check all of the entries, and I think that's a shame. I would love to be able to go to Wiki for instant gratification for research and be done with it. Life would be simpler and we could move along much more quickly. Unfortunately that is not the case and until they incorporate careful screening of the information it isn't a good source for solid information. But it's still fun!!
While there are not paid employees policing the site, there are a lot (like, an exorbitant amount) of people who are overseeing the articles. Schiff's article actually mentions the idea of an alert list where users will be updated if a page they have contributed greatly to is edited, so that they can vet it.
ReplyDeleteAgain, it's not perfect, but it's as good as it's going to get while still living up to the ideals of a free encyclopedia that is for the people and, quite literally, by the people.