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ArchivesRe: Eleanor: an even worse Wikipedia error
in reply to a message by Cleveland Kent Evans
I watch Wikipedia already for quite a while because I see it as a very interesting Internet phenomenon. So I would like to give a few comments about it - not to criticize Cleveland Kent Evans, even less to start a flame war, but just as "food for thought":
Yes, Wikipedia contains a lot of misleading or even downright wrong information, but this is not surprising given that anybody at anytime can write something there. What is surprising to me and a lot of other watchers that it functions at all. At the start of Wikipedia there was a broad consensus that this will *never* work, no way. But the site has grown into something that despite all its flaws has definite uses.
Indeed, what happens right now with Cleveland Kent Evans going over entries and correcting mistakes could be taken as an indication that the system works - more or less, most of the time!
You could look at it also the other way round: Regulars on this forum know very well the quality issues of "baby names websites". Like others here, I often found wrong information on those sites myself, and regularly this produced an urge in me to correct them. But, no chance, of course. With a bad Wikipedia entry, at least you can do something about it...
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
Yes, Wikipedia contains a lot of misleading or even downright wrong information, but this is not surprising given that anybody at anytime can write something there. What is surprising to me and a lot of other watchers that it functions at all. At the start of Wikipedia there was a broad consensus that this will *never* work, no way. But the site has grown into something that despite all its flaws has definite uses.
Indeed, what happens right now with Cleveland Kent Evans going over entries and correcting mistakes could be taken as an indication that the system works - more or less, most of the time!
You could look at it also the other way round: Regulars on this forum know very well the quality issues of "baby names websites". Like others here, I often found wrong information on those sites myself, and regularly this produced an urge in me to correct them. But, no chance, of course. With a bad Wikipedia entry, at least you can do something about it...
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
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