A polarized America, will we ever get together

[ChrisC]

Originally Posted by whydoucare?

All through college Professors has told the class if anybody uses wikipedia for a source the paper will automatically fail, I dont care if its the best paper you ever wrote. I myself has read some false information on wiki

That's why you start at wikipedia and investigate the links from there. You don't use wikipedia for a reference.

Yes, there are some dead links. but there are dead links in google too. Just keep trying until you find something substantial.

Personally, I'd never go back to spending ten hours thumbing through a set of encyclopedias or wandering through a library when I can find what I need on the net in five minutes. Welcome the information age. Now, if the technology failed, I could certainly go back to the old way. But not until then.

[ChrisC]

Originally Posted by tindo80

Its really sad that actual encyclopedia publications are losing money people so many people are so trusting and ignorant that they will buy into anythng referenced on a wikipedia article that has some link to so some blog or editorial that claims to back it up.

I'm not talking about blogs or personal homepages. I'm talking about links to online scientific journals or linguistics pages maintained by universities. Why is an online linguistics publication any less valuable than the equivalent $100 textbook at the university bookstore? It contains the same info.

Besides, why are you so willing to believe everything that is in print in a book? That can be biased or false as easily as something written on the web. An Enquirer quality publication can be printed on paper or online. The only difference is that more trees are killed when it's printed on paper. It's the same content.

[tindo80]

Originally Posted by ChrisC

I'm not talking about blogs or personal homepages. I'm talking about links to online scientific journals or linguistics pages maintained by universities. Why is an online linguistics publication any less valuable than the equivalent $100 textbook at the university bookstore? It contains the same info.

Sometimes, but that is not the case for the majority of material on Wiki. hard sciences, maybe. Debated sciences, no. History, even worst. Government, politicals, and issues of definition, almost always not.

Besides, why are you so willing to believe everything that is in print in a book? That can be biased or false as easily as something written on the web. An Enquirer quality publication can be printed on paper or online. The only difference is that more trees are killed when it's printed on paper. It's the same content.

True, but I am old school in that I trust academic scholarly developed information rather than pop cultured information.

Scholarly research is more immune (though not perfect) to personal agendas, self glamorizing, lawsuit threats and vandals. Plus, its been the main source of knowledge for the past 10,000 years of human existence.