It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.
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It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.
@AlSweigart The Economist had an interview with Jimmy Wales, who basically presented the same argument. It's on their Babbage science and technology podcast. He also goes into how Wikipedia makes sense of its place in an AI world.
You need to be a subscriber to The Economist or their Economist+ Podcast subscription but if you're actually interested I can send you the audio file. I am sure they don't mind this one time
https://shows.acast.com/theeconomistbabbage/episodes/jimmy-wales-wikipedias-founder-on-surviving-ai -
It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.
@AlSweigart so many college professors and highschool teachers I want to scream at.
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It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.
@AlSweigart Wait, you mean Wikipedia is not firing 1/3 of its staff and replacing them with AI bots designed to praise billionaires and the President?
How are you supposed to trust Wikipedia ever again!!
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It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.
@AlSweigart For all it's flaws, Wiki still is and always has been the best source of information. No textbook ever written has footnotes that update in real time where a statement can be challenged, or a source or other evidence be demanded. That alone is priceless. The real value is at the bottom of the page-all the references that DO back up everything in the article.
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@AlSweigart PR firms routinely whitewash their clients' articles. But still, pretty good for articles about poor or dead people.
@jmjm @AlSweigart hi
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It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.
@AlSweigart Jimmy Wales is an interesting guy- lives a very ordinary, humble, even, life. Somewhere in the UK, I think.
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It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.
@AlSweigart And "You can't trust Wikipedia but we have to steal it in its entirety for our slop machines."
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It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.
@AlSweigart Fair, but if you still can't use a Wikipedia citation as a valid source as a freelancer. At least, no respectable freelancer would do it, least of all me.
It still exists as a fascinating open-source experiment, even if it's not exactly what anyone would describe as 100% reliable.
Turns out newspapers having a monopoly on classified ads was actually a very, very good thing for society.
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It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.
@AlSweigart i will never trust wikipedia with anything related to social issues given how bigoted it is but things measurements are fine.
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It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.
Also my response to that in school when we were told not to use it for research was just to click through to the references and cite them directly making it a fantastic index and summary
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@AlSweigart Fair, but if you still can't use a Wikipedia citation as a valid source as a freelancer. At least, no respectable freelancer would do it, least of all me.
It still exists as a fascinating open-source experiment, even if it's not exactly what anyone would describe as 100% reliable.
Turns out newspapers having a monopoly on classified ads was actually a very, very good thing for society.
@haunted_refrigerator @AlSweigart professors in college back in the day would rule out wikipedia for citation. This was hilarious to me as an IT professional.
What is at the bottom of every wikipedia page?
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Also my response to that in school when we were told not to use it for research was just to click through to the references and cite them directly making it a fantastic index and summary
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@AlSweigart Fair, but if you still can't use a Wikipedia citation as a valid source as a freelancer. At least, no respectable freelancer would do it, least of all me.
It still exists as a fascinating open-source experiment, even if it's not exactly what anyone would describe as 100% reliable.
Turns out newspapers having a monopoly on classified ads was actually a very, very good thing for society.
@haunted_refrigerator @AlSweigart The reason Wikipedia should not be cited is because it’s an encyclopedia, not because it’s not accurate.
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It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.
@AlSweigart I remember researching John Wesley and the wikipedia page started out "For a good time call ###-####, also John Wesley (/ˈwɛsli/ WESS-lee;[1] 28 June [O.S. 17 June] 1703 – 2 March 1791) was an Engl..." Still more useful than AI slop.
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It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.
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It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.
I was once mocked by my cousin and his redneck friends for using Wikipedia to get... a list of US Presidents.
I didn't know how to respond to that so I just kept quiet and removed myself from the thread. I *still* don't know how I should have responded to it.
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It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.
@AlSweigart
Wikipedia didn't change, the world around it did. Just because everything around it got worse doesn't mean that it got better even if it's now one of the more reliable sources. Checking references on Wikipedia is still an important thing.To be clear, I'm not saying Wikipedia is bad and I agree capitalism is the problem but "trust, but verify" is important to follow.
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It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.
@AlSweigart I wouldn't say it's really 'trustworthy'. It still has its limits and flaws. I'm a production editor at a uni press and we discourage our authors from citing it. They should, literally, be doing their own research. However, it has resisted some of the corrosion that has afflicted other media.
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@AlSweigart can't trust Wikipedia because a swathe of their editors/moderators are actively and maliciously misogynist and/or transphobic, and will reject edits and flag pages as not notable where people give women, particularly trans women, credit
yet it's still less bad than the for-profit sites
@jackeric @AlSweigart That's how crowd sourcing works. It needs people (dare I say community?) to care about it enough to fix the typos and misinformation and lack of properly cited sources. Eventually truth outs (in theory).
But it takes resources to keep everything running and detect the wreckers too. I have never enjoyed donating to an organization more. They graciously accept any amount. Single digit donations are treated exactly the same as hundreds of bucks.
