[ANSTHRLD] Wikipedia

[Maridonna]

Hello,

Isn't Wikipedia the encyclopedia where the information in an article 
can be changed by anyone?
-----------------------------
Dec 2005 LOAR Cover Letter
 From Pelican: On Wikipedia

Submitters are turning to Wikipedia as a source for name 
documentation. In recent commentary, Nebuly summarized what is good 
and bad about this approach:

     The content of Wikipedia is in a constant state of flux, and 
there are many articles written by people who have no business 
writing an article. I say this as someone who has recently begun 
contributing to Wikipedia (mostly in botany thus far). Though there 
are some very fine articles by very knowledgeable people, often it 
is not possible to distinguish the reliable information from a pile 
of dingo's kidneys.

We wish to remind heralds that, while Wikipedia is a fine starting 
point for name documentation, it should not be an ending point for 
any name element. Recent publicity has shown that Wikipedia is about 
equal to other standard reference works for scientific articles. 
However, there has not been an evaluation of articles about history 
or onomastics. Because of the nature of collaboration that goes into 
this source, its accuracy runs from excellent to atrocious. 
Unfortunately, in most cases it is often impossible to tell what is 
accurate and what is not without recourse to other more scholarly 
sources. Furthermore, as with many general reference works, most 
articles give present-day normalized forms of names which is not 
useful for the purposes of name documentation. Therefore, articles 
from Wikipedia are not sufficient as sole documentation for any name 
element.
-- 
Andrea / Maridonna
Why buy while they die? Adopt a rescue or shelter pet today.