[ANSTHRLD] Wikipedia

Mike C. Baker kihebard at hotmail.com
Wed Mar 22 10:18:22 PST 2006


If I may offer a slightly disputative alternative to HE Robin's analysis:
Wikipedia is still a source -- for tertiary / guiding / preliminary 
material, with an expectation and "logical requirement" to not be the *only* 
citation used.  Individual articles at a fixed point in time may indeed 
prove to be fabulously useful in a given research, just as the same article 
at a second point can be demonstrated as a complete fiction due to later 
"helpful" revisions. To the extent that they lead us to previously unknown 
and more readily provable resources, Wikipedia articles can be "priceless".

As a monolithic source, say no to Wikipedia.  As a potentially useful 
collection of sources yet-to-be-proved, I will hold that there is worth in 
even a false map, if we can but determine the manner in which it was made to 
be false.  (Paraphrase from a source I just can't directly remember at this 
instant:  know a man's truth, and you know only half the man; know a man's 
lies, and he reveals himself completely.)

Adieu, Amra / ttfn - Mike / Pax ... Kihe

Mike C. Baker
SCA: al-Sayyid Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra, F.O.B, OSCA
"Other": Reverend Kihe Blackeagle PULC (the DreamSinger Bard)
Opinions? I'm FULL of 'em
alt. e-mail: KiheBard at hotmail.com  OR MCBaker216 at cs.com
   Buy my writings!:   http://www.lulu.com/WizardsDen
   http://www.livejournal.com/users/kihebard/

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jay Rudin" <rudin at ev1.net>
To: "Heralds List, Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA,Inc." <heralds at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 9:27 AM
Subject: Re: [ANSTHRLD] Wikipedia


> Once you think it through, it becomes clear why Wikipedia cannot be used 
> as a source.
>
> That's because it isn't a source.  It's millions of sources, some 
> competent and some not competent, gathered together with no clear, 
> consistent rules or editing.
>
> You can use a source if it's been proven to be consistently correct. 
> Wikipedia isn't a single source, and has proven *not* to be consistently 
> correct.
>
> Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin
>
> _______________________________________________
> Heralds mailing list
> Heralds at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/heralds
> 



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