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Topic: Linking to and quoting from Wikipedia — does it make you look like a dumbass?

Anonymous b44b405f38951eada808e7b606895a76 started this discussion 2 months (2008-10-04 16:19:51 UTC) ago:

While often this is not the case, it is quite possible that some troll has edited the article or part of article that you are taking as the absolute truth, perhaps in a subtle or "could be possible" way…

Wikipedia really needs "milestone edits" that have been properly checked.

Anonymous baa62e2c0766f290ccd5f9da5a630212 replied with this 2 months (2008-10-04 18:17:05 UTC) ago, 2 hours later (#66,252):

I think linking to Wiki gives the person who you are linking to a good idea about the general truthfulness of what you're talking about, but honestly, like you said, the details can be trifled with and often are (for example when certain people edited the entries of any weapon and basically anything made of iron to have been invented/forged/developed by Tony Stark in a cave) so it needs to be taken with a big ol' grain of salt.

Anonymous b44b405f38951eada808e7b606895a76 (OP) replied with this 2 months (2008-10-04 18:24:36 UTC) ago, 8 minutes later (#66,255):

@66,252

> Wiki

Stop calling Wikipedia that. It's not the first or only wiki.

Anonymous 4f0af513643a22020a73e98fcc1365f1 replied with this 2 months (2008-10-04 18:42:35 UTC) ago, 18 minutes later (#66,261):

Does it make you look like a dumbass?
If it's for a scientific paper you do for school/university: yes, and not only like a dumbass, but like a lazy one. Otherwise I don't see a problem with it. Yes, the articles can be wrong, but that can happen with any source of information.
Books can be wrong, facts can be outdated - you just have to gather as much information as possible and then use your common sense.

Anonymous 12d228856fee101e1d77f8e1d2cbfc74 replied with this 2 months (2008-10-06 13:40:49 UTC) ago, 2 days later (#66,798):

There's a simple way of getting around the shame. Take a look at the articles sources on Wikipedia. If they obviously are shit, than so is the article. Use google. If they're from known Universities and stuff, go for the original sources, either way, you don't need Wikipedia anymore, at least for nothing more than a collection of links.

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