Monday, March 3, 2008

Does Wikipedia re-write history as they see fit?

I came across this rather informative article about Wikipedia on the web:

Wikipedia is a clear case of the inmates talking over the asylum! It is run by organized volunteer super-nerds as though they were feudal lords! Just go on the site and see the nasty goings on for yourself. And they are at it twenty-four hours a day with a passion!

Whoever prevails in any disputes about what is indeed “fact” gets to create or rewrite history as though it were true regardless of whether it is or not. Whoever can gather the most consensus wins. This is effectively accomplished by using a number of fictitious “user names” called “sockpuppets,” or by belonging to or organizing complicated alliances!

If they do not like what you say, it’s deleted.

If you restore it, they remove it again.

Restore it again and they remove it again and so forth until a volunteer “administrator blocks you from further edits. Usually the administrator is elected and beholding to those you are opposing so if you do not belong to any click or manufacture your own “fiefdom” you are lost!

That would be okay if they were calling themselves a Blog site, but they are calling themselves an “encyclopedia” even though one does not need any particular education, experience, expertise in any field, or writing skills to be an “editor”. Of course that is a train wreck just waiting to happen, especially when someone has an axe to grind against another person or organization and they libel them.

Making matters worse, there are many mirror sites like “Answers.com” that cite these “articles” because anyone is free to copy and paste and use any content found on the site as long as they reference (and simultaneously promote Wikipedia while doing it). Therefore anyone with a PC can create or completely change the truth to suit themselves -even libel someone — on Wikipedia, and then anyone with a PC can mirror the articles in other sites calling themselves dictionaries, encyclopedias and further this perversion of the true and facts.

That is ridiculous, like Wikipedia itself. All the other sites that carry any Wikipedia libelous content should be included in future class action suits, as well!

- author unknown

Apparently, I'm not the only one deeply disturbed by Wikipedia...

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