Wiki or Wacky Pedia? (wikipedia.org)

Member Name: eyedo6789

Product:	wikipedia.org
Date:	30/03/09 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 10,000 times the size of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Disadvantages: Some False & Misleading Entries

Wikipedia is a free to use on line Encyclopaedia whose content is entirely created and updated by individuals. It is a non profit making organisation and its operating costs are funded by voluntary donations. You can donate via the web site and there is a list of donors available where you can see donors pledges over a certain amount of money.

I am not on it, I am just $1 below the threshold! (ha-ha)

It was founded by Jimmy Wales in 2001. However on his own Wikipedia web page there is an article stating that a man called Larry Sanger claims to be the co-founder.

Quite remarkably it also says on his own page that he had a relationship with a journalist who had contacted him regarding her biography on Wikipedia. It also says that she has claimed that the first she heard about the relationship ending was by reading about it on Wikipedia !!

This brings me on to a very important point. I believe that you now need to be registered with Wikipedia in order to add or amend entries on any Wikipedia page but this doesn't always dissuade or prevent people from posting deliberately misleading information, badly researched information or jokey garbage.

So believing absolutely everything you read on Wikipedia is not wise.

There have been numerous funny and not so funny incidents of people posting deliberately false information. These include amending famous people's status to dead when they are alive, changing their names to silly names or adding to or subtracting from their achievements.

Wikipedia is not just a biographical encyclopaedia; it has articles on absolutely anything and everything; from places to birds, from wars to medicines.

The thing that I like most about "Wiki" is that sometimes you first set out to look at one thing but by clicking on in page links and then on further links you often end up reading about completely different subjects or people and gain a lot of knowledge in the process.

This is not something that would ordinarily, or at least easily, happen using a conventional book based encyclopaedia.

Summary: A Must Have Resource That Is Getting Better All The Time.