What have you learned from Wikipedia?
Written By Rafael on Nov. 24, 2006.
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I don't know about everyone here, but I constantly find myself just surfing and surfing in Wikipedia. It's true, some articles are incomplete and not 100% reliable, but I often learn new facts from great articles there.
For example, just today I found out about water intoxication, I didn't even know it could happen.
So what about you? What interesting stuff have you read in Wikipedia?
If you don't like Wikipedia for some reason, be sure to post why.
edythemighty
Written Nov. 24, 2006 / Report /
Water intoxification is why moms tell their kids not to drink fast, love wikipedia, found out a lot of things about fusion and fission, especially bubble fusion i believe the term is, also, lots of tech/software stuff, and a lot of entries about anime's, including The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, i just hit random and there it was, the greatest 14 episode anime i have ever seen, and to think, it was based on a series of japanese novels that are long as hell
Billytheradponi
Written Nov. 24, 2006 / Report /
The wikipedia is rubbish, long live the uncyclopedia!
JustinKistner
Written Nov. 24, 2006 / Report /
I love Wikipedia! I link to it's articles a ton in my blog when I'm using a tech term that I know some people don't know. I also use it to find answers for things that I used to use Google for. Like if I hear about dark matter, I would much rather ask Wikipedia what it means than Google.
Ozone42
Written Nov. 24, 2006 / Report /
Not to believe everything you read on the internet.
computerjoe
Written Nov. 25, 2006 / Report /
The Wikipedia is a fantastic example of what teamwork and open-source can achieve.
AndrewIngram
Written Nov. 25, 2006 / Report /
I learned almost everything I needed to know to get a Masters degree in Computer Science from a top university from Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is far better and far cheaper than textbooks.
nolawi
Written Nov. 26, 2006 / Report /
I check wikipedia almost everyday for almost everything...
Foxhaund
Written Nov. 26, 2006 / Report /
I use Wikipedia for my education.
I also write articles there.
Knowledge must be free and international.
bouazza
Written Nov. 26, 2006 / Report /
I learned that Wikis are best targeted for spammers who want links from PR >5 pages like me :D
Lol juste kidding , i link to Wikipédia if i use seo words on my weblog , but frankly , Wikipédia french articles number is not very high :P
anodyne
Written Nov. 27, 2006 / Report /
While I enjoy learning new facts from Wikipedia, my favourite thing is finding random lists of stuff, for instance: Fictional applications of real materials. This stuff is grand.
lisa
Written Nov. 27, 2006 / Report /
What I learned from Wikipedia is that you shouldn't cite it in a college paper.
Okay, I didn't learn that from Wikipedia, but about Wikipedia, so if it's your main source of information in College, remember that. It's treated by college professors just like an encyclopaedia, and by the time you reach college, they expect you to learn how to find other sources. :) And yes, in my last paper, I quoted from the wiki, because I couldn't just claim that I had already known it.
Oh, and the water intoxication is just plain creepy. Who knew gatorade was really a good thing?
spicycauldron
Written Nov. 27, 2006 / Report /
I've learned that if something is big enough and widely used enough, it can assume an authority that once took learned volumes like the Encyclopaedia Britannica decades to accomplish....
Of course, that doesn't mean the authority is genuine. I love using Wikipedia, I do, but I don't see it as 100 per cent reliable for information and research. So much I come across is infected with personal subjective opinion. The facts are often wrong.
Whenever I include Wikipedia links on my blog, I check them out first to see if the information is sound. As much as I am able.
Oh, and for WordPress users there's a handy plugin for inserting Wikipedia links. You just add [[ and ]] before and after the word you want to link through. The plugin is called Wikipedia Link but I can't, offhand, remember the URL. Easy enough to search for, though, if it's helpful to anyone here. x
Jackzheng
Written Nov. 28, 2006 / Report /
I use Wikipedia because I am hungry!