2025-01-22 21:42 UTC
Replies (22)
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@wdenton@cosocial.ca 2025-01-22 21:46
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online At the WikiConference North America last year, there was talk about that change. "It's not 2007 any more," people would say. "It's not 2007 any more."
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@dantheclamman@scicomm.xyz 2025-01-22 22:12
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online Wikipedia is the closest we've ever gotten to a real hitchhiker's guide. And it's free!
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@weyoun6@kolektiva.social 2025-01-22 22:57
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online don't rely on the text, but the references list is, and has been, an excellent addition to research.
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@canusfeminacanis@mastodon.nz 2025-01-22 23:11
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online Rarely is a Wiki article by itself a good place to do research. But included sources/ references are absolute gold.
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@econads@mendeddrum.org 2025-01-22 23:37
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online we used to use it anyway. "Wikipedia isn't a source" yes OK but it *has* sources. We would read the article, read the references and then reference the references as sources. And not mention it to the lecturer.
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@Palky55@beige.party 2025-01-22 23:48
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online I read you. My m.o. is if I don't know I first search my own library, then go to Wikki. It's a great resource for fact checking to. I may be biased but a close friend is UK based compiler & checker.
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@mcdutchie@mas.to 2025-01-23 03:36
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online Wikipedia is incredibly impressive for what its community managed to achieve, but it is not a reliable source, and neither is any other encyclopedia. Wikipedia, like other encyclopedias, includes a lot of nonsense and claims that are not supported by the references. Hopefully you are teaching your students how to carefully check the articles against actual reliable sources.
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@marcas@mastodon.ie 2025-01-23 03:38
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online The key word of your advice is “start”.
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@joshisanonymous@h4.io 2025-01-23 03:57
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online Just today, I tried convincing a relative that Trump is a fascist by pointing to the existence of a "Trump and fascism" Wikipedia page, and he (not an academic) told me it's not a reliable source, so I had to explain that it works because everything is verifiable.
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@ringles@bookstodon.com 2025-01-23 04:08
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online "The problem with Wikipedia is that it only works in practice. In theory, it can't possibly work."
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@dalias@hachyderm.io 2025-01-23 04:20
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online "Don't use Wikipedia" was always misguided. Only thing wrong was failure to teach students what an encyclopedia is and how to use it (not a source itself, a way to get background knowledge and references to sources).
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@Tattered@mastodon.social 2025-01-23 05:13
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online I used to tell my students to go to the Wikipedia page, look at the references and external links, check the validity and availability of those sources, then use those sites and texts. Wikipedia as resource bank.
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@danwing@infosec.exchange 2025-01-23 05:44
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online we all remember the “don’t use an encyclopedia” era. Wikipedia serves/served that same function but better. Everyone has to start somewhere and an overview by experts is the best place to start. It’s not where to finish.
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@KaraLG84@dragonscave.space 2025-01-23 11:12
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online I was told at uni in 2005 not to use Wikipedia but I completely ignored them and used it anyway. :)
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@jillrhudy@mastodon.social 2025-01-23 13:26
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online as a librarian I have been thinking the very same thing
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@volcano@nerdculture.de 2025-01-23 14:13
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online I always go to Wikipedia first. I carry it around with me so it’s always at my fingertips.
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@MylesRyden@social.vivaldi.net 2025-01-23 18:55
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online Agreed 100% Although I would tell my students that while they might not want to actually cite Wikipedia (there is still prejudice against it as a source) the article would have a a few to hundreds of other sources -- and those are generally an excellent starting point for a research paper.
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@Jon_Kramer@mastodon.social 2025-01-23 19:05
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online I feel many of us do not trust anything we see as 'new'. I'm 62 now, and always embrace the 'new' things, and loved wiki when I first found it, eons ago. My mother, an English teacher, when she found it, was appalled that her students would use it. It still hasn't sunk in that it is more reliable than print sources, for her.
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@wlukewindsor@c.im 2025-01-24 05:11
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online I’ve just written a statement of support for some internally funded work on using wikimedia in doctoral education…
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@GeePawHill@mastodon.social 2025-01-24 06:41
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online I'm always startled when someone tells me wikipedia isn't a legit source. Wikipedia is amongst the wonders of the modern world. It is merely astonishing. I tell my learners, read the article, then read the talk page, then read the citations. I'd trust a wikipedia article about a dozen more times than I'd trust an Encyclopedia Britannica article. The latter is a single approved author. The former is a community, many of whom are subject experts.
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@erikvanbeek@mastodon.nl 2025-01-25 16:38
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online I read that it's pretty reliable.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia
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@badtux@mastodon.social 2025-01-30 08:49
@Pkbwood@mastodon.online Wikipedia is a good place to go to find actual sources, but is not itself a source and doesn't claim to be.