The Rage of Wikipedia Scholars itt

[Pernicious]

statements like "i don't use wikipedia!" remind me of those like "i dont watch tv" for the most part. yea, wikipedia is a sloppy mixture of various credible sources, but it's mostly for that reason that students use it as an instant resource; i know that i use it in class when a teacher says something foreign just whip it out to check relevant facts and info

regardless, id agree with previous posters that wikipedia isn't your best bet for an in depth assignment, it's in no way some dirty crutch though (or if it is, it understands its cheapness as a quick and easy combination of information)

for layell: Lol!

 

[Xaqwais]

Yeah, when I was in high school, most papers didn't require me to list sources. I used Wikipedia all the time for these, as long as there was an article I could take from. If a paper did require me to list sources, then generally Wikipedia was banned and we all had to use other websites or books even if the teacher wanted to be a hard-ass about it.

 

[Umbreon Dan]

there is some good stuff on yahoo! answers

and for some reason the top answer is always retarded

<@Bran> if I didn't know Yahoo Answers better I'd swear someone was paying them to hire morons

of course, this is yahoo! answers, where you go when you need to find out if the weird thing oozing from between your legs means you're having a baby or if it's just another std and whether to go to the hospital and if you do whether they will tell your mom.

also, https://twitter.com/#!/FakeWikipedia/

 

[tape]

if you press ESC before Wiki blacks-out it doesn't blackout.

:magic:

 

[X5Dragon]

I tried accessing wiki for random stuff 10 times, the lousy and evil part is like they kept the searched page open for like 3 seconds, you startin reading and then bam!

It's scary how everyone depends on it for everything, and yes while most schools don't accept it as a source, it's the best place to start up on any research since you can just r.click and open new tab on all the sources at the footer.

 

[Arcticblast]

Add ?banner=none to the URL. It allows access.

 

[DM]

There is nothing funny about this. Reading those reactions causes a little piece of my soul to die.

 

[ButteredToast]

I'm more disturbed at the amount of people that superfluously rely on Wikipedia.

Or that think it's SOAP...

 

[Dwarfspider]

I just switched on firefox noscript to view the site normally.

Anyways, Its so early in the semester that It surprises me that some people are already so far behind that they need wikipedia already.

As far as I know or care, wikipedia is almost as accurate as a whole as Encyclopedia Britannica.

For research, you read the page, then go to the bottom and find links to sources, as well as citations from books. Use those.

For studying for tests: wikipedia will usually have the answer or definition you are looking for 80% of the time at the very top of the page. I find it easier and more efficient to go to wikipedia for definitions than to sift through a textbook. I will still use the textbook and read it, but for concise information Wikipedia is very, very good. For example, I had an Islamic Art History class that had a lot of vocab questions, I found 70% of it on wikipedia, and the rest I remembered from lectures or got from the book. Wrote it down on index card and had an easy time on all the tests.

 

[Flounder]

I'm more disturbed at the amount of people that superfluously rely on Wikipedia.

hi, superfluous is one of the best words in the english language, please do not use it so poorly or just for the sake of using it

 

[Fishy]

the blackout is adequately showing what a window to information wikipedia is, and should highlight the idea that HEY there are a bunch of other havens on the internet that people apparently take for granted when they're forced to do without it for a day.

WAKE UP 'MERICA

 

[vonFiedler]

I remember a history teacher who got mad at me for making up a 20 minute speech impromptu complete with jokes that kept the other students paying attention. Apparently I was supposed to have written something in advance and then read that, but all I could give him was a printed Wikipedia page I used as cliff notes. I had gone way above the assignment but mention Wikipedia and people throw a tantrum.

 

[Chou Toshio]

k so I'm all for jumping behind wikipedia in the hating on internet legislation thing-- it's the part about having to actually inform myself enough to write a meaningful letter to my representatives that's annoying.

Someone supply an intelligent and convincing anti-legislation letter that I can just sign and e-mail. lol

 

[capefeather]

more

I think the saddest thing is the sense of entitlement some people seem to have about Wikipedia. It's as if Wikipedia exists just to serve their "needs". How ironic that they'll completely miss the point and possibly contribute to getting it actually shut down!!! (actually I highly doubt something like Wikipedia could get shut down but still)

 

[Chou Toshio]

^People have no brains.

If Wikipedia really wanted to accomplish something, instead of trying to be noble, they'd just link everyone to an online petition, or attach a downloadable pre-written anti legislation letter for people to sign and send to their various legislative representatives.

People are lazy (I'm lazy). You want something done-- facilitate it and make it easy for people.

 

[Elevator Music]

MAN IMAGINE IF WIKIPEDIA WAS DOWN FOREVER THEN I'D HAVE TO... LIKE... READ...

wow fuck that.

some of those last ones are gold though capefeather

 

[Birkal]

I heard they locked the founder of Wikipedia in Guantanamo for crimes against the gov't and shut down the site! OMG

Hehe, this is great.

And I was thinking about what I'd do without Wikipedia. I mean, I guess there are libraries... which are cool. But the world would be missing out on such a valuable resource; I have garnered a new-found appreciation for it.

Don't make us go back to Microsoft Encarta. Eep!

 

[Every1XplodeNOW]

Lol this is magic. I bet all this complaining about wikipedia being down actually helped against sopa. Who thinks wikipedia took all these tweets, comments, etc. and sent it *insertcongresspersonhere* and said "This is what will happen if sopa would pass." I don't know if they plan this, but they used America's lack of knowledge for the bill against it.

Well done Wikipedia, well done.

 

[Shinryu]

I honestly wonder how many people didn't realize you could just view the cached versions of Wikipedia English pages today while it was blacked out...

 

[Synre]

I think the solutions to the blackout require a little more resourcefulness than people who can't complete basic assignments without Wikipedia possess.

 

[Mountain Dewgong]

press esc before the blackout pop up if any dumbasses can't survive without it.

 

[VKCA]

I think the solutions to the blackout require a little more resourcefulness than people who can't complete basic assignments without Wikipedia possess.

No, it really doesn't at all. And their are so many ways to bypass it too. I'm really really hoping that for every person who's bitching about this their are ten it hasn't affected at all because they're not retarded.
Holy shit you could google "how do you access wikipedia today" and I'm sure you'd get a fuck load of responses.
Edit: Yes, I'm right, ffs do people not know how to use google?

 

[iDunno]

The reason why people use wikipedia isn't because they think it's a reliable source. It's because it's easy to use and contains a great overal summary over broad topics. It's great for highschool papers that don't need a bibliography and even if they do just use the cited sources. Wikipedia isn't that unreliable anyway as many of the pages are locked for editing.

 

[Umbreon Dan]

https://twitter.com/#!/Rickybobby011/status/159507842880126976

and now, since the rest of you can't stop talking about using wikipedia in school:

banning wikipedia citations makes sense, because anyone can use it to say anything they want. on the other hand, it takes special qualifications to make a website and only society's elite minds can publish books.

 

[Abacus]

Banning wikipedia citations makes sense because it's a goddamn encyclopedia. Encyclopedias should never be your sources for serious work.