N ot Or How to Keep from Looking Like a Complete Doofus What is Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia It is written collaboratively by the people who use it ID: 307342
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Slide1
Wikipedia: Why
Not?
Or “How to Keep from Looking Like a Complete Doofus”Slide2
What is Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia. It is written collaboratively by the people who use it. Users are constantly improving Wikipedia, making thousands of changes per hour. Slide3
Who can edit a Wikipedia article?
Wikipedia says: “Don't be afraid to edit – anyone can edit almost every page, and we are encouraged to be bold
! Find something that can be improved and make it better. If you wish to add new facts, please try to provide
references so they may be verified, or suggest them on the article's discussion page.
Changes to controversial topics and Wikipedia's main pages should usually be discussed first
.
Remember
– you can't break Wikipedia; all edits can be reversed, fixed or improved later. Wikipedia is allowed to be imperfect. So go ahead, edit an article and help make Wikipedia the best information source on the Internet
!”Slide4
Cool!
I’m going to write something fake on there right now, just ‘cause I can!!Slide5
Don’t.Slide6
Wikipedia says:
Please do not attempt to put misinformation into Wikipedia to test our ability to detect and remove it. This has been done before, with varying results. Most hoaxes are marked for deletion within a few hours of being created. It has been tried, tested, and confirmed—it is indeed possible to insert hoaxes into Wikipedia. This is a necessary consequence of being a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. A hoax is simply a more obscure, less obvious form of vandalism
. Hoaxes in Wikipedia are considered vandalism, and persistent perpetrators of hoaxes are subject
to blocking
and banning
.
Slide7
What’s the big deal?
It would just be for a joke! Misinformation on Wikipedia can have real consequences, when someone assumes the information is correct. Hurt feelings, public embarrassment, having to reprint books, losing points on school assignments, are all real results of using bad information.
With some articles, like medical topics, bad information could lead to injury or even death. Additionally, looking for and fixing hoax articles takes up time and energy that could be used to improve the site. Slide8
Wait…
how can I be sure whether the information I find
on Wikipedia is correct?
You can’t.
Example of a Hoax
List of Hoaxes Slide9
Awwwww
. But I like Wikipedia. This doesn’t mean that Wikipedia has no value. It’s a great tool for learning general stuff! Just don’t use it as a source when you have to be sure your information is correct – for a school project, for example.Slide10
You can also look for the books, papers, and sites that are listed as resources for a Wikipedia article and then
go to those sources yourself to do your own (preferably non-evil) research!
Perfect!Slide11
Correct information is
vital!Choose your sources carefully!Images for Wikipedia taken from wikipedia.org, Images for Phineas and Ferb
taken from Disneychannel.disney.comRemember: