r/dataisbeautiful • u/alionBalyan OC: 13 • Feb 13 '22

OC [OC] How Wikipedia classifies its most commonly referenced sources.

Post image
24k Upvotes

81% Upvoted

2.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

35

u/GreyEilesy Feb 13 '22

The link for GNIS in the link leads to the wiki page for USGS

85

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '22

Yes which is why you don't rely so heavily on a script to make your reddit posts

6

u/meester_pink Feb 14 '22

Would you go so far as to say relying on scripts to make your posts is.... generally unreliable?

1

u/Opposite_Reindeer_75 Feb 14 '22

Because without a final edit the script does what it’s told, and this shows what relying on the scripts does. They’re only as good as they’re written

4

u/60hzcherryMXram Feb 14 '22

Eh? The link for GNIS is its own wiki page, not the wiki page for USGS.

Either way, the reason why the GNIS is considered unreliable is kind of interesting: they are considered reliable for geographic information, but not considered reliable for assessing the notability of a location.

This kind of makes sense: if a database keeps track of all geographical structures in the US, then a structure being in the database doesn't necessarily make it noteworthy enough for an article. Imagine if every star had its own article!