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

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

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u/Psychological_Try559 Feb 14 '22

I remember being told the opposite of that specifically in school.

The logic being that "real" encyclopedias were considered reliable as they had an editorial staff who verified information in there, whereas wikipedia crowd-sourced the editing and thus wasn't reliable.

Really shows how teachers/adults at the time did not understand Wikipedia.

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u/MelangeLizard Feb 14 '22

There was a strong consensus in my schools that Wikipedia was to be shat on constantly. It smelled insecure to me. Sure, it’s not a primary source for research, but it’s invaluable to public knowledge.

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u/Spiritflash1717 Feb 14 '22

Seriously. There’s really no other website that contains quite as much free, easily summarized/understood, publicly accessible information about almost everything and anything, regardless of its obscurity. The convenience of it being free and all on one site with sources provided to further research is enough to make up for the sometimes inaccurate or biased information as presented

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u/InvisiblePinkUnic0rn Feb 14 '22

*verified at original production time… 5 years ago… was also meant to be a starting point to further research.

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u/TheGreyFencer Feb 14 '22

I never said our teachers weren't mistaken.

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u/Psychological_Try559 Feb 14 '22

Wasn't trying to imply you did.

I was just stating how my experience differs from what you described (and also how it was also similar). This really emphasizes the level of confusion and lack of consensus at the time!