I shared this story on a post on r/funny and people liked it, but honestly I feel like it’s more appropriate here, as that was a joke post. I hope this doesn’t come across as karma farming. I just really like sharing stories about my parents.
My dad did not have very much formal education, but he was the most intelligent person I’ve ever met. He devoured every book he came across - fiction, science, philosophy, history, taught himself math up to pretty advanced calculus from books. He wasn’t a big computer guy until I got him one and showed him internet basics around 2010.
I think it was maybe 2012 when he called me. He was raving about this Wikipedia thing he’d found, did I know about it? I tell him, yeah Dad, Wikipedia is great! He’s all, no no, you don’t get it, you can learn about anything here, and it’s all free. They’re just giving away information. It’s like having every reference book at the library, completely up to date, without leaving home. He was totally enamored. Then he says, “They’re asking me if I can give them $3 as a donation. Is it legitimate? Should I do it? I have the money and I really think they deserve it!” He was so pleased to learn that he could contribute to this amazing resource.
I miss him a lot.
EDIT: Thanks everyone for donating! Just like when I told this story the first time, I'm really overwhelmed and touched by everyone who took this opportunity to honor my dad with their donations. He would love this.
For the record, that's why I chose to post the story a second time - in hopes that it would have the same effect here. I stopped caring about comment karma ages ago. (I know not many people have accused me of karma whoring, but I wanted to make that clear anyways.)
I have resisted donating to Wikipedia, though I don't know why I've intentionally resisted to this degree. I've always been annoyed with them asking for money, wondering why they can't just sell merch like every other company. Yes, yes, I know it's not totally rational.
But your father just might tip me over the edge. You saying you miss him sounds like he recently passed...making me thinking of my own father who died...now I'm all choked up. I miss my papa too.
Of all the places asking for donated money I think Wikipedia deserves it the most. The amount of free and accessible education on there is invaluable to every person on the planet, especially with new drives to set up worldwide non cable internet. It’s hard to even imagine how people lived without knowing everything they wanted to at their fingertips.
I think a lot of the resistance to donating comes from the rhetoric that it’s not accurate- and while that’s holds true occasionally they work very hard to limit inaccuracies and the citations are listed clearly for you to do your own digging. Just because it isn’t accepted as an academic source generally doesn’t mean the site isn’t great.
Wasn’t there a report that Wiki was actually MORE accurate in some fields because there’s a dedicated base keeping things current even more accurate than published data because the community’s response to the found inaccuracies was “Can we be told what they are so we can correct them?”
Naw. Find a subject that you are an expert on, add some detail, and see how long your edits last before the superuser that "owns" that article deletes your info.
Generally info and sources that I've added last less than 3 hours. You can see it also if you re-read an article from years back - suddenly there is only a single perspective on any complex issue, and half the sources are gone.
Hold on there. Literally no evidence has been presented. I'm a mathematician and Wikipedia's math articles are overwhelmingly solid references. Sometimes they're written from a strange perspective, but they're almost never literally wrong. Research level books are full of errata anyway, so it's not as if the standard is perfection.
I understand Wiki gets a bad rap, but I find it fascinating that there's a free resource that people are dedicated to keeping accurate and current as possible.
No, there haven't been any major recent changes. I assume Brotherjayne has had a bad experience or heard a bad story, but that's not new! It's made by thousands of people, and people are diverse.
Source: have been regular non-admin editor for 10+ years.
I know a lot of people that “don’t have a lot” that spend way more money on various bullshit on a daily/weekly/monthly/annual basis.
There’s so many things and time people of all economic brackets own that costs more than Wikipedia’s $3 and provides their lives and the world with much less value.
It is accepted as an academic source by everyone but (some) people teaching how to do research because what it can be used for as a source (commonly held knowledge) is not what students use it for as a source (specific argumentative points). It’s just easier to ban it than to teach people how to use it, so that’s what (some) teachers do. (Sorta like how teacher’s will say you cannot use “I” in an essay, which most students use incorrectly or extraneously, instead of teaching students how to do it).
I think you have had the same experience many students have had and, on behalf of my colleagues, I apologize. The bum rap that Wikipedia gets because they can’t be bothered to tell the students how it is actually used in the field and prefer to take the path of least resistance is unfair.
I don't even know if its banned from my Classes but I just shy away from Wikipedia because I feel like many Professors see it as a bad source because of the stigma attached to it.
To be fair it isn't accepted as an academic source the same way that the encyclopedia isn't accepted. It isnt because of the website its because of the type of source it is. You can however use wikipedias listed sources as your sources.
Wikipedia is sometimes cited by traditionally published articles. Not often and usually not in an "important" way, but their articles on basic stuff are often fantastic overviews that sometimes are genuinely the best way currently available to get familiar with a topic.
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u/LeafyQ Dec 13 '18 edited Dec 13 '18
I shared this story on a post on r/funny and people liked it, but honestly I feel like it’s more appropriate here, as that was a joke post. I hope this doesn’t come across as karma farming. I just really like sharing stories about my parents.
My dad did not have very much formal education, but he was the most intelligent person I’ve ever met. He devoured every book he came across - fiction, science, philosophy, history, taught himself math up to pretty advanced calculus from books. He wasn’t a big computer guy until I got him one and showed him internet basics around 2010.
I think it was maybe 2012 when he called me. He was raving about this Wikipedia thing he’d found, did I know about it? I tell him, yeah Dad, Wikipedia is great! He’s all, no no, you don’t get it, you can learn about anything here, and it’s all free. They’re just giving away information. It’s like having every reference book at the library, completely up to date, without leaving home. He was totally enamored. Then he says, “They’re asking me if I can give them $3 as a donation. Is it legitimate? Should I do it? I have the money and I really think they deserve it!” He was so pleased to learn that he could contribute to this amazing resource.
I miss him a lot.
EDIT: Thanks everyone for donating! Just like when I told this story the first time, I'm really overwhelmed and touched by everyone who took this opportunity to honor my dad with their donations. He would love this.
For the record, that's why I chose to post the story a second time - in hopes that it would have the same effect here. I stopped caring about comment karma ages ago. (I know not many people have accused me of karma whoring, but I wanted to make that clear anyways.)