To Wiki or Not to Wiki.

When researching a subject or citing a source for others to check the validity of your work- refrain from using Wikipedia. It's understandable that when you type something into a search engine, Wikipedia is in the top finds. However, take the time to scroll down and search for .net .edu .gov .mil because these sites will be more factual. Sites with those domains tend to review the work published there and check creditionals of those publishing. Anyone can claim to be someone on wikipeia and it go unchecked. If you still find yourself too lazy to look for a better source of information and you wind up on a wiki page- scroll down to the sources provided at the end of each wiki article and look into those. Why waste your time learning something that may be false? Better the quality of your knowledge and work by using better sources.

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I disagree, I'm a big research buff, I do it in my spare time nearly everyday and wikipedia can be a great aid in finding key words and information to help you choose better searches for any subject.

For instance, if you're looking up mythology, it can give you source and text names as well as alternative spellings and names. If you're looking up a scientific theory or term, it can give the names of scientists that studied it.

Certainly it isn't the best resource to base your knowledge off of, and you should never stop at wikipedia, but it's worth the click to skim through and decide what to search on google from there.

It should be noted that there is inaccurate information on wikipedia, but that's what the other searches are for.

I quite agree that Wikipedia can be used to find other sources, or read to find key terms. Too often though it is the only source a person looks into, and that is the behavior I wish to chastise.