The traditional process for creating references has its weaknesses. Editors only know what they know. Contributors are not always expert in their field. Often they are young scholars who need lines (publication credits) for their curriculum vitae (their academic resumé). Some contributors may know little about their topic.

In my classroom the quickest way to fail an assignment or possibly even the entire course is to cite Wikipedia as an authoritative source. I have been expressing concern about Wikipedia as a reliable source for information for almost as long as the Heidelblog (or its predecessor) has been in existence (see the resources below). Wikipedia came into existence in 2001. Most of my students were toddlers when it was born. They have grown up with it and some are shocked to hear that it should not be regarded as a reliable resource.

Since I first started paying attention to Wikipedia it has only become more ubiquitous and more dubious. It is the 5th most popular platform on the internet. The algorithms used by the various search engines (e.g., Google or Duck Duck Go, my preferred search engine) favor Wikipedia. Indeed, when I searched for the history of the origins of Wikipedia, the first entry to pop up was, of course, Wikipedia. It was not easy to find a history of Wikipedia not controlled by Wikipedia. Frankly, it was a little eerie. What if one could find no history of the most dominant research platform on the internet, which was outside of that research platform? It is for this reason and others that I have described Wikipedia as a “cult.” See the resources below for more.

There are a variety of reasons to distrust Wikipedia.

1. Anyone can make it say anything he will. Several years ago I was listening to my favorite sports-talk radio station (1620 The Zone, Omaha) and the two hosts were editing someone’s Wikipedia biography live, on the air.
2. Most of those who create and maintain entries are anonymous. Whatever its virtues, anonymity licenses irresponsibility. Anyone can claim expertise about any topic.

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