Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia. It gives information about lots of things. It's a very good website. But sometimes Wikipedia is wrong. When I looked up information about 'Rate It All', Wikipedia said that people get paid for putting reviews on this website. That's not true. I'm not getting paid anything for my reviews on 'Rate It All.' But that doesn't matter. I write my reviews for fun. Not for money.
When or if you visit Wikipedia, if something sounds untrue, it may indeed be false. I give Wikipedia a 4 star rating.

Usually it is useful, but be careful! The info can be innaccurate, so I don't recommend using them for an important piece of information.

Not without its uses and there are some good articles. On the other hand, all of the flagging and whining by the moderators and contributors can be annoying and even laughable. It's like a written revenge of the nerds.

In an unrelated matter, how come if you don't have a picture on your RIA profile you automatically turn into a goat? Did RIA hire a sorceror?

Communist bastards.

A fair source of information but it should be taken with a grain of salt and followed up by other sources, depending on the importance of the information.

While interesting in its way, given its format and structure, one has to question the validity of the this site as a research tool. It always bemuses me that the same people who do not trust words printed on paper will trust words printed on the internet.



Taking some deserved flak lately for the rather liberal interpretation of academic credentials by some of its administrators, and by the dubious attempts at damage control by its CEO.



I find that Wikipedia is at its best around non-controversial topics, which don't attract too many vandals or nitwit revisionists. Even so, as a research site, its buyer beware.

i have read some information on wikipedia.not sure how serious I would take the info. since anyone could write something on there. i know college classes forbid students to get information from this site since it is not that realiable. okay at most but would not use it if I needed to gather facts for something.

Very useful resource for information, you just have to cross-reference some information with other sites to ensure it is correct (as it's user submitted).

Not a fan. It's comprised of people's opinions and not necessarily facts. Makes no sense to me. If I'm looking something up for information, I want the truth, not opinion.

Not indefensible, but very useful and used by me. I like the info on almost every topic. Very useful.

awesome!

I've learned a great deal from them. People should have to pass a IQ test or have DR. to post or fix crap on there but yeah.

Never go there or you'll start on astral projection and end up on a random U.S. president.

Wikipedia is extremely powerful. It's amazing to see the true value of collective knowledge in action.

don't know what I'd do without you WIKI!! I think I am in love!!!Wiki, I could go around the world with you!!!

good for news but thats all for me

da only thing das ghudd on therre isz piccsz

There is a lot of good information but random people can change it

It's alot of information on everything

I dislike seeing college undergraduates using Wikipedia as a reference source in their term papers.

Find out all kinds of things you didn't know, and verify the things you did know.

WIKIPEDIA IS THE BEST INVENTION EVER!

I love it...just remember that its not all generally FACT. It's just fact to SOMEONE!

thats my best friend too

great definitions, and is always reliable.
but the web page itself is extremely dull.

Wikipedia provides pretty good general information. They are ranked astoundingly high in Google for just about every topic.

While you should never rely on Wikipedia as a completely accurate source of information, it can still be a starting point for serious research, and it is incredibly useful for random trivia.

ew

 Wikipedia can be helpful but like any website one must be aware.

In 2007 a data mining service nabbed the CIA editing the 2003 invaison of Iraq, Richard Nixon, Secret Societies,and Pope Benedict XVI.

Be aware

Wikipedia is a great informational website. If you are searching for an electrical, electronics, computer, history, geography or any term, you will get it on Wiki along with its history & other variants. But at times the description turns out to be too vague & not to the point. Like other day, I was searching for something in electronics but the description was so theoretical & not at all technical.
Then too..........Wikipedia is wonderful...Very Very useful website !!!!

Please go look at the RIA entry on Wikipedia. Click on this link or type in "RateItAll" in the Wikipedia search engine or go to this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RateItAll 

I have been in an editorial battle with one of the editors.  It is educational how the system works.

Wikipedia is a extremely valuable source of information. Some of the articles are a little seedy/untrustworthy, but for the most part it's very reliable. The good articles (most of them) cite sources for the information so you know it's true. It pretty much obsoletes Google. At least for me, because whenever I search on Google for something there's always a Wikipedia article that's like first so there's no point looking at a bunch of other websites.

There is a Star Wars version called wookieepedia...

GTH: Thanks for the link; I'd yet to see if they'd made an entry about RIA.

As for wikipedia: I use this site almost daily, mostly for anything on RIA. I use it to help with creation of my weblists, for comments I might leave when I think using sources would be helpful etc. It's a very useful site and I suggest people look into it if they haven't already.

Most definately rates in my top 5 as far as websites are concerned. I used to avoid it every time I saw this link when using Google. But I finally tried it out about a month ago. I am hooked now.

A very good, creative idea. I regularly go to wikipedia to get any information on something that sparks my interest, it's just so convenient.

Just don't always trust everything it says on the site---anyone can write almost anything and edit any article they want, so they are often biased and occasionally inaccurate. Nonetheless, it's definitely one of the best sites I use, but I take off one star because I got into some trouble in 9th grade for using it.

Good, but not as abstract as more reliable scholastic publications or periodicals. . .a good springboard, but shouldn't be used as a finish line for research. . .

Wikipedia is run by a bunch of editors that do not have impartial opinions. They don't have consistancy when it comes to what they regard are "notable sites". They have 1000's of non-notable sites listed, and won't provide any help on adding new sites of similar "notability". I think some editors arn't are notable as others.

** powerful article on the (!Link Url="http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2005/12/web_ 20s_collate.php" Name="failings of Wikipedia"!). ** One of the greatest success stories of the Web. For those who are unfamilliar with this site, it is a massive, free online encyclopedia that was built collaboratively by volunteers from all over the world. Anyone can edit listings or submit articles. It's kind of like a giant WebList. It launched in 2001, and has already overtaken Britannica.com as the most accessed online encyclopedia.... incredible.

IMO, Wikipedia is 95% great website. I have found it to be tremendously useful a number of times, for instance, when wanting to research information on traveling, sports, music, philosophy and many other interests. The main issue/problem with Wikipedia exists when researching controversial subject matter; one side typically wishes to interject personal/political bias or even disinformation. Nevertheless, that alone is not enough to altogether tarnish what is an otherwise excellent resource for learning - one of the best newer sites on the internet. ****1/2

wikipedia.org is one of the best sites ever it has everthing from skateboarding to rocket science it cant be easier to search what your lookin for they give you basic info and rare info if you need some info i advise u to go to wikipedia.org

Nice format, and fairly accurate. I wouldn't trust it as a main source for information, but it's an easily accessible and valuable online tool.

I just now made the acquaintance of this site... and might have found something new to do, LOL. While I'm skeptical of using it as a research tool, like irishgit, I'm certainly not opposed to using it as a quick source of information, if you're willing to accept the risk. I browsed a bunch of articles in my field and found nothing terribly wrong (a few misspellings but the articles were factually accurate). Since there's a bunch of stuff that I couldn't find, time to start writing! I think Wikipedia is a great idea: let's try open-source not only in code but information. Very fun and useful. UPDATE: crank it up to five stars. Wikipedia is amazing, and somehow it has managed to attract some of the brightest minds in every field. So much still needs to be compiled and written. The internal peer-review mechanisms seem to work very well, though you still need to be a bit cautious about using the information presented here. I see a new addiction developing for me ... **FURTHER UPDATE. I've come back to Rateitall for a while because I needed a Wikibreak. Almost all of my online time in the last ten months has been spent on Wikipedia, where I have written about 250 articles from scratch in the area I did my Ph.D.; Wikipedia is really one of the most fun places on the internet if you have some expertise about something and you like to write. It's the *opposite* of Rateitall, though, since RIA is an opinion site, and Wikipedia rigorously enforces NPOV (neutral point of view). Check it out.

I've used it in the past when I want to get the feel for what a certain topic is about. While it's credibility can be questioned, most of the articles on there usually check out factually and are insightful. Also, the large number of topics they cover is remarkable! If your bored, exploring this site can be fun.