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Entered CNET Catalog: 10/21/2005
SKU: CNETWIKIPEDIA
Manufacturer: Wikimedia Foundation Inc.
Manufacturer description
Wikipedia is an 100% free-content encyclopedia, written collaboratively by people from all around the world.User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32
User Rating: 
1/10
Dangerous.
Pros: For completely non-controversial topics, may be used as a starting point for information.
Cons: Often deliberately missleading.
But the most serious problem with Wikipedia is that on many topics it has devolved into a very crude propaganda outlet, with one side of a dispute controlling information through group editing wars and abuse of process. An informed Wikipedia user knows to look at the discussion page and the history of edits to any controversial article in order to see what has been left out (ofter more accurately, censored) before relying in the least on anything in the article itself. And this is usually more burdensome than the net result of the effort.
What is dangerous about Wikipedia is that few users will bother with this effort at all, and so will end up consuming base propaganda as though it is broadly accepted information.
Anyone who doubts this should take a long afternoon looking at the evolution of articles related to Israel and Zionism in Wikipedia.
User Rating: 
5/10
Extensive, not alwatys accurate. Unintelligible interface.
Pros: Lots of coverage of even the most obscure of subjects
Cons: Near impossible to follow rules
User Rating: 1/10
Wikipedia - Editors Age 19 Who Troll Web Hourly
Pros: Everyone can edit
Cons: Everyone can edit
User Rating: 
8/10
Very Useful
Pros: Free, loads of info, easy to use
Cons: prone to vandalism, not too much info on some items,
User Rating: 
9/10
Best with facts of Scandinavian and Finland's History
Pros: I use Wikipedia first in my searching for true facts
Cons: I don't see any reason to doubt any article as.you may
User Rating: 9/10
Good start towards reliable information store
Pros: discussions refine the topic's validation process
Cons: Easy to undergo changes
User Rating: 1/10
anonymous authors sometimes irresponsible
Pros: lots of stuff
Cons: stuff sometimes inaccurate
User Rating: 9/10
Great for Scientific Data
Pros: Usefull for researching Scientific and Mathematical Formuals and other technical data
Cons: In some other areas it lacks factual data, and may not be entirely complete
User Rating: 
7/10
Massive load of information, but not completely trustworthy
Pros: Most comprehensive encyclopedia around
Cons: Some articles are too subjective to be trusted
User Rating: 
10/10
really good and any one can edit
Pros: everyone can contribute
Cons: sometimes the site goes slow
User Rating: 10/10
A brilliant resource for research of all kinds
Pros: Information on almost any topic under the sun, excellent web design gives logical structure and clarity, easy to edit with (largely) friendly community
Cons: Vunerable to vandalism
Wikipedia's one weakness and greatest strength is that anyone can edit, create, and delete as they please. This obviously makes it easy for destructive changes to be made by unhelpful members of the community. However, even this is not as big a problem as it first seems, as pages are automatically backed up and can be restored as soon as another user notices the damage (generally fairly quickly).
In short: excellent!
User Rating: 8/10
That was a poor review, Laurie Bouck.
Pros: Clearly the closest thing to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Cons: Vandalism and incomplete information.
User Rating: 10/10
The balls!
Pros: Easy to use. A lot of detailed information...
Cons: Some idiots want to change the main page layout...
User Rating: 
4/10
A "quick and dirty" look-up.
Pros: Wikipedia is easy to access and gives fast reference from with to begin a research project.
Cons: The depth of articles seems very shallow and the lack of accuracy make it wotthless for any serious research.
User Rating: 9/10
You Got Some Nerve...
Pros: One of the best resources on the net, tons of terms & people covered in-dept, insightful & resourceful, info you may not find anywhere else, especially about diverse & various topics & people
Cons: Slow connection (hindrance, but expected for such a vast resource of info)
Sometimes when I'm at work, I just peruse things on Wikipedia that I'm interested in. Not only do many entries come up, but I usuaully find it explained in-dept like you wouldn't imagine. Try looking up Star Wars characters, comic book characters, wrestlers, just unbelievable stuff...especially about famous & popular people. You will not find something free like this anywhere; it's just an amazing resource.
User Rating: 8/10
cnet review is wrong
Pros: an offline version is indeed available
Cons: none to mention
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk
atabase_downloadIt's also funny that the cnet review considers this a con:
"Wikipedia's information-jammed pages and plain-Jane design are easy to navigate but may seem less than dazzling for casual users accustomed to colorful, flashy Web pages."
User Rating: 
2/10
No, no, no! Completely inaccurate.
Pros: Quick and easy way to get a general idea of something
Cons: Lots of factual inaccuracies, prone to vandalism, biased
Why not go with something you can be sure has been checked? Wikipedia was criticized a few years ago for having some 'red herring' George Bush entries that were made up, but even more factual entries don't always get high marks:
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/opinion/story/0,16541,1599325,00.html
User Rating: 9/10
One of the best things on the net lately
Pros: Huge amount of information. Editable. It does not take up gigs of hard drive as software encyclopedias.Multilingual. Everyone can contribute. very easy to find the info you want
Cons: Some "delicate" articles might not be very objective since are written by people who might have their opinion.
User Rating: 10/10
An amazingly broad and detailed resource
Pros: Mobilizing the whole world's knowledge; available in 100 languages
Cons: Writing is not always great; not uniformly edited
Coverage of modern events, people, and places is unmatched online. Style and scope are excellent; related communities are vibrant and wonderful. The user-contributed aspect of the project (it has been built essentially from scratch by tens of thousands of people in under 5 years) is helping spread education and its importance.
Teaching people how to teach, and /that/ they are capable of teaching others, is an important goal; just as is giving them accurate information.
Still working on coping better with vandalism, jokers, and strongly-biased editors. Has some interesting tools in place at present for dealing with these issues, which work rather well.
User Rating: 4/10
Interesting concept
Pros: Concept has a lot of possibilities
Cons: Lack of true mandated checks and balances
User Rating: 9/10
wikipedia is just about the best encylopedia!
Pros: everything about it
Cons: none so far
User Rating: 10/10
Wikipedia's potential is the Web's potential
Pros: "Flat" hierarchy, anyone can contribute
Cons: Limited by intellectual property laws
User Rating: 10/10
wikipedia is the best thing ever!!
Pros: No banners, no Corporate take over, everything you could ever read
Cons: none at all, its perfect i hope it stays this way
User Rating: 9/10
One of the best websites for information
Pros: Free. Up to date. Vast.
Cons: Bias is sometimes a problem
User Rating: 8/10
Great place for "off-the-main-stream" information
Pros: wide scrope of relatively organized information you might not be able to find any where else
Cons: like internet, can be overloaded with irrelavent / inaccurate information
User Rating: 8/10
A Great Source
Pros: There are many articles that go into depth
Cons: Some articles are not complete
User Rating: 10/10
incredible resource
Pros: everything you can think of, reliable in my experience
Cons: none at all
User Rating: 9/10
Its free, its huge, its comprehensive & in-depth!!
Pros: Free, no multimedia clutter, heavily cross-linked
Cons: None that I can think of
User Rating: 8/10
Not the authority, but good anyways
Pros: offers information on things not found in other encyclopedias
Cons: could be more useful to entymologist
User Rating: 8/10
Rich resource
Pros: Rich resource, tons of information on a mind boggling number of topics
Cons: Vulnerable.
For the purpose it's used for, the interface is excellent. Most articles are well cross referenced. The lack of a lot of decoration helps me keep focused on what I'm there for - to read up on a subject. It's not supposed to be aesthetically pleasing, it's supposed to be a source of information.
That being said, if I ever had to use the information for something critical I'd have it verified by a more reliable resource. For this reason I'd give it an 7. But from the standpoint of how much I value it, it's a definite 9. So I'll go halfway and give it a 8.
User Rating: 7/10
Not super-accurate
Pros: Extremely huge selection of articles. Completely free. Open for editions.
Cons: Several articles contain minor factual inaccuracies.
But if you're researching the Ancient Greek Olympic games for a history class paper, I wouldn't be so confident about Wikipedia.
Wikipedia's recommended article structure is nice. With most articles, the first paragraph is a concise overview of the topic. For those looking for more details, they can read further. If they find and error, they can edit it or delete that information.
What stands out about Wikipedia is its cost (free) -- editability -- and most notably, its extremely huge selection of articles. It's even got something about my school:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Laboratory_High_School_of_Urbana,_Illinois
User Rating: 8/10
A great resource with entertaining information.
Pros: Full of useful information that range from the standard academia to various things in pop culture.
Cons: Not all sections are accurate or complete. Confusing procedure to edit if you spot an error in the article.
But it's still a fun site to dig around and most of the articles are well-written and informative.
