Why Wikipedia Is So Popular And Still Not A Credible Source
Table of Contents
Why Wikipedia is So Popular?
Wikipedia is the most popular free open source encyclopedia on the internet.
It is SEO friendly and loved by google. If you take a good look at any wiki source, it is easy to read, includes many links, subtitles, etc.
It has a membership system like other forum and blog sites that allows anyone to register for free and write anything they want.
Besides that, allowing anyone to write anything they want is the fact that makes it unique and so popular. Especially in eastern countries people don’t have all rights to say what they want to say. Even if they do, they scare to share their ideas, write about news, etc.
It also has multi-language option for many articles. This feature makes it popular worldwide.
Why Wikipedia is Not A Credible Source?
Wikipedia is not reliable source because it allows anyone to edit anything at any time.
Because of that, some dictator countries in the world restricts to use Wikipedia at all since they don’t like sayings about them.
As an example, Turkey did not allow citizens to use Wiki for long years until 2020.
Since you can find anything in Wikipedia, you can’t trust any of them. Even if editors try to make their best, it is still an open source.
Other sources you should never use in a writing
There are also sources you should never attend to use while essay writing. Few examples of popular but non-credible sources you should never use in a scholarly writing
- SparkNotes
- Personal Blogs
- Wikipedia
So, which sources I should prefer?
There is no rule for credible sources but make sure your source is;
- Backed-up with other sources; No one’s own idea.
- Not a blog, personal writing
- Published & approved by an institution
You should read our article about Credible Sources & Reliable Sources for more details…
You can also read our article about Academic Writing | How to write an academic paper? Step by step Guide for more…
If all these looks too much to you, you can always find an expert on https://www.pureassignment.com/
6 Comments
Ben
6 months agoI disagree. Wikipedia had many moderators and experts that do their best to ensure info is accurate.
Most information is sourced (Citations are listed at the bottom of the page) so you can use Wikipedia to help find sources too.
While Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, those posting disinformation or vandalism are usually dealt with quickly, and pages (usually political) that are vandalised often are locked by moderators and those who vandalise or blocked from making further edits.
You can also see edit history, which will show you what edits have been made recently in cases where pages are changed and you have reason to distrust the info on there.
Ben
6 months agoTl;Dr Wikipedia *usually* has good info, and can be used to find sources. You shouldn’t cite it directly though.
Willie Gloria
3 years agoWiki is good to learn; not to cite…
Leona
3 years agoI learn most things from Wikipedia. I hope they didn’t teach me anything wrong lol. Imagine you believe the world is flat until 60
Micheal
3 years agoIf wiki is unreliable source; that’s because a few teenager bas**ard
Assignment Publisher
3 years agoGreat points! I actually love wikipedia. It’s all pure answers. Also google likes it so don’t need to get inside of the website. Great meta descriptions. However, we don’t use them on assignments. (Not as a citation but great to learn a topic 🙂 )