[WikiEN-l] No wonder people don't realise that anyone can edit Wikipedia

Mon Dec 12 15:49:54 UTC 2005

On 12/12/05, Steve Bennett <wiki at stevage.com> wrote:
> Can we blame people for thinking Wikipedia is more authoritative than it
> is? Is it not time that a banner "Anyone could have written this.
> Including you." appeared for anonymous users?  What exactly, if anything
> other than possible "aesthetics", would be the argument against warning
> users against taking Wikipedia at its word?
>
> Steve

Well, most "anonymous" users *can't* edit Wikipedia.  Wikipedia blocks
most anonymizing proxies, after all.

Anyway, can we blame people for thinking Wikipedia is more
authoritative than it is?  Sure, you shouldn't believe something just
because you read it on the Internet, even if that site claims to be an
encyclopedia.

But then again, I have my doubts Wikipedia should be calling itself an
encyclopedia in the first place.  It's not really an encyclopedia,
it's a website for a group of people who are building an encyclopedia.
 I remember arguing that years ago on IRC, though, and I lost the
argument.  Most Wikipedians insist that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia,
even though common sense says that it is not.

Anthony