usefulness of open wiki's (was: Re: wikihow.com/Category:Linux)

[Stephen]

For me wikepedias really are a good place to start in research more
than the authorative source itself.

On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 9:18 PM, Joshua Zeidner <jjzeidner at gmail.com> wrote:
>  very funny + SFW : http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1830262
>
>  -jmz
>
> On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 7:27 PM, Mike Schwartz <schwartz at acm.org> wrote:
>>> "written, edited, and maintained [...] by volunteers."
>>
>> True, there is almost no limit to how bogus a given
>> article might be (become), at least temporarily.
>> The damage might be due to someone well-meaning but
>> inept or misguided, or someone who was actually malicious.
>>
>> On the other hand, supposedly there are enough eyes
>> gazing over the "recently changed" logs, that if someone
>> does post some "mis" info., then theoretically it should
>> be "on the air" only for a short time, before some altruistic
>> helping hand comes along and pitches in to correct it.
>>
>> It is similar to wikipedia -- which, it seems to me, can
>> sometimes be a good source of explanations, which
>> (maybe even after you already have the facts),
>> may help to suggest (better) ways to "understand"
>> something, that is, an attitude, (a point of view);
>> how to see it, how to think about it, that might even
>> help to remember the facts, or to see how/why the
>> facts make sense.
>>
>> Also, at en.wikipedia.org at least, they have links
>> to [supposedly] authoritative "sources" -- which can
>> be very useful.  Those (typically on other web sites),
>> each have their own level of "reputation" or credibility;
>> but given the range of such levels, some of them are
>> probably pretty "authoritative".
>> --
>> Mike Schwartz
>> Glendale  AZ
>> schwartz at acm.org
>>
>> On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 6:21 PM, Rob Goelz <robgoelz at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Mike,
>>>
>>>   Thanks for posting this -- it seems to have a lot of excellent information
>>> (especially for a relative Linux n00b like me).
>>>
>>>   Wiki sites are great for information sharing but I inherently distrust
>>> them due to the ability of anyone to edit the page. From the main page:
>>> "written, edited, and maintained primarily by volunteers."
>>>
>>>   I suppose that the same is true of most forums in that someone could take
>>> bad advice and damage their system, but at least on most forums, people have
>>> to register and can be held accountable. On wikis, unless you choose to
>>> register, the only thing tracked is your IP address. So far the stuff that
>>> I've read seems to check out though. :)
>>>
>>>   What does everyone else think?
>>>
>>> -rob
>>>
>>> On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 2:45 PM, Mike Schwartz <schwartz at acm.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Maybe it's just me,
>>>> (having been in a cave, lo these umpteen years),
>>>> but when I came across this:
>>>>    http://www.wikihow.com/Category:Linux
>>>> recently,
>>>> it was news to me.
>>>> --
>>>> Mike Schwartz
>>>> [...]
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-- 
A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from
rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

Stephen