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Who do you think writes up all these Wikipedai pages?

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Nov 11, 2013 6:42 PM
#1

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

There's something about Wikipedia that really annoys me, namely the complexity and depth of some of the pages. For example, the Higgs Boson page, it seems like someone actually took the time to write up a detailed and accurate(?) article. If you look at a lot of Wikipedia pages, the physics pages in particular, it seems like the people who wrote them put a lot of work and effort into making them. In addition, there's always a boatload of notes, references, and external links for these pages.

Do you ever wonder who the hell takes their time to actually write these up? The amount of references also leads me to believe that most of these articles were seriously written; I don't think the articles are BS. Wikipedia is considered an untrustworthy source by most schools, so It seems unlikely to me that college professors would actually spend their time creating these articles. I don't believe most people have the knowledge required to write these and I doubt students have the time.
Nov 11, 2013 6:44 PM
#2

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Various people contribute to each and every page.
كنت تهدر وقتك عن طريق ترجمة هذه.


mattbenz99 said:
Christians and Satanists are technically the same thing
Nov 11, 2013 6:44 PM
#3
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Is this some form of conspiracy I smell?
Nov 11, 2013 6:45 PM
#4
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Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia written collaboratively by the people who use it
Nov 11, 2013 6:45 PM
#5

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Goryo said:
Various people contribute to each and every page.
Nov 11, 2013 6:46 PM
#6

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Anyone that know how to use internet can edit wikipedia.
Nov 11, 2013 6:46 PM
#7

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Hidden_Joker said:
Goryo said:
Various people contribute to each and every page.


I know that, but I'm asking what type of people
Nov 11, 2013 6:47 PM
#8

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Cupquake said:
Hidden_Joker said:
Goryo said:
Various people contribute to each and every page.


I know that, but I'm asking what type of people


Anyone who has access to the internet and feels like editing an article.
كنت تهدر وقتك عن طريق ترجمة هذه.


mattbenz99 said:
Christians and Satanists are technically the same thing
Nov 11, 2013 6:48 PM
#9

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People thinking 'Fuck I wasted all my life gathering useless knowledge in a niche field and now I wanna feel like I actually contribute to something, leave something behind, better the world, allow students to copypaste my words for their presentations.'
I probably regret this post by now.
Nov 11, 2013 6:49 PM
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Cupquake said:
Wikipedia is considered an untrustworthy source by most schools, so It seems unlikely to me that college professors would actually spend their time creating these articles. I don't believe most people have the knowledge required to write these and I doubt students have the time.


That's because, according to schools, using Wikipedia isn't as effective as looking through 10 books in one day to find only one full page of information. Books should be useful only for additional and more detailed information.
Nov 11, 2013 6:49 PM

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Goryo said:
Cupquake said:
Hidden_Joker said:
Goryo said:
Various people contribute to each and every page.


I know that, but I'm asking what type of people


Anyone who has access to the internet and feels like editing an article.


But as I said, the articles seem to be well written, I doubt think anyone could have written them.
Nov 11, 2013 6:50 PM

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http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Higgs_boson&action=history



List of edit history with some registered users ^^^^^
MiraniaNov 11, 2013 6:57 PM
Nov 11, 2013 6:52 PM

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There are actually a lot of people with PHDs participating in wikipedia. Passion for their subject is the drive and it doesn't have anything to do with the official policies of schools. First of all you never know if an article about a specific topic is really good and secondly school probably wants to teach the kids work ethics instead of googling.
I probably regret this post by now.
Nov 11, 2013 6:53 PM
lagom
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i bet they are experts too and if you like more simple explanation there is simple wikipedia http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and here is an example http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson
Nov 11, 2013 7:01 PM

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j0x said:
i bet they are experts too and if you like more simple explanation there is simple wikipedia http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and here is an example http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson
Wow alright. I've been wiki'ing for years, and I never it existed. Thanks!

As for who writes them. Anyone. You could read a textbook and possibly contribute to mega articles like that.
Nov 11, 2013 7:11 PM
lagom
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MellowJello said:
j0x said:
i bet they are experts too and if you like more simple explanation there is simple wikipedia http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and here is an example http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson
Wow alright. I've been wiki'ing for years, and I never it existed. Thanks!


no problem i saw that Simple Wikipedia on hacker news and reddit when they are looking for contributors to write stuff in it and we all know that hacker news and reddit are places with the most number of experts on the internet
Nov 11, 2013 7:14 PM

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Sigh...Wikipedia is a great place to start looking for info and is credible just check the cited sources and if not look elsewhere to confirm...
Nov 11, 2013 7:14 PM

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chrysalibun said:
Sigh...Wikipedia is a great place to start looking for info and is credible just check the cited sources and if not look elsewhere to confirm...


That's not what the topic is about
Nov 11, 2013 7:21 PM

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Whoever they are I'm grateful of them because wiki help me in my homeworks sometimes.
Kickstarter for Rokujouma is fully funded. Good work everyone. Lets wait for the result of our hard work together.
Nov 11, 2013 7:28 PM

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I don't give a shit as long as they keep providing me with information.
Nov 11, 2013 7:36 PM

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As long as it can get me an A on an assignment that doesn't require a Work Cited page, those people can keep writing wiki articles.
Nov 11, 2013 7:39 PM
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Why do you care

Stop caring

Caring is a sin
Nov 11, 2013 7:40 PM
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j0x said:
i bet they are experts too and if you like more simple explanation there is simple wikipedia http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and here is an example http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

While the concept is interesting with its intended goal, it sure is rather... dull to read, so much that I'd rather read the original article instead.

As for the people behind these pages, I don't think it's that hard to write up something didactic. If you ever take a literature class, especially on the AP level, you apply similar techniques in your writing: explain the idea and cite where that information came from, or synthesize from multiple sources to make a single paragraph or pages of content. Of course, it only becomes more fluid if one is seasoned in whatever he or she is writing.
Also, obviously since multiple people can contribute to a single page, it doesn't mean one single person is writing everything. If anyone remembers, it was quite easy to simply modify or add onto various entries in the now gone MAL wiki. Sure, someone may had written the bulk of the pieces of information, but those pages wouldn't be much without the many edits from various other people.

The amount of references also leads me to believe that most of these articles were seriously written; I don't think the articles are BS. Wikipedia is considered an untrustworthy source by most schools

While Wikipedia does indeed cite references, who's to say those references are reliable in the first place? If your only resource is Wikipedia, it doesn't teach you to thoroughly investigate multiple articles of information and come up with a conclusion of which information was valid and invalid. Do you only "think" the articles are valid just because it has a list of references without actually looking into them?
Nov 11, 2013 7:46 PM
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this may surprise you, but people do have the knowledge required to write wikipedia pages

for specialized fields, i'd assume generally people who belong to those write the articles

for general stuff, anyone can do it


and all volunteers
Nov 11, 2013 8:44 PM

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Aug 2013
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I'm guessing that someone writes a pretty bad stub, then people gradually make small edits until the article gets the way it is now. Even I sometimes change something written badly or inaccurately.
Nov 11, 2013 8:49 PM
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the one who's life is surrender to science.......
Nov 11, 2013 8:52 PM

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j0x said:
i bet they are experts too and if you like more simple explanation there is simple wikipedia http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and here is an example http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson
Awesome this is like the tl;dr version.
Nov 11, 2013 9:15 PM
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There was a comparison some years back that showed Wikipedia to be comparable to Encyclopedia Britannica in terms of accuracy (Wikipedia was slightly less accurate)... But Encyclopedia Britannica never had an article about camel toe.

I think the main issue with Wikipedia is that it let's some questionable sources be cited. I always found it fun to look through the articles for deletion and speedy deletion and how many dumb vanity articles people were making.
Nov 11, 2013 9:17 PM

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One person is concerned about one specific thing, has a passion for it, and so they add a lot about that one specific thing. Several hundreds of thousands of people do this, and it all comes together into Wikipedia.
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Nov 11, 2013 10:42 PM
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Wikipedia pages are done by pretty much whoever if I'm right (which is why occasionally you find someone having screenshotted something really silly someone put in, even if it lasted only a short period of time)
removed-userNov 11, 2013 10:52 PM
Nov 11, 2013 11:04 PM

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People always says that knowledge is power, and they even pay a lump sum to earn it.
But when it comes as free, they quickly says it's bullshit.
The most important things in life is the people that you care about
Nov 12, 2013 10:23 PM

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Err, Contributors?
Nov 13, 2013 12:12 AM

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Cupquake said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

There's something about Wikipedia that really annoys me, namely the complexity and depth of some of the pages. For example, the Higgs Boson page, it seems like someone actually took the time to write up a detailed and accurate(?) article. If you look at a lot of Wikipedia pages, the physics pages in particular, it seems like the people who wrote them put a lot of work and effort into making them. In addition, there's always a boatload of notes, references, and external links for these pages.

Do you ever wonder who the hell takes their time to actually write these up? The amount of references also leads me to believe that most of these articles were seriously written; I don't think the articles are BS. Wikipedia is considered an untrustworthy source by most schools, so It seems unlikely to me that college professors would actually spend their time creating these articles. I don't believe most people have the knowledge required to write these and I doubt students have the time.


Well, obviously, you don't know crap about Wikipedia. Believe it or not, there ARE people out there, who very much spend the time to write up these articles -- AND -- know what they're doing. Sure, many of the articles are utter garbage and do not have anything of substance; but the ones that do, they're written rather seriously, with a strong sense of accuracy in mind.

Also, students are generally discouraged from using Wikipedia due to risk of plagiarism and the fluidity of the Wiki text (i.e. stuff can change any day of the week).
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Nov 13, 2013 12:20 AM

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KyuuAL said:
Well, obviously, you don't know crap about Wikipedia. Believe it or not, there ARE people out there, who very much spend the time to write up these articles -- AND -- know what they're doing. Sure, many of the articles are utter garbage and do not have anything of substance; but the ones that do, they're written rather seriously, with a strong sense of accuracy in mind.

Also, students are generally discouraged from using Wikipedia due to risk of plagiarism and the fluidity of the Wiki text (i.e. stuff can change any day of the week).


We were told for the most part that Wikipedia is good for steering us in the right direction.

And we can't cite it as a source because of the exact same reason you pointed out in your last sentence.
Just need to find out how to quote this every time so I can dodge the stupid 30-character limit.
Nov 13, 2013 9:24 AM
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Wikipedai.
Nov 13, 2013 9:41 AM

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Theodoricos said:
I couldn't possibly know who exactly are the people that write the pages, but they have my sincerest thanks.

Even though a lot of them are bias as hell and post so much invalid information and sometimes (more often than not) things are subject to change?
わたしはりんごがすきです. あなた は バカ です :3
 
Nov 13, 2013 12:01 PM

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Theodoricos said:
FrostedSilver964 said:
This is kinda off-topic, but I don't even understand why people bother writing about complex stuff like about Physics, and medicine etc when the only people who're able to understand it all are those who wouldn't need to read it anyway because they already know about it. At least put it in simple terms! Grrr


Except not, what is not useful for you might be so for someone else. I used to spend entire days on it a couple of years ago. However, due to lack of time and increased dedication to other interests, I cannot afford to do that anymore.
Aliis si licet, tibi non licet.
Nov 13, 2013 12:04 PM

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Everything on Wikipedia is false anyway. I thought people knew this.
Nov 13, 2013 12:24 PM

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Reciprocal said:
Everything on Wikipedia is false anyway. I thought people knew this.

Ah, the myth is still around I see.
Aliis si licet, tibi non licet.
Nov 13, 2013 12:55 PM

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Apr 2013
11408
I brought this up in my History class, and my history teacher thinks that college professors write a lot of the more complicated articles, because they know their students go to wikipedia for quick and easy information.

Not sure I agree with that, but whatever.
Nov 13, 2013 12:57 PM

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This is how I keep up with World Cup stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification

:3
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