Can't trust wiki for shit.

[sparklebutch]

Anyone knows where I can find a large and satisfying treasure of knowledge, surfable and relatively consistent with some vague truth? I mean, reliable and easy? Please?

Comments

[drc1.livejournal.com]

I like Encarta http://encarta.msn.com/ but the online version is probably not that large (I use the DVD version a lot). Also Britannica at britannica.com but you only get short versions of the real thing if you are not a paying member.

I personally like Wikipedia but it depends on what you are looking for. I often use it for technical or historical stuff, and it's better than most online sources. Sorry you are disappointed.

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the links :) I will look at them the moment I have study-time.

I tend to look around wiki for history, archeology/prehistory, and some basic concepts say in philosophy or other fields where I just need to know. Oh, and theology. And some more things. Anyway. Too many mistakes for me to trust something I'm not sure about to begin with.

[drc1.livejournal.com]

I use Wiki mostly as a starting point. For details and reliable information I go to web sites of colleges/universities, companies and generally of places where the experts are. But I find Wiki helpful in learning some basic facts when I don't know much or anything at all about a subject and wouldn't even know where to begin my research. And I always double-check everything anyway, if possible (with books I own, for example), no matter where I find it. At least when it comes to work stuff.

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

Well... yeah, but...

I want a place where I don't have to double-check everything. A place where I can read and know that even if there is no such thing as 100% objective truth, at least whoever wrote the article had a clue. I don't research for work, I research for fun, and wrong facts give me headaches ;) For a quick, glossed-over factoid in a fic, yeah, they're okay. For actually knowing and learning?... Less so.

[drc1.livejournal.com]

Ah, I don't think such a place exists, at least not on the 'net and for free, and with a large database as Wiki's.

It's quite funny actually. I've been reading a few biographies recently, written by people who apparently spent a lot of researching, and who apparently get well paid for their work but none of the books was without mistakes. Mistakes I discovered whilst reading them without knowing much about the person(s) in question. And several books about one and the same person had different takes on one and the same event, for example. None of the authors seemed to be completely without bias, and that, too, is a factor. Although it shouldn't be, and mostly it amuses me, but sometimes it can be pretty annyoing. But as a reader I can never be 100% sure, I guess. I can only try my best to put the pieces together, like in a mosaic.:-)

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

Sigh. You'd think in this day and age there would be better resources.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I like Wikipedia best. http://en.wikipedia.org/

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

Note the topic/subject line.

Wiki is easy, but not, not, NOT reliable. If I want to know something for real, learn about something... let's say I found too many mistakes in wiki about things I know, to trust it about something I don't.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I have that problem with all encyclopedias, onine or off, including Wiki, which is why I gave the answer I did. Put another way: there is no information source without errors; there is no information guaranteed correct. (Even though the people supplying it may swear...!) The only way to be sure of information is to double-check with alternate sources, and to check up and compare both online and printed soruces.

Another answer I considered was simply Google. It finds citations and you can put them together. It's unweidly and clumsy and unreliable and time-consuming but you do end up with some kind of information most of the time, if you can patch it together right.

Real, reliable, in-depth knowledge about a large body of information simply does not exist online - or if you find it, please let me know. I don't think it will exist in my lifetime, but we can hope.

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

They have such obvious, big, angrily glaring mistakes :)

I don't know of a good place, no, which is why I asked, in hope to find something new and better. So far, nothing thrilling, but I promise to tell you if I find anything.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes - if you find such, I would be thrilled. It would be the summit of my dreams. (Almost.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/iofiel_/]

And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but
The truth in masquerade.

*sighs* Please, let me know if you found a reliable place.

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

And, after all, what is a lie?

Sometimes it's ignorance and misinformation, sometimes it's a vicious attempt to make me stupid.

If I find something, I will probably tell the world, sigh. Haven't so far.