2020 update: Wiki says it has reliable info on corono. Lol. Right...
(I won't be donating to Wiki. This is why.) Self important obnoxious knowitalls who write incomprehensible c ap that probably didn't answer the question you had
I don't have the Wiki site on my bookmarks. One of the main purposes of wiki is as such: People want their names to appear in the credits on your screen.
-update 2019 - quite frankly, horsec*ap.
When I browse wiki, I see many articles where "trusted posters" have obviously spouted off their own bias. Try giving a fact of the item if you (... gasp) don't live, breathe, eat and w nk wiki?
If Wiki does disappear? The most notable thing I won't be able to look up, is how many episodes of <TV series> there are.
Wiki is technically "the online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone"
Wiki is actually "the online reference that can only be edited by people who have already edited 1,000 articles, otherwise the changes will be deleted".
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Review
Generally I'm not keen on wiki, because the info always seems to be inane details spewed over several pages, when what I actually want is "an answer". I'll google a question (other search engines may be available), and what I'm looking for is a single number, or one fact. Wiki will give me a hurl of several pages, and I often end up closing it, and googling again.
After the reference of life, I now know that giving you an answer is not "the writers" primary objective. They just want to pour as much of themselves down your throat as poss, you'll see their name in the credits, and think, wow. Yeah. Look at that/them.
As in anything, there is the "writers clique". If you are one of the lab coats in the central boiler room, then by dammit, anyone who questions you must be an imbecile. (if you are a first time user and attempt an edit, and you do not follow precise protocol, you Will be shot. What do you mean you are not familiar with wiki procedure? Any wiki regular will tell you that no human exists who does not know exactly how wiki works)
If you are one of the bunsen burner protectors, then if you see anything original that hasn't just been copied from somewhere else, you have to run to the lab coat, and say yes sir hello sir, INTERNETS VANDALISMS sir".
The bunsen burner protector will then notch up on the wiki bed post, and the lab coat will get another coating of keyboard dioxide and be a step close to the much covetted title of "wa*kiest wiki". *=c of course.
The base around which wiki revolves is not fact (or truth), but ctrl-c, and look at my edit. LOOK AT IT.
It's telling, that if you look up a scientific formula, there might be half a page on it. Look up a "reality TV" show, and you'll be scrolling. Wiki does seem to be great on giving you reams of unintelligible s**te on certain subjects. But. There are many people who want you to read, not "s**te", but "THEIR s**te".
Example of wiki-incomprehensibility:
Type something into google. Click on the wiki definition
Type the same thing into google, click on the google result that says "definition, in normal human language terms that is understandable"
Brief example: what is marxism
Google answer:
Quick Answer. Marxism, to put it rather simply, is a type of economic system proposed by Karl Marx in which there are no classes. The government would control all resources and means of production to, in theory, ensure equality.
[this is understandable]
Wiki Answer: Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that views class relations and social conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development and takes a dialectical view of social transformation. [It originates from the works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.]
"yah. Right." [close window]
Second example: what is microphonics
Answer: when a headphone cable rubs against your top, you hear the rubbing vibrations through the earphones
Wiki answer: Microphonics or microphony describes the phenomenon wherein certain components in electronic devices transform mechanical vibrations into an undesired electrical signal. The term comes from analogy with a microphone, which is intentionally designed to convert vibrations to electrical signals.
[what in the f? Someones brain is so far up their own xrse, they are experiencing microphonics]