[WikiEN-l] Irony, noun: When a judge discovers the existence of disclaimers

[geni]

On 4/21/06, Guettarda <guettarda at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 4/21/06, Tony Sidaway <f.crdfa at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Interesting.  In this case, apparently, a Special Master, appointed by
> > the court under the Vaccine Act, introduced items from the internet,
> > including one which originated as a Wikipedia article.  On the
> > evidence in those unverified documents, she dismissed a case for
> > damages because evidence could not be presented to demonstrate that
> > the nature of the child's seizures following vaccination was as
> > described in the internet documents.  There was no evidentiary hearing
> > and so neither party had the opportunity to challenge that internet
> > evidence introduced by the Special Master.
> >
> > The federal court, naturally, was not impressed.
>
>
> Wow.  That's disturbing.  There are times when the influence of Wikipedia
> makes me distinctly uncomfortable...if I make a mistake in what I write, if
> I screw something up, I have changed "knowledge".  Yet again, I wish that
> the world understood that Wikipedia is a beta.

Particularly if you consider that most of our vaccine articles are at
best undergoing the wikipedia equiverlent of a mexican standoff.

--
geni