This is the best comment in this thread I read so far. :)
On 3/30/07, Sheldon Rampton sheldon@prwatch.org wrote:
Stan Shebs wrote:
Isn't it interesting how nobody ever complains about inaccuracies in articles other than the ones about themselves? Egos, geez...
Actually, people *do* complain about inaccuracies in other types of articles. Moreover, there are good reasons other than ego for people to notice the inaccuracies in articles about themselves. For one thing, we all know our own biographies in a lot more detail than other people. I'm willing to bet that no one on WikiEN-l other than myself knows off the top of their head what city I was born in or my date of birth. If someone other than myself were to read that I was born in 1961 in Toledo, Ohio, it's unlikely that they'd know it was incorrect, whereas I'd notice the error immediately.
In any case, the people who complain about inaccuracies in articles are doing Wikipedia a favor, not a disservice. Complaints help Wikipedia learn about errors and improve. It may be momentarily embarrassing for Jimbo to have an error pointed out to him during a TV interview, but that's a small price to pay for useful feedback.
Slim Virgin wrote:
The other solution is to stop publishing biographies of living persons, or at least to offer subjects deletion on request.
By hosting living bios, and by inviting anyone in the world to edit them, we're encouraging bad editing in a quantity we have no hope of controlling.
Actually, hosting living bios probably helps improve fact-checking and accuracy more than publishing other types of articles. If there's an error in an article about some dead guy, he's NOT going to point out the error. Without the feedback from live people, Wikipedia would know less than it knows now about the accuracy of its articles and the validity of its editorial policies.
| Sheldon Rampton | Research director, Center for Media & Democracy (www.prwatch.org) | Author of books including: | Friends In Deed: The Story of US-Nicaragua Sister Cities | Toxic Sludge Is Good For You | Mad Cow USA | Trust Us, We're Experts | Weapons of Mass Deception | Banana Republicans | The Best War Ever
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