[WikiEN-l] Works cited in Wikipedia

[Philip Sandifer]

On Feb 27, 2007, at 6:10 PM, Steve Bennett wrote:

> On 2/27/07, Andrew Gray <shimgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>> ...well, works cited where the citation involves an ISBN, anyway.
>>
>> http://www.librarything.com/blog/2007/02/wikipedia-citatons-with- 
>> feed.php
>
> Oh dear:
> ----
> What's the most cited books? The most cited book on Wikipedia is...
> The Official Pokemon Handbook. Surprised? Don't be. In fact, eighteen
> of the top twenty most-cited works are Pokemon books. It boggles the
> mind. Somebody, or a bunch of somebodies went ISBN-happy on all the
> Pokemon entries. Fortunately, the existence of so many citations to
> Pokemon does not impair the quality of the rest. It's just...
> Wikipedia.
> ----
>
> It's actually not surprising though: references are often added
> "defensively" on Wikipedia, as an argument against deleting the
> article. Pokemon articles are more likely than others to be nominated
> for AfD.

Well this certainly puts a nail in the "citations worked" coffin.

-Phil