[WikiEN-l] Why cutting'n'pasting from Wikipedia is not a good idea

[David Gerard]

On 13/03/07, Daniel P. B. Smith <wikipedia2006 at dpbsmith.com> wrote:

> While it's hysterically funny, and they deserved what they got for
> not reading what they copied, don't laugh too much.
> As Wikipedia has become successful, the percentage of people who
> understand _anything_ about Wikipedia is declining.
> _We need to educate them._ Somehow.


Every press call I get (typically one or two a day), I say "check the
history" - one day it will leak into the public consciousness!


> It would be interesting to have a poll of the people who used
> Wikipedia in the last week and see how many of them even noticed the
> the caption "edit this page" or the slogan "the free encyclopedia
> that anyone can edit." I'd bet that _the majority have not_.
> Impossible, you say? Heck, everyone knows about Wikipedia, Colbert
> jokes about it, nobody would get the joke. Well, not everybody
> watches Colbert.


We're top-10. Wikipedia is *mainstream*.

All we can do is hammer home the simple soundbites at every opportunity.

Every editor is a public relations spokesperson for Wikipedia. We're
top-10 presumably because we're useful to people. So tell the truth,
tell people things that will make it more useful to them.


> Google. People don't consciously think "it must be true or it
> wouldn't be a high-ranking Google result." The authority is enhanced
> by Wikipedia's professional-looking appearance.


This is something people have complained of over the past few years -
that we look too good for readers who aren't thinking.


> The percentage of Wikipedia users who say "That sounds odd. Let me
> check this History just to make sure this isn't a bit of vandalism
> that hasn't been fixed yet" is probably negligible. (The percentage
> who even know what the History tab does is probably minuscule).


You're quite correct. There was one minor press kerfuffle a few weeks
ago where some wag had sent several UK newspapers a link to a history
version of [[Cheryl Cole]] saying her husband was gay. It took a
moment on the first call to work out that was actually a history link
and they were the victims of a prankster.

"If you see something really surprising, you should click the
'history' tab at the top of the page. It might be rubbish someone just
added."


- d.