[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia has PR Problems

[Thomas Dalton]

On 15/05/2008, Mark Nilrad <marknilrad at yahoo.com> wrote:
> If someone uninvolved with Wikipedia was following the news on Wikipedia, what kind of headlines on the news articles about Wikipedia would he see? More or less, he would see: "Jimbo Wales Financial Troubles/Philandering" (and...sexual exploits, and some troubling issues with his ex's article), "Village in Englad falls to Vandalism (about vandalism, which was immediately reverted after the story came out, to a page, which is now significantly improved, about an English village)  "Parents of High Schoolers Criticize Wikipedia" (relative to the threats posted to the HS in California's page), "How Wikipedia Can Rip You Off" (based on a completely uninformed blog post, but it was on the front page of Yahoo), "Pro-Israel group slanting Wikipedia"...on and on the list goes. It's amazing how much bad news get around about Wikipedia.

We have a lot of bad PR, certainly, but do with have PR problems?
Despite all the scandals in the press, Wikipedia holds a unique place
in the public psyche as *the* place to go for pretty much anything you
want to know, and that shows no signs of changing. Everyone may hate
Wikipedia, but they still use it, and that's what matters.