Wikipedia: A Great Source of Information But has Flaws

Wikipedia provides a great source of information, but with all information from all sources you should double check the content for accuracy. USA Today is reporting how a nearly totally false story was posted on Wikipedia, and the problems involved tracking the poster.

The problem compounds itself, because of much of the information posted on Wikipedia is duplicated on other websites automatically. So in your process of double checking you have also be aware that if you see an exact duplicate, its origin was most likely from Wikipedia and that content may also be suspect.

With all information from any source including this blog, it is up to you the reader to look at the information and verify what is reported. Wikipedia should not be discounted as a great source of information, it does have checks and balances. One is that it can be edited by anyone, this provides a great tool for correcting dubious or false information.

When we post here we do make an effort to verify our facts. Sometimes we have made errors, but we count them as few. And we always encourage our readers to double check, and post comments. If you disagree with our content we encourage you to post your counter point in the comments. Rarely have we ever deleted comments. Sometimes we have edited out offensive words, and re-posted the comments. This has only happened on two occasions. Most people we have found can post without being abusive to others.

At other times we have provided you an interpretation or an opinion of the facts we are reporting. And with each opinion there is a counter opinion and we are always interested in reading yours. And if you have facts to counter what we present we appreciate your input also.

But just as a reminder to all of us we should look at what we read carefully and form our opinions based on more than one reliable source.