• bunnyfc
    link
    fedilink
    351 year ago

    Wikipedia is not the Achilles heel of free access to information. The Achilles heel are the sources: libraries, websites.

    Consider donating to the internet archive instead or as well. If the sources are poisoned, Wikipedia just repeats bullshit. It’s secondary literature.

      • Star
        link
        fedilink
        English
        19
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I believe they mean that if Wikipedia dies, we are still able to get proper information from the actual sources.

        Wikipedia just summarizes the primary sources.

        Since we can still get the info, we don’t succumb. If the primary sources get altered, then nothing in reality can be trusted.

        • ram
          link
          fedilink
          English
          271 year ago

          Wikipedia just summarizes the primary sources.

          Wikipedia actually much prefers secondary and even tertiary sources to primary sources. They have rules against original research, and follows the guideline that “secondary or tertiary sources are needed to establish the topic’s notability and avoid novel interpretations of primary sources”. It’s only with exception that primary sources are allowed, in which the primary sources “have been reputably published may be used in Wikipedia, but only with care, because it is easy to misuse them.”

          Not disagreeing with you, just a bit of nuance.

        • wagesj45
          link
          fedilink
          41 year ago

          Wikipedia just summarizes the primary sources.

          Technically, I think they only allow primary sources to be referenced if supported by a secondary source. They have weird and complex rules around that,

          • @emberwit@feddit.de
            link
            fedilink
            English
            2
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Wikipedia prefers secondary sources, but I think that is not what user Star meant by primary. Just the sources that Wikipedia itself works with.

            • wagesj45
              link
              fedilink
              21 year ago

              You’re right, but what would the internet be without a little pedantry and ignoring the point of the post? :D

          • Star
            link
            fedilink
            English
            21 year ago

            You can: Ban books, burn papers, delete servers, hack articles, AI creations, talk louder than reality.