The myth of reference sources Options

[thekohser]

A recent study proves what most of us here knew all along. For all of the hype about how Wikipedia is more and more reliable thanks to the reference sources that pepper its articles, when it comes right down to it, even college students are oblivious to what the references are actually pointing to when they evaluate the credibility of a Wikipedia article.

(Thankfully, as a paid editor, I can sometimes use this to my advantage... puffing out references that are barely relevant to what is claimed in the article. But if that's what it takes to make the content stick, so be it.)

(It's also a nifty trick to get vandalism to hold in place.)

This post has been edited by thekohser: Tue 7th June 2011, 3:30pm

[communicat]

A recent study proves what most of us here knew all along. For all of the hype about how Wikipedia is more and more reliable thanks to the reference sources that pepper its articles, when it comes right down to it, even college students are oblivious to what the references are actually pointing to when they evaluate the credibility of a Wikipedia article.

(Thankfully, as a paid editor, I can sometimes use this to my advantage... puffing out references that are barely relevant to what is claimed in the article. But if that's what it takes to make the content stick, so be it.)

(It's also a nifty trick to get vandalism to hold in place.)

You might find that the CC visual images influence text content credibility as much as or maybe even more so than the reference citations. If it was not for the State of Florida where WP's servers are located, and which is the only place in the world where CC licensed images have legal validity, I doubt if WP would be as seemingly credible as it is among some students.

[thekohser]

If it was not for the State of Florida where WP's servers are located, and which is the only place in the world where CC licensed images have legal validity...

I'm probably going to regret asking, but what in the world are you talking about there?