Wikipedia's perfection (was Re: Discussion of the relative advantages/disadvantages of PAE (was Re: Memory >3.5GB not used?))

[Chad Perrin]

On Wed, Apr 25, 2007 at 03:59:43PM +0200, Svein Halvor Halvorsen wrote:
> Bill Moran wrote:
> >>A friend of mine going for his Dr. at CMU (Patrick Wagstrom: GNOME guy)
> >>describes an exercise where a professor intentionally injected false
> >>information into Wikipedia, then gave his students a research assignment
> >>that involved that information.  Apparently the number of students who
> >>trusted the false information without verifying it was quite high.  I
> >>should take that as a lesson that most people _don't_ know how to verify
> >>the validity of information and be more careful when I make sarcastic
> >>statements.
> 
> Lee Capps wrote:
> >That's interesting, though, to pick a nit, it may just show that 
> >students were in a hurry, rather than that they necessarily trust the 
> >info or that they don't know _how_ to verify the info.
> 
> And also: Where is this professor's ethics? Does he also misinform the 
> students in class, only to later accuse them of not verifying the facts? 
>  And did he even think about the fact that others may have read his 
> misinformation? Why does this professor think that his agenda is more 
> important than Wikipedia's? Did he later correct the articles?

No kidding.  That professor should have his Wikipedia account banned,
and the head of his department should be informed of his vandalism.  I
don't suppose you know the name of his Wikipedia account, or his legal
name. . . .

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
"The ability to quote is a serviceable
substitute for wit." - W. Somerset Maugham