Wikipedia is one of the most popular websites on the Internet. It is informative, controversial, and having a Wiki profile can be highly credible for your business. It is the world’s favorite encyclopedia that covers every conceivable subject
Anyone can start a Wiki page or edit it, on any subject they like. The page i
s then examined by the editor who chooses whether or not the page stays. The website in available in numerous, well-known languages. Wiki is one of the most accessed web pages. If you search anything on Google, Wikipedia is mostly the first page you would see in the search results.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Crowd-Sourced Content
The Wikipedia, no doubt, has a lot of benefits that have been listed below.
- A lot of information gets added in a short space of time
- You get a wide variety of subjects on the site, some of which are eclectic
- If someone spots an error, they can quickly change it
- You get a lot of different angles to a subject
Following are the disadvantages for a crowd-sourced content on a website.
- If a lot of information gets added in a short space of time, it is easy to slip in misinformation and slander. It may be some time before it is noticed.
- It is easy to start fights over new articles. Especially if a Wikipedia editor decides it has to go, and the contributor feels slighted.
- Anyone, especially people who are not eligible for a Wikipedia page, make one anyway, in the hopes it won’t be noticed.
- A person who has a page — a politician, a celebrity, etc. — quite often makes an anonymous account, to remove anything unfavorable; rewrite parts to make them look good; make their qualifications look better, and so forth. Quite a few politicians have been caught doing this. @CongressEdits is a Twitter bot that tweets anonymous edits made to Wikipedia from IP addresses in the US Congress.
- It is a good thing if an error is spotted and fixed immediately. But not if someone disputes the change and begin arguing about it.
- Finally, pages get vandalized. Some sites consider this amusing, and Wikipedia actually has a page on the most vandalized pages.
The Ultimate Software Which Runs Wikipedia
MediaWiki is a free and open-source software that runs Wikipedia. This software helps you gather and organize knowledge and makes it accessible for people. It is strong, multilingual, reliable, and free of cost.
Browsing Wikipedia from the Front Page
Wikipedia can be overwhelming. Its first page gives you lots of links. This web page has never done any variations. It is the same as it always have been. It has articles that could concern someone well-known or something obscure that no one has ever heard about. The best thing about Wikipedia as your daily news source is that the breaking news is updated and edited by contributors and editors.
The Did You Know (DYK) section will reveal unusual facts to trivia lovers. The In The News section informs you about all that is happening in the world and also sets up pages for reputed people and events, that are connected with the news and currents affairs. It is also said that the Current Events page on Wikipedia is the best source to refer for daily news. It is neutral and you get an unbiased view of trending news.
The On This Day section tells you what happened today in the history. This is actually good if it is your birthday, you will come to know about something noteworthy that happened on the same day. And lastly, the notable feature is the search engine that helps you find the information you are looking for.
Changing Skins
Wikipedia has barely changed from the time it has been operational. However, it does have a list of designs both operational and non-operational. There is also mobile version of the page that appears beautifully on the mobile phone screens.
Due to the portability of smartphones and tablets, the optimized version of Wikipedia in extremely useful. The iOS app is quick, you can read pages while being offline and the app is 100% open-source. And the Android app is the same as iOS.
Searching Wikipedia
You can improve your search on Wikipedia with the help of list of Wikipedia search tips and tricks. It provides all the tips and tricks to find what you want and also have some gems, you might not know that even exist. You only need to know the accurate “wildcards”.
