Be Careful when Citing Wikipedia

Some time ago I developed some verbiage that I saved and often paste at the bottom of posts where I link to wikipedia articles. It says:

“This post or article contains a link to Wikipedia, an open source online encyclopedia. Its articles can be edited by anyone at any time. For this reason, finding a link to a wikipedia article on faithmaps blog indicates that at the time the link was added, I found that the article as it existed at that time was worthy of review or reference. However, because wikipedia articles are dynamic, care should be taken to verify information found in its articles.”

Ben Witherington brings our attention to further evidence that we all need to take care when citing Wikipedia. He links to an article that reports that Virgil Griffith developed a program that could track the corporation or organization responsible for various edits in specific Wikipedia articles. Among other edits the article cites are:

• ” Apple edit Microsoft entries, adding more negative comments about its rival
• In the 9/11 Wikipedia article, the NRA added that “Iraq was involved in 9/11”
• Scientology removes criticism and negatives article from Scientology page
• Dell Computers deletes negative comments on customer services and removes a passage how the company outsources work to third world countries
• Walmart removes criticism of outsourcing work. The retailer also changes negative paragraphs of underpaid workforce”

etc.

While I still believe that Wikipedia is a very valuable open-source resource, we nevertheless have to be careful when using it, especially in light of these revelations.