2026-01-03 08:32 UTC
The issue is not that Wikipedia is wrong, unreliable, superficial or not worth citing, the issue is Wikipedia is not a source.
Contrary to what schools teach for some reason, the ultimate goal of citing sources it to tell where the information comes from, not where one found it.
By nature, Wikipedia or any other encyclopedia doesn’t create or analyse information, it just compiles it. No information can originate from Wikipedia, so Wikipedia is never the source of anything. The primary and secondary sources at the bottom of the page are.
Replies (2)
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@Karjalan@lemmy.world 2026-01-03 10:10
I’m not saying you’re wrong in any way, but in my school days encyclopedia britanica was “a valid source” and Wikipedia was considered not. Despite them essentially being the same thing, and I recall at some point a study showing that Wikipedia was more accurate in general
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@Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 2026-01-03 11:32
Why not just use chatgpt instead