On most days, this occasional Wikipedian is inclined to agree with Eugene Volokh's assessment and dispair of a world-editable encyclopedia ever emerging from edit wars, vandalism and point-of-view disputes. Today, however, I stumbled across the entry on heavy-metal umlauts and proclaim that my faith is restored.
Posted by Ben Brumfield at October 22, 2004 02:08 PMWikipedia is useful for blog links and quick lookups, but I'd be chary about relying on it for anything more substantial. But then, even Britannica (since 1911 anyway) can be a risk too.
Posted by: Alan Allport at October 23, 2004 01:42 PMPersonally, I have found contributing to Wikipedia (and lately Wikisource ) to be a rewarding and educational experience. As we all know, you can learn a lot through arguing with strangers on the internet, and Wikipedia has provided me some unique opportunities.
The same has not been true of browsing or using the sites, however.
Posted by: Ben Brumfield at October 23, 2004 08:27 PM