Geeks across the world are now banging their heads and praying to their respective deities due to news that Wikipedia is down. Taking suggestions on what Wiki-addicts can do until the site returns.
Wikipedia Down
Comments ... #
Get some sun
Organize fantasy board games
Get laid
Order Proactive
Come up from the basement
loads for me http://www.wikipedia.org/
Do you just get the home page, or can you also access articles, upso?
posted by historymike on Mar 24, 2010 at 02:51:15 pm #
I still get intermittent access - sometimes the links work with Red Xs instead of pictures, and sometimes I get the DNS error message.
posted by historymike on Mar 24, 2010 at 02:57:48 pm #
- Get some sun
- Organize fantasy board games
- Get laid
- Order Proactive
- Come up from the basement
But people may need to read Wikipedia to learn how to do those things.
It could be worse for Wikipedia. Mar 24, 2010 Telegraph UK story Facebook 'linked to rise in syphilis'.
Ick! Twitch twitch. j/k
Does look messed up. I can load it but it's completely broken. Internal links broken, formatting and CSS borked. Just some of the article text is coming through.
posted by INeedCoffee on Mar 24, 2010 at 04:18:58 pm #
jr: sun == bad, leaving basement means I can't play World of Warcrafty 24/7
j/k kinda :)
posted by INeedCoffee on Mar 24, 2010 at 04:34:08 pm #
You can always try Conservapedia. Sure the Earth is only 6000 years old and floride is some liberal plot(I made that up) but its a fun read.
It was created because Wikipedea was too liberal.
Oh right, I forgot about Conservapedia.
posted by toledolen_ on Mar 24, 2010 at 08:07:36 pm #
"... but its a fun read."
You may need to heed item three on Ryan's alternative list of things to do.
Check what Conservapedia has to offer about conservative Ohio and Wikipedia has to offer about Ohio.
posted by oldsendbrdy on Mar 24, 2010 at 08:50:05 pm #
Delete cache, clean out cookies, restart explorer/foxfire or whatever web browser you are using? It sounds like something is stuck in cache. Sorry, dude!
posted by wishiniwasfishin on Mar 24, 2010 at 09:56:24 pm #
Nah, it was the real deal, an epic Wikipedia meltdown of Biblical proportions. Wikipedia claims it was a three-hour crash, but by my count problems lasted about four-and-a-half hours. Geeks and high school students writing term papers around the world were in mourning.
posted by historymike on Mar 25, 2010 at 07:20:31 am #
Our city high school won't allow citations from Wiki, they consider it an uncredible source.
posted by lfrost2125 on Mar 25, 2010 at 08:06:14 am #
Fully realize what a fossil i am but reminds me of the old commercial "We make money the old fashioned way... we earn it"
All those books in public libraries collecting dust. Tsk Tsk
lfrost2125:
Completely agreed that Wikipedia is a no-no for citations, as the site is rife with vandalism and inaccurate information. I use Wikipedia as a staring point for research (especially if there is a bibliography page) and for the public domain images for my PowerPoints.
Mariner:
Many of my students groan when I make them find REAL BOOKS for papers and research - they want to use only Web material. The problem with a Web-only research approach is that the Internet is filled with worthless information, and it takes a considerable amount of skill to separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff. For example, I have had fourth-year history majors inadvertently cite Holocaust denial websites in papers on the Holocaust.
posted by historymike on Mar 25, 2010 at 09:46:29 am #
That's exactly what I use it for too Mike. It's just a starting point. Also like you I like it for the images for PowerPoints I have to do for a couple of my business classes.
posted by lfrost2125 on Mar 25, 2010 at 09:56:31 am #
I have to admit I use Wikipedia more than I should, but I often check out the citations. I have a pretty good grounding from high school plus my own reading. My father was a WW II anti-aircraft gunner, then infantryman so I got interested in why he was there. The bookmobile had enough to keep me busy until they build the Washington Branch of the library. My dad mentioned Frank Buck, and the bookmobile had two or three books written by him. I fell in love with dinosaurs after reading a Disney comic book about them my mom let me buy before a visit to the doctor. The bookmobile had several books about them. Sometimes I think the bookmobile was the right size for a kid to get started on reading.
posted by oldsendbrdy on Mar 25, 2010 at 10:35:58 am #
Wikipedia article: Reliability of Wikipedia - but is this article reliable?
Mar 22, 2010 - Wikipedia: Write First, Ask Questions Later :
A study by researchers at the University of Washington finds that most students use Wikipedia, even though their instructors warn them not to. Not only that, but students in architecture, science, and engineering are the most likely to use Wikipedia.
According to the study, students in the social sciences and humanities, subjects emphasizing argumentation and critical reading, are less-frequent users of Wikipedia. Unfortunately, the Washington researchers didn’t ask these students how much they rely on Spark Notes.
It turns out that students also distrust Wikipedia, though not with the same intensity their teachers do. Only 16% of students find Wikipedia articles credible. To verify the information they find on Wikipedia, these skeptics use other sources, ranging from academic journals which they find online (that should please their instructors) to YouTube videos (that might not). And students also know when not to cite their sources. In many cases, even when they use it, students don’t list Wikipedia in their bibliographies, because that could lower their grade.
March 2010 - Most students use Wikipedia, avoid telling profs about it :
The research was done as part of Project Information Literacy (PIL) out of the University of Washington. Researchers included data from focus groups across seven university campuses in the US as well as survey responses from six campuses. What they found was that a full three-quarters of students use Wikipedia at least occasionally, with 30 percent of the group saying they always use it when performing their own research. Thirteen percent used it rarely and only nine percent said they never used Wikipedia (mysteriously, three percent said they didn't know whether they used it or not).
Eighty-two percent of the students surveyed said they went to Wikipedia for background information or a summary about a topic, often using it as a way to get started on further research (76 percent).
Only 17 percent said they used Wikipedia because they felt it was more credible than other websites, and that's not even including more academic research materials. A very heavy majority (97 percent) still referred to course readings to get background on a topic, as well as scholarly research databases (93 percent).
Additionally, students are aware of the stigma against using Wikipedia—so much so that they avoid telling their professors that it was included in the research process at all.
The pie chart shows that 52% of students surveyed in the Univ. of Washington study use Wikipedia always or often. Apparently, 3% don't know whether or not they use Wikipedia. A separate Facebook survey reports that the same percentage of students acknowledge using mind-altering chemicals to help them write their papers.
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