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David Whiteley
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 2748
Posted: 21 February 2007 at 9:21pm | IP Logged | 1  

I agree. As Jacob said, "Encyclopedias can be a good jumping off point, but
they should not be an end all."
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Roberto Melendrez
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Joined: 04 August 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 377
Posted: 22 February 2007 at 3:06pm | IP Logged | 2  

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/
0222071fuzzy1.html

Just posted on the Smoking Gun!

Here is the article (I can't post the actual court papers - so
check out the link for detailed documents):

Golfer Sues Over Vandalized Wikipedia Page
Profile described Fuzzy Zoeller as abuser of family, booze, pills

FEBRUARY 22--Pro golfer Fuzzy Zoeller has filed a lawsuit
over the vandalizing of his Wikipedia page, which recently
described him as a former wife and child abuser who was
hooked on alcohol and prescription drugs. According to
Zoeller, 55, his Wikipedia profile was altered in late December
from a computer with an IP address that tracked back to Josef
Silny & Associates, a Miami law firm. In a Florida Circuit Court
complaint filed last week, Zoeller (who is identified as "John
Doe") notes that his Wikipedia page was altered to include his
alleged admission to "polishing off a fifth of Jack (Daniels) after
popping a handful of Vicodin pills." The page went on to claim
that Zoeller had also acknowledged "the violent nature of his
disease" and how he had beaten his wife and four children
"while under the influence of alcohol and drugs." In his lawsuit
against the Silny firm, a copy of which you'll find below, Zoeller,
a former Masters and U.S. Open winner, contends that the false
and defamatory statements have damaged his reputation and
caused "mental anguish" and loss of income. Zoeller sought to
use the "Doe" alias to minimize further invasion of privacy, but
since his complaint quotes at length from the vandalized
Wikipedia page, an Internet search easily identifies the subject
of the since-revised online profile. In fact, a mirrored version of
the vandalized Wikipedia page can still be found on the web
site Answers.com (7 pages)

I wish he would have sued Wiki too!

Please discuss!

Edited by Roberto Melendrez on 22 February 2007 at 3:11pm
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Sam Karns
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Joined: 26 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7624
Posted: 22 February 2007 at 4:41pm | IP Logged | 3  

Well, JB, said that it would happen... it was a matter of time.
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Jacob P Secrest
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Joined: 18 October 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4068
Posted: 22 February 2007 at 4:46pm | IP Logged | 4  

He should sue Wikipedia as well.
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Sam Karns
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Joined: 26 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7624
Posted: 22 February 2007 at 4:48pm | IP Logged | 5  

If it's even worth his time.
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Ray Brady
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3740
Posted: 22 February 2007 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | 6  

"Information is information - I don't understand what invalidates an
encyclopedia."
-----
The primary question in research is the reliability of your sources. For
that reason, you should always try to rely on primary sources whenever
possible. In most cases, you're forced to rely upon secondary sources,
where scholars have sifted through the primary sources for you and
pulled out the good parts.

If you examine the biliographies of most encyclopedias, you'll see that
they're actually tertiary sources. Their researchers don't have the time or
expertise to go back to the primary sources in most cases, so they rely
upon the secondary sources. This they boil down into capsule format for
their readers.

Even in the best of circumstances then, citing an encyclopedia means that
you are at least two steps removed from the actual information you are
reporting. You are relying not upon the words of the people who actually
participated in the events you are reporting on, but upon a
summarization of an interpretation of the words of those people.

In the end, the information contained in an encyclopedia may well be as
accurate as the information you find in primary source material, but it will
never be as persuasive.
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Steve Horton
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3574
Posted: 23 February 2007 at 12:11am | IP Logged | 7  

Apparently Wikipedia is so high-and-mighty that it considers comics to be beneath it:

http://www.halfpixel.com/2007/02/15/delete-wikipedia/


Edited by Steve Horton on 23 February 2007 at 12:12am
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Brian O'Neill
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Joined: 05 May 2004
Posts: 741
Posted: 23 February 2007 at 1:20am | IP Logged | 8  

Webcomics...which, like wikipedia itself, can be either worthwhile or crap.
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Craig Markley
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3969
Posted: 26 February 2007 at 10:45am | IP Logged | 9  

Fuzzy Zoeller has filed a lawsuit over the vandalizing of his Wikipedia page

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0222071fuzzy 1.html

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David Whiteley
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 2748
Posted: 26 February 2007 at 10:47am | IP Logged | 10  

I hope Sterger wasn't involved.
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Stephen Hippleheuser
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Joined: 13 February 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 138
Posted: 01 March 2007 at 1:56am | IP Logged | 11  

Wikipedia is a good place to find links to other sources of information.  I would not take it as a primary source myself.  Teaching students how to verify if a source is credible is a difficult assignment.  Something as loose as Wikipedia should not be accepted.
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Corey Johnson
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2021
Posted: 01 March 2007 at 11:39am | IP Logged | 12  

A sign that we are truly in the End Times: Tax court cites Wikipedia 8 times in a ruling concerning video poker:

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2007/03/tax_court_ci tes.html

For those who don't care for the dirty hippie godless commie bastard version of Wikipedia, you now have an option: Conservapedia!

http://www.conservapedia.com/Main_Page

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