Facts You Need To Know About Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia of fact-proven, peer-reviewed, trusted information about different topics. And so, since Wikipedia is a huge platform, there are some you need to know.

Basically, to conveniently use Wikipedia, you need to know several things you need to know about Wikipedia. Therefore, in this article, we will discuss two key things about Wikipedia, which are:

·        Wikipedia's reliability, and

·        Wikipedia features and tools

So, let's start!

What you need to know about Wikipedia

First, before we dive into discussing the above two elements, let's first familiarize ourselves with what Wikipedia is all about:

As noted, Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia just like the "wikis" that came before it. And so, the content published in this encyclopedia can only be edited by volunteers, not the directly related individual or entity. This online information platform is openly collaborative and multilingual, featuring tens of thousands of editors. They can be just casual fans or experienced editors and administrators.

Since it is an open-ended platform, anyone who isn't blocked in any way can edit any Wikipedia page. You can delete, change or even expand information already published on any page.

Wikipedia's credibility is higher than most sight; as a result, it can be used to source relevant, credible information. Furthermore, anyone can use it as the starting point of their research, thanks to every page being backed by multiple reliable sources.

Now, with that said, jump right into the main topics of the day:

a)     How reliable is Wikipedia

Highly reliable, but not 100%, though.

Even though we know there is zero corporate interest funding Wikipedia, it doesn't mean there is no room for errors. In fact, misinformation and personal bias are two errors that you can still find on several Wikipedia pages despite prudent Wikipedia policies and guidelines.

On some occasions, some information is specific and can be entirely false. Remember, we said anyone could edit Wikipedia s long as they have internet access and you are not blocked from editing a Wikipedia page. Therefore, means at a particular time, you can manipulate information on any page.

Of course, there are several protection measures that a page holder can take to protect a page from any form of vandalism. However, most pages are set in default edit protection mode, which means all users can edit them.

Furthermore, administrators cannot note all inaccuracies that might exist on each page in Wikipedia. This problem makes Wikipedia frowned upon as a legitimate source of information in several professional settings such as academia.

Even Wikipedia itself has noted that we do not expect you to trust us! Surprising, right?

b)     Wikipedia features and tools

Wikipedia is a huge platform with a vast amount of traffic. Therefore, to handle this traffic well and ensure navigation on Wikipedia is easy, they have incorporated several tools into their platform.

Some of the incredible features and tools you can utilize when using Wikipedia.org includes things like:

·        Search Bar: The first thing you will see when you visit Wikipedia.org is the search bar icon which allows you to search any topic and see several articles related to your topic of interest.

·        "Random Article" Tool: This is an adventurous tool that will allow you to search through random articles by simply clicking Random article. So, if you want to read random articles, you should try using this tool

·        Community portal: This is another very important feature that helps with the contribution to the Wikipedia community. In this portal, you can get help to solve any Wikipedia-related disputes or ask research questions. Furthermore, in the community portal, you can meet new and experienced editors and find FAQs regarding editing or creating Wikipedia pages.

·        "Content" feature: This feature is instrumental if you are looking for a "bird's eye" instead of searching for the topic via a search box. By clicking on "content," you can see all classifications of the main subjects. In addition, you can access other special collections, such as:

ü Curated article collections

ü Reference collections

ü Collections of articles

ü Third-party classification systems

ü Special format collections

·        Languages: This feature is specially designed such that you can change your default language settings to any language you want.

·        Related changes Tool: If you want to check live updates of all pages that are being edited, then this tool can help you with that. All you need is to click on it, and you're all set. Apart from related changes, there are also Recent changes and Current event options as well.

·        Contact us: Well, do you want to reach out to Wikipedia administrators for help regarding anything related to Wikipedia? If so, utilize the contact us option to communicate with Wikipedia conveniently.

The image below shows several key features and tools you can use to explore Wikipedia.