Be careful what you read in Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia. The encyclopedia’s content comes from registered and unregistered users, and can be added/changed/deleted at any time. It’s like a community journal based on an honour system. With such easy access to Wikipedia things can go wrong, as reported in Milwaukee’s Journal Sentinel Online.

Two ferries, the S.S. Badger and the Lake Express, compete for business on Lake Michigan. According to the article, the S.S. Badger has been in operation 50+ years while the Lake Express is the new kid on the block. Wikipedia articles and websites posted about these ferries have become part of the turf wars. The web content has turned nasty, with posted articles being altered and/or deleted then later restored, only to be undermined again. Tracking the culprit(s) is not easy.

This type of activity does not help the tourist. My recommendation is to rely not just on Wikipedia when learning about a new destination, service or product, but to seek out other sources of information as well.

Do you have Wikipedia horror stories to share?

This entry was posted on Tuesday 29 August 2006 at 5:23 am and is filed under Report/Book, BEFORE the visit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.