I always have liked Wikipedia for easy and quick fact look up and information gathering. Yes, you can’t be sure that every entry is 100% accurate and certainly not a complete source for something like drug info. I always have been a fan of the idea that the thousands of contributors to Wikipedia would find errors and continually refine the information in every entry. Now I am not so sure…
Check out the entry in Wikipedia for the actor Wayne Knight best known for playing Newman in Seinfeld. Look at the upper right hand corner where lists his spouses and says Holly Ann Wentlent is his currant wife. This is my girlfriend and no she is not married to him or has the same name as his wife because he is not married as can see in his IMDb entry. The false spouse info in the Wayne Knight entry on Wikipedia was added by a co-worker of my girlfriend as a joke two summers ago! Not sure if this reflects more on the weakness in the Wikipedia system or lack of any interest on the career of Wayne Knight.
This is just more proof can never fully trust everything you read in Wikipedia and should cross reference with another source. Now to be fair Wikipedia has corrected errors that can be found in a well known dead tree encyclopedia. Don’t trust anything…
UPDATE 3/23/09 – Checking up on Wayne Knight’s Wikipedia entry I see the that my girlfriend is no longer married to him. It’s nice to see that errors are corrected on Wikipedia but it did take almost OVER a year so the accuracy issue will not go away anytime soon.
UPDATE 6/28/09 – In my last update I noted that Wayne Knight’s Wikipedia entry was edited to remove my girlfriend’s bogus marriage to him. Doing a google search you can see how wrong information on Wikipedia even when corrected still can effect other sites who may have used the online encyclopedia for their source…
http://www.netglimse.com/celebs/pages/wayne_knight/
Filed under: Computers, Internet, Personal, Technology | Tagged: Computers, Internet, Personal, Seinfeld, Technology, Wayne Knight, Wikipedia, Wikipedia errors
It’s pretty funny you know..every once in awhile I hear “Let’s see if your still married to Newman.” I do feel pretty famous though, think this would hold up in court? Maybe I can divorce him and get a fat little divorce settlement. =)
“The false spouse info in the Wayne Knight entry on Wikipedia was added by a co-worker of my girlfriend as a joke two summers ago!”
I doubt that somehow given that I have checked his page regularly and it couldnt have been there for more than year as you imply
Sorry, I have been tied up and should have replied sooner so doubt you will see this comment but…
I doubt my girlfriend and her co-workers would have any reason to lie about when they modified Wayne Knight’s Wikipedia entry, The claim that you or anyone would be regularly checking up on Wayne Knight’s Wikipedia bio seems to be suspect to say the least.