Template:Wikipedia: Difference between revisions

'''Wikipedia – ''The Free Encyclopedia''''' — is "the free wiki [[:Category:Encyclopedia|encyclopedia]] that [[:Category:OpenEdit|anyone can edit]]".

The brainchild of [[Jimmy Wales]], among others, and the original project of the subsequent [[:Category:Wikimedia Foundation|Wikimedia Foundation]] (WMF), [[:Category:Wikipedia|Wikipedia's]] stated objective is to have an officially '[[wp:Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|neutral point of view]]' ([[:Category:NPOV|NPOV]]).  Sadly, it is often [[wp:Wikipedia:Conflict of interest|accused]] by people on one side of an issue of being biased toward the other side, and vice-versa.  This is true across the political spectrum, as well as for many other issues and [[:Category:Wiki Topic|subjects]].  Wikipedia is the biggest fish in the global [[:Category:Wiki|wiki]] pond, and receives far more traffic, ''and'' [[:Category:Wiki Edit Mode|editing]] activity, than any other [[WhatIsWiki|wiki]].  However, despite Wikipedias' claim to being an 'encyclopedia', many [[:Category:Education|academic]] institutes and other [[:Category:Professions|professional]] organisations recommend that Wikipedia is <u>not</u> used as a primary source of information, due to the fact that many articles are frequently incorrect, can be adversely biased, and many articles have a seemingly extremely low threshold of '[[wp:Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources|reliable source]]' references and [[wp:Wikipedia:Citing sources|citations]].  Indeed, many Wikipedia articles fail their own [[wp:Wikipedia:Verifiability|verifiability]] criteria, and can remain for many years without any citations, despite highly visible warning banners highlighting the lack of said citations (and threatening to delete said unreferenced articles); this even includes biographical articles for [[wp:Category:Living people|living people]].  Also, the [[English Wikipedia]] allows articles to be 'promoted' to a [[wp:Wikipedia:Good articles|good article]] (GA) status – despite failing their own [[wp:Wikipedia:Good article criteria|criteria]] on having adequate reliable source citations, editorial conjecture, and even [[wp:Wikipedia:No original research|original research]]. [http://eng.Anarchopedia.org/Criticism_of_Wikipedia]