Wikipedia:The deadline is now
This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
This page in a nutshell: When an article contains unverifiable content or lacks vital content, it needs to be corrected now before someone reads it and is misled by it. |
Wikipedia is one of the first sources many people check when doing research. As a result, any misinformation found here could quickly spread, and should be immediately corrected before any damage is done. As a corollary, when an article lacks vital content, that content should be added as quickly as possible.
Why misinformation matters
Google any word, and there is a good chance a Wikipedia article will be the first or second search result. Moreover, many of the results lower down the rankings are likely to be sites that mirror Wikipedia. Wikipedia is unavoidable.
For this reason Wikipedia is frequently the first thing people read when, for example, they wish to find out about a political party or candidate during an election. Although it ought not be the final stop for someone seeking information of this kind, its ease of access frequently does make it the first and last source of information for many people.
Some people will tell you
Effect on the real world
Misinformation can trickle from a Wikipedia article to a published secondary source. If that source matches Wikipedia's
Wikipedia's focus on '
In 2012, the authors of the
What if the article isn't that important?
We can disagree over whether this or that article is about something important. Importance is highly subjective. But whatever your views, a great many Wikipedia articles are about something important to you. There are articles about everything under the sun, the sun itself, and everything beyond it.
If an article has been written at all, then its subject is important to somebody. If an article survives deletion proposals, or is never nominated for deletion, then it presumably satisfies Wikipedia's notability criteria, and its subject is important enough to deserve accurate treatment.
Wikipedia has a massive effect on what people think. There wouldn't be any point to Wikipedia if it didn't. When a corporation uses Wikipedia to unfairly disparage a competitor, or a government to smear an enemy, it will succeed for as long as it remains unchallenged.
See also
- Wikipedia:There is a deadline, which talks about the loss of knowledge
- m:Immediatism, the philosophy behind this essay
- Wikipedia:An unfinished house is a real problem
References
- ^ Allen, Nick (December 5, 2012). "Wikipedia, the 25–year–old student and the prank that fooled Leveson". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on April 1, 2019.