10.13 "Know It All"

1. The author’s main points include the purpose of the encyclopedia and an overall evaluation of Wikipedia. The births of both the encyclopedia as well as the much later birth of Wikipedia are discussed. Both the positive points and the negative points of Wikipedia are discussed. The positive include vastness of material covered, decent accuracy, quick to access, and simple wording. The negative includes inaccuracies, multiple entry changes and lacking creditability.

2.“At first, Wales handled the fistfights himself, but he was reluctant to ban anyone from the site. As the number of users increased, so did the editing wars and the incidence of vandalism. In October, 2001, Wales appointed a small cadre of administrators, called admins, to police the site for abuse. Admins can delete articles or protect them from further changes, block users from editing, and revert text more efficiently than can ordinary users. (There are now nearly a thousand admins on the site.) In 2004, Wales formalized the 3R rule—initially it had been merely a guideline—according to which any user who reverts the same text more than three times in a twenty-four-hour period is blocked from editing for a day.” This shows specifically how the website is regulated. Many people are unaware of the regulation policies of Wikipedia and automatically disregarded it as not credible. However this specific process shows that those in charge are trying to keep Wikipedia credible. This provides very clear, concise and specific supporting evidence into how the website is monitored.

3. Encyclopedia Britannica is more difficult to use because it requires more time to search and find a specific entry. Wikipedia is much more efficient. You simply type in what you would like to search and it comes up. Some people may find Britannica more reflectively appealing due to the scholarly image it gives off. Wikipedia provides more options as to what you can search, so it is less specific. Britannica however is more reliable. Both are pretty easy to use as long as you have access to them.