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> I trust it a lot more than its critics, especially if they say nonsense like "If everyone in the news media is against you or ignores you ..." -- when that happens, the rational conclusion is that you're in the wrong.

While i generally agree, and most of the critics of Wikipedia seem to be mad that Wikipedia doesn't take their pet conspiracy theory seriously, which, well, good.

However, i still think systemic bias is something to be seriously considered. Wikipedia is a tertiary source that aims to summarize reputable knowledge ("verifiability not truth"). As such there is a significant risk of systemic biases being reflected in Wikipedia.

But i think that's ok. Wikipedia can't be all things. It is not scientists/ acedemics. It is not in the business of creating new knowledge, just summarizing it. Its someone elses job to create it



> However, i still think systemic bias is something to be seriously considered.

I've seriously considered it. It helps to have been an active editor who understands how the place works and has seen the push and pull that prevents such systemic biases ... of course, there is a systemic "bias" toward veridical claims, which is as it should be. That doesn't mean that everything there is true, but there is an active process that tends to eliminate what isn't--sort of like science. But at WP there are numerous adversarial ideological cadres who have to at least play-act at good faith in order to achieve consensus, which results in a lot truth being stated in quite muted qualified ways. It's not perfect but it's hard to come up with a way to do better.




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