Comments on: Israeli Election Results Imperil Peace Process

By: Lillie

Lillie — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 02:34:02 +0000

dude who fuckin cares if some of wikipedia was used. the majority of what was written was true so stop being a pain in the ass.

your article was really well put and i learned a lot from it. i’m seriously impressed.

By: Wikipedia Delenda Est!

Wikipedia Delenda Est! — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 20:22:38 +0000

“You fail to point out the factual incorrectness, the”failed” research, and the points of this blog which are not convincing, while admitting that your criticism is based solely on your own personal bias.”

Did you even *read* my previous comment? I addressed the first part, and as for the second, simply because I didn’t go on at length about the flaws of Wikipedia doesn’t make it a matter of nothing but “bias”. If one of your complaints is that this is a major tangent to Vanderhorst’s article, my going in depth would only hijack the comments even more. I’ll do it, though, if you are genuinely interested and will actually listen instead of continuing to insult me and misrepresent what I say.

Why is this such a touchy subject for you if it’s indeed “inconsequential”?

By: Joni whelano

Joni whelano — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:01:19 +0000

Exactly my point, and woe to the student who suffers at your bias and snobbery.
You fail to point out the factual incorrectness, the”failed” research, and the points of this blog which are not convincing, while admitting that your criticism is based solely on your own personal bias. I bet if you checked your evaluations of your own students’ work, you would find the same omissions in your critiques and comments. Teacher heal thyself. Get to the heart of the matter and stop being a pussy about inconsequential things.

By: Wikipedia Delenda Est!

Wikipedia Delenda Est! — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 04:05:33 +0000

As a TA, I see students using Wikipedia all too much in their work, so I take whatever opportunity I can to discourage any serious use of it. Having been involved in several Wikipedia pages myself, my criticism isn’t simple snobbery, it comes out of having seen how the sausage is made — and on anything even remotely controversial, it ain’t pretty.

Do you really think that an opinion piece has no obligation to ensure factual correctness? Or that perception of credibility doesn’t matter if something is “opinion” instead of “research”? If you want your writing to be convincing, you need to reassure readers that you do indeed have your facts straight and that they come from good, reliable sources. Sure, it may not matter much for a blog entry, but why foster bad habits, especially if you would like to write professionally? The last thing we need is more careless journalists.

As for not arguing against Vanderhorst’s points, I don’t because that’s not the purpose of my comment! Nowhere did I say that using Wikipedia makes her stance incorrect, just that it’s very unwise to use it, independent of the particular topic. Any aggravated tone is due purely to this being my pet peeve.

By: Joni whelano

Joni whelano — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 01:12:47 +0000

Hey, I disagree with the above comment. This isn’t a research paper it’s an opinion piece. If it was used, cite it, that’s the point of showing your source.The source snobbery you recommend promotes dishonest writing. There’s nothing wrong with using Wikipedia in this type of article if you are familiar enough with the topic to discern the veracity of it. I notice you fail to point out any particular fact that you disagree with which leads me to believe you you have no knowledge of the topic yourself. If you can’t comment on the content, facts, opinion, then go blow yourself asswipe. Yes, that’s used as an example of what people do when they can’t argue intelligently.

By: Wikipedia Delenda Est!

Wikipedia Delenda Est! — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:32:28 +0000

Hey, don’t you know better than to use Wikipedia as a source? Even if the info you got from it was correct and legitimate, using it brings an article’s credibility into question, especially on a controversial subject like this one. What do they teach you folks at the Nexus?