I am neither a defender or detractor of Wikipedia, and make a few small contributions. While a useful jumping-off point for better citations, there is some utter utter dross there. Let’s see who can find the worst article; or at least the worst paragraph.
My nomination is this entry on the Branch Davidians, which contains these gems:
Was Houteff just a random Bulgarian immigrant? Was he part of the Seventh-Day Adventists? Who were the leadership? Where were they based? And finally, how did Jesus suddenly get called “Branch”? By whom? Deed poll?
Branch Christ, what a terrible article. But at least it has some substance. I’m sure we can find worse. I’m thinking obscure board wars, computer games, or Leet bitchery…
Me too. I sometimes spend ages seeking out Wiki articles on arcane internet trivia and jargon that I have never heard of before. Some of the obsessive scolarship is quite unsettling.
Not sure if the article on grunge is the worst, but it irks me no end.
This is written from a completely Seattle perspective. It reads as if grunge music arose from the Pacific Northwest of the USA. The term ‘grunge’ actually originated in Sydney, Australia in 1984. I know the bloke who came up with the term. I used to watch grunge bands like Scientists, Box of Fish, feedtime, Cosmic Psycos, Lubricated Goat, King Snake Roost and Southern Fried Kidneys before Mudhoney and Nirvana had even formed. These were all grunge bands. We refered to the as grunge.
Then it all came back, nicely marketed from the USA 10 years later - this new thing called grunge.
Aaarggh. I wish I was motivated or skilled enough to modify the wiki article to prevent this historical revisionism. Damn it, one of these days I might just start my own SD thread - ahh bugger it.
The product is now also sold in 250gm plastic bags. But the real bombshell from this site is:
I wonder what the hawks in Washington are going to make of that. Maybe they are sitting down right now discussing the ‘mayonnaise gap’. It’s a serious problem. I envision raids over Moscow targetting all the major mayonnaise factories with smart bombs, followed by instructions to US mayonnaise manufacturers to make their product more aggressive.
