# List awesome and and awful Wikipedia pages. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 29, 2014, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-awesome-and-and-awful-wikipedia-pages/696889 "2014-08-29T17:48:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-awesome-and-and-awful-wikipedia-pages/696889/1 "2014-08-29T17:48:31Z")
In which posters post link to Wikipedia pages that are perfectly wonderful and perfectly awful. No merely mediocre pages, please. The pages should either be wonderful works of scholarship that justify Jimmy Wales’ existence, or utter pieces of shit that Wales will have to account for on Judgment Day. You don’t have to name one of each, by the way; you can list terrible pages, or just wonderful pages, or both; that’s your call. Nor I am going to put any limits on how many pages you can list. And I’m CERTAINLY not gonna define awful and awesome; that’s for each poster. Okay, housekeeping’s over. I’m going to start with this overly-technical and utterly unreadable piece of shit, written by someone who does not understand the difference between “encyclopedia” and “medical textbook”: [Wound healing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wound_healing). Anybody else? ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-awesome-and-and-awful-wikipedia-pages/696889/2 "2014-08-29T18:03:37Z")
It’s been fixed, but for a long time, the only example given in the [zipper storage bag](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipper_storage_bag) article was: _“Serial killers have begun using the bags to hold mementos of past kills, because they store easier than jars.”_ ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-awesome-and-and-awful-wikipedia-pages/696889/3 "2014-08-29T18:13:17Z")
There are a number of fiction authors who limit their Wiki page content to exactly the wording of their bio that appears inside the back flap of their books, along with a list of their published titles. I can’t recall exactly which ones, but I’ve seen it more than once. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-awesome-and-and-awful-wikipedia-pages/696889/4 "2014-08-29T18:48:21Z")
The Wikipedia article for the song [“Amazing Grace”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Grace) contains one of the best sentences I have ever read on Wikipedia: “In a culture where sailors commonly used oaths and swore, Newton was admonished several times for not only using the worst words the captain had ever heard, but creating new ones to exceed the limits of verbal debauchery.” ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-awesome-and-and-awful-wikipedia-pages/696889/5 "2014-08-29T18:48:48Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > There are a number of fiction authors who limit their Wiki page content to exactly the wording of their bio that appears inside the back flap of their books, along with a list of their published titles. I can’t recall exactly which ones, but I’ve seen it more than once. You’re supposed to LIST the pages. Please don’t force me to release the pigeons. Anyway, that sounds more mediocre than awful or awesome. Also, how do the authors a prevent random fans, scholars, and/or idiots from editing the pages? ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-awesome-and-and-awful-wikipedia-pages/696889/6 "2014-08-29T19:21:47Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > The Wikipedia article for the song [“Amazing Grace”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Grace) contains one of the best sentences I have ever read on Wikipedia: “In a culture where sailors commonly used oaths and swore, Newton was admonished several times for not only using the worst words the captain had ever heard, but creating new ones to exceed the limits of verbal debauchery.” That’s awesome. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-awesome-and-and-awful-wikipedia-pages/696889/7 "2014-08-29T22:01:06Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > You’re supposed to LIST the pages. Please don’t force me to release the pigeons. Anyway, that sounds more mediocre than awful or awesome. > > Also, how do the authors a prevent random fans, scholars, and/or idiots from editing the pages? They have someone checking on their behalf at regular intervals (like, almost every day, which only takes two minutes) and deleting any additional material that any other user might have introduced into their page. I didn’t list the pages, because they were not awesome, but only to flesh out the scope of the compendium offered by this thread. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-awesome-and-and-awful-wikipedia-pages/696889/8 "2014-08-29T22:37:42Z")
How about this for paucity of information. The text of the article is four words longer and one comma shorter than the title. > **[Division No. 1, Subdivision M, Newfoundland and Labrador](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahers,_Newfoundland_and_Labrador)** > > Division No. 1, Subdivision M is an unorganized subdivision on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada in Division 1. It contains the unincorporated communities of Emerald Vale, Goulds Road, Juniper Stump, Mahers and Turks Water. At several times in the past, census enumerating officers have considered Emerald Vale, Turks Water and Juniper Stump - along with other names such as Riverside Mills - to be part of the loosely defined Makinsons/Hodgewater settlement. > .mw-parser-outp... ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-awesome-and-and-awful-wikipedia-pages/696889/9 "2014-08-29T22:48:52Z")
On a side note, Wikipedia has internal categorizations for these things. You guys could add them to those categories if you feel they are either stellar or awful. Really good articles can be [featured](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_articles) and awful ones can be labeled [too technical](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_articles_that_are_too_technical), etc. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-awesome-and-and-awful-wikipedia-pages/696889/10 "2014-08-29T22:52:49Z")
[List of lists of lists](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_of_lists) is one of my favourites.