Wikipedia

How do Wikipedia’s processes for creating and modifying articles ever lead to high-quality results?

The key to Wikipedia’s success for creating and modifying articles lies in its open architecture; that is, any internet user can modify articles. This also leads to the incredible diversity of articles that are contained on the website. Any user could start an article on any topic that was of interest to them. These articles started as “stubs” that could be expanded upon by any user- particularly those who were subject matter experts in that area who had a vested interest that the information was correct. These experts ranged from academics and professionals, to average people with various interests and hobbies. For this reason, you can find Wikipedia articles on subject traditionally found in an encyclopedia like religion and science, to more pedestrian subjects like movies, television shows, comic books, etc. As the mass of content grew bigger it attracted more users. More users brought with them more scrutiny for the articles and therefore more editing and accuracy. I for one was skeptical when I first learned of Wikipedia, but over time have come to trust it as a valuable source of information. Most articles are heavily footnoted with credible references as well as links to more “official” websites, all of which aid in verification. Another feature that leads to high quality results is the linking of articles to other related ones on Wikipedia. Personally, I have been sucked into the webpage for long periods of time moving from one link to another, particularly when looking at the many “lists” that Wikipedia can generate and link to- and this goes for almost any topic.