User:TomStar81/Trust, but Verify

Wikipedia is billed as “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”, but like all things built by man wikipedia has shortfalls that limit its effective capacity as an encyclopedia. Those that wish to use wikipedia as a source for school or work related projects should adopt a position of Trust, but Verify: Trust that the material written in any given Wikipedia article is accurate, but verify the material on Wikipedia through second or third party sources before including or using it in any official capacity.

Trust,
Since its founding in 2001, Wikipedia has amassed Special:Statistics articles, and that number continues to grow as more and more people contribute to the site. As wikipedia grows it evolves, and as it evolves new standards and practices are instituted to ensure that articles meet minimum requirements. The introduction of stiffer B-class, Good Article, A-class, and Featured Article standards have compelled editors to search further for reliable sources, while the rise of review process have helped locate articles in need of assistance. Wikiprojects and task forces now exist on Wikipedia, both of which serve as hubs for editors who share similar interests and goals. AntiVandalBots of various makes operate around the clock, backing up editors who look for vandalism, and administrators with page protection capabilities can now deny vandals the ability to rewrite high profile articles.

As a result of the ever increasing standards, many articles on Wikipedia now include sources, and typically remain vandal free for longer periods of time. This has enabled students and other researchers to trust Wikipedia since material presented here is now held to higher standards, and in some cases can be verified independently through the use of second and third party sources -both online and offline- that are located within the articles on Wikipedia.

In addition, Wikipedia articles can be updated to reflect new or very recent incidents, providing information on demand for people who only recently learned of a current event. In some case Wikipedia's editors will work overtime to collect information on developing events in order to get the latest accurate information out as quickly as possible. Such rapid coverage has at times earned Wikipedia articles honorable mentions in the mainstream media, demonstrating that Wikipedia itself can be trusted under certain circumstances to provide neutral and encyclopedic information to the masses.

but Verify
Despite all the progress Wikipedia has made in demanding articles meet higher standards there are still articles that slip through the cracks. Some of these articles were created by vandals and are quickly deleted, some articles are tweaked by editors just enough so that the words take on an entirely different meaning, and some editors here float credentials that in the absence of a verification can compel articles to be rewritten incorrectly. In some cases such edits go unnoticed for embarrassingly long amounts of time, only to be seized upon by members of the media and reported to the public at large.

For this reason, it will always be necessary to verify any information presented on Wikipedia to ensure that all information presented is sourced, and all information sourced is sourced to accurate and reliable sources and agrees with the material presented on site. Failure to verify the material and sources in any given article on Wikipedia may result in an embarrassing situation in which the information presented from Wikipedia is partially or entirely false, which in turn will lead to ramifications for both those who fail to verify the sources and material and those who endeavor to ensure that Wikipedia's articles stay accurate and error free.