13 reviews for Wikipedia are not recommended
These reviews are not recommended because our content quality algorithms have determined them to be less useful for users researching this business. Our content quality algorithm makes decisions based on a number of proprietary evaluation factors, and is constantly updating and improving over time. Even though these reviews are not displayed by default, they still factor into the overall number of reviews and the average rating for the business.
Texas
1 review
4 helpful votes

Shameless
July 6, 2021

The media, social media, government and now Wikipedia are truly shameless in their attempt to control the minds thus actions of Americans. If people don't wise up to these tactics and think logically for themselves, FREE of the influence of their television, our right to do such things as write a review like this will be taken from us before we know it. How on earth a human being has no regard for their personal freedom is mind blowing. How someone could possibly believe that a government they have never met and do not personally know has their best interests at heart AND that the government should be allowed to enact laws that dictate their life is foolishness to the highest degree. The idea that one person should be able to silence another because they don't like what's being said in the antithesis of freedom? This cancerous belief that more laws will banish hatred, racism, and usher in peace is. The laws will work to bring silence as they are intended, and that silence will be of ALL people. It will be of EVERYONES freedom and EVERYONES right to free speech. The arrogance of Americans that support this ideology to aggressively "silence the haters" or anyone with "potentially harmful information" (ie: anyone that disagrees with them) has blinded them to the fact that they are willingly being controlled by a movement/ideology of lies. They can't see that the goal is to ultimately control them JUST AS MUCH as those the ideology has fueled them to hate, silence and seek to punish. In the name of peace, love, and justice... right?
We should all stand and fight for the freedoms of one another. Stop being so thin skinned because someone doesn't like what you do, how you live, dress, or think. Racism, hatred, and lies are unfortunate evils that have been around forever. Removing one's right to choose them does not eradicate these evils. It merely enslaves us all to the grandiose ideology that a government of mere men and woman will somehow not be ruled by selfishness or greed as they dictate to us our rights and promise to "take care of us."
I would hope that every American would first remember that men and women died to protect our right to choose to hate one another, choose to love one another, choose to do what's right or choose to do what's wrong. Do I like it when someone chooses to hate me because of the color of my skin. Or chooses to hate me because of my personal beliefs? Or for no reason at all? No. However I'm so very thankful for their freedom to CHOOSE.
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." -John Acton
The crucial choice for all Americans is to choose to support freedom for All and to protect All freedom of speech. Otherwise we will ALL soon find ourselves without it and by the time that happens it will be to late. Under the guise of peace and love someone absolutely corrupt will have all the power to enforce what they Choose upon us.

Date of experience: July 6, 2021
GB
3 reviews
14 helpful votes

A load of...
March 20, 2020

2020 update: Wiki says it has reliable info on corono. Lol. Right...

(I won't be donating to Wiki. This is why.) Self important obnoxious knowitalls who write incomprehensible c ap that probably didn't answer the question you had

I don't have the Wiki site on my bookmarks. One of the main purposes of wiki is as such: People want their names to appear in the credits on your screen.

-update 2019 - quite frankly, horsec*ap.

When I browse wiki, I see many articles where "trusted posters" have obviously spouted off their own bias. Try giving a fact of the item if you (... gasp) don't live, breathe, eat and w nk wiki?

If Wiki does disappear? The most notable thing I won't be able to look up, is how many episodes of there are.

Wiki is technically "the online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone"
Wiki is actually "the online reference that can only be edited by people who have already edited 1,000 articles, otherwise the changes will be deleted".

---
Review

Generally I'm not keen on wiki, because the info always seems to be inane details spewed over several pages, when what I actually want is "an answer". I'll google a question (other search engines may be available), and what I'm looking for is a single number, or one fact. Wiki will give me a hurl of several pages, and I often end up closing it, and googling again.

After the reference of life, I now know that giving you an answer is not "the writers" primary objective. They just want to pour as much of themselves down your throat as poss, you'll see their name in the credits, and think, wow. Yeah. Look at that/them.

As in anything, there is the "writers clique". If you are one of the lab coats in the central boiler room, then by dammit, anyone who questions you must be an imbecile. (if you are a first time user and attempt an edit, and you do not follow precise protocol, you Will be shot. What do you mean you are not familiar with wiki procedure? Any wiki regular will tell you that no human exists who does not know exactly how wiki works)

If you are one of the bunsen burner protectors, then if you see anything original that hasn't just been copied from somewhere else, you have to run to the lab coat, and say yes sir hello sir, INTERNETS VANDALISMS sir".

The bunsen burner protector will then notch up on the wiki bed post, and the lab coat will get another coating of keyboard dioxide and be a step close to the much covetted title of "wa*kiest wiki". *=c of course.

The base around which wiki revolves is not fact (or truth), but ctrl-c, and look at my edit. LOOK AT IT.

It's telling, that if you look up a scientific formula, there might be half a page on it. Look up a "reality TV" show, and you'll be scrolling. Wiki does seem to be great on giving you reams of unintelligible s**te on certain subjects. But. There are many people who want you to read, not "s**te", but "THEIR s**te".

Example of wiki-incomprehensibility:

Type something into google. Click on the wiki definition
Type the same thing into google, click on the google result that says "definition, in normal human language terms that is understandable"

Brief example: what is marxism

Google answer:
Quick Answer. Marxism, to put it rather simply, is a type of economic system proposed by Karl Marx in which there are no classes. The government would control all resources and means of production to, in theory, ensure equality.

[this is understandable]

Wiki Answer: Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that views class relations and social conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development and takes a dialectical view of social transformation. [It originates from the works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.]

"yah. Right." [close window]

Second example: what is microphonics

Answer: when a headphone cable rubs against your top, you hear the rubbing vibrations through the earphones

Wiki answer: Microphonics or microphony describes the phenomenon wherein certain components in electronic devices transform mechanical vibrations into an undesired electrical signal. The term comes from analogy with a microphone, which is intentionally designed to convert vibrations to electrical signals.

[what in the f? Someones brain is so far up their own xrse, they are experiencing microphonics]

Date of experience: March 20, 2020
Georgia
3 reviews
8 helpful votes

Bad admin (HorsesareReal, Jason Rees, Jasper Deng, Boing! Said Zebedee, Yunshui, Crissymad)
September 24, 2018

Wikipedia is a place to get information and most of the information is accurate (remember I said most). However if you make an account or just want to edit in general then you might want to watch out.

For me I wanted to edit the Hurricane Irene article but some random dude (Jason Rees) keeps on deleting my edit. It was a relevant edit but the dude don't want to accept it. He is very stubborn. Then his friend (HorsesareReal) came along and started to join and started to argue with me too. Then I told her that I was not new to Wikipedia and that I had an old account that I haven't touched in 1 and a half years and I forgot the username. Then she accused me of Sock puppeting even though there was no actual proof that I sock puppeting. To sock puppet you have to do really bad things when you make another account. So they blocked me. A guy named (Jasper Deng) was involved too.

They were two accounts that they claim it was mine. "Flasty Jam" (ironically) and "Snazzy Fam boi" both which I had nothing to do with. I have a Wikipedia club at school and I wanted to make my new account called "Flasty Jam" but someone already took it. So I put a "2" at the end. Then when I got blocked found out who "Flasty Jam" and "Snazzy Fam boi" were. It was one of my students. I told them to retire the accounts and no longer use them; so they did. They were using the same computer because the computers were full in the library. So they made the accounts in the same computer.

So I stated there was an error in the block. They used this thing called CheckUser and I told them that there is an error but they think it's a lie because they just won't realize it because they are going off of what an inferior machine said. One admin named (Yunshui) basically cursed me out and banned my talk page just because they don't want to talk to me and claim I was being disruptive even though that was a lie.

So I decided that I should give them want they wanted and I told a lie saying I was sock puppeting even though I wasn't. They accept it but said I have to wait six months. If I wait six months then the club would be over. I tried to explain to them but they are quick to shut me up. I think that's really immature.

One more thing. I was on the Wikipedia IRC to ask a few questions. A girl named (Chrissymad) keeps on thinking that I wanted to do an unblock request for some reason. So she wanted me to shut up and banned me. In fact none of the admins whom I have talked to wanted me to leave.

As an alternative I changed the club name to Fandom Wiki club. As for wikipedia they are some arrogant, stupid, and obnoxious people whom I have dealt with. That hurts Wikipedia if they don't have good customer service. If your account gets banned then make a new account or something or just forget it.

Tip for consumers:

If you get banned, it's best to forget it or make another account if you really want to do it.

Date of experience: September 24, 2018
Pennsylvania
1 review
9 helpful votes

Sergecross73 and Ferret are destroying Wikipedia / Corrupt administration
August 28, 2018

The idea is brilliant and I love the concept of safe keeping humanity's knowledge in a single database in which we all have grown to love. There's an article for everything. Those who say Wikipedia is inaccurate are truly ignorant as the administration is inhumanely strict and prevents any drop of tainted information from seeing the light of days.

Having said that, I'm giving Wikimedia specifically the Wikipedia encyclopedia a one star rating. The administration is a beast truly totalitarian and ruled by corrupt and power hungry administrators. I'm thankful they prevent vandals. I'm thankful they have the tools to correct information. But they've grown wicked, and if you go against their preferences in editing, they band together to prevent you from further contributing.

My experience with Wikipedia goes back to 2013. I've grown quite knowledgeable on the ins-and-outs of Wikipedia, the policies, and it's guidelines. But after a long battle, the administrators prevailed in getting me banned completely. It began with one preference driven editor, then he brought out another powerful admin, the two being a famous tag team and banning people, and the rest of the administrators followed. There's about 200 administrators and all of them seem to be chums. They do not freight about the immortality of their actions as they know they will face no consequences. They are at the top of the chain. Not even the folks of the Wikimedia Foundation the office workers and data maintenance have a say. I offered large sums of money to get my account back but to no avail.

I'll let out the elephant in the room: "Sergecross73" is a wicked one. It all began when I made a BLP error in my edits. He knows that the less people contributing to Wikipedia, the more room there is to make it his own. He banned me for three days without warning.

In that time I argued with him on my talk page, and since administrators have emotions too, he obviously became angry that I went against wishes. He doesn't want commoners disobeying him after all.

When I was finally unbanned, I went on my merry way before facing a weeklong ban without warning. Basically, Editor #1 reverted Editor #2's BLP related edit because it didn't contain a source. I reverted Editor #1's reversion because Editor #2 did in fact have a source in his added information. Sergecross73 didn't like this though... HIS preference was that Editor #2 needed to have exactly TWO citations, not just one. I didn't know Sergecross73 had a specific quantity in mind but nonetheless I was blocked. I apologized and tried persuading Serge into realizing it was a mistake and that I'd gladly comply with anyone's opposing views. I always have and I always would've. Talk pages exist for a reason. Serge doesn't think mistakes mean anything though. Even though I accidentally went against his ways, in a technical perspective, he says "He disobeys my preferences. No matter the circumstance. He's gone."

The last paragraph is what lead on to over a year of constant disputes. During my week long ban I threatened to make another account and continue editing, and here's why:

===
I love editing Wikipedia. The past few years have been amazing and I've had an intense care for the encyclopedia. I constantly strived to better myself and improve my edits. I fixed and revised typos, proof read, added sources, collaborated with other editors, actively used talk pages, heard all view points and rarely got into disputes. It's become a huge hobby of mine and throughout the last year Sergecross73 became Hellbent on completely separating me from something I was passionate about. I even told him how much I loved editing but he twistedly perceived my explanation as my "vanity project" as opposed to an explanation as to why I'd never do any Wikipedia harm.

And side note, I really never have done Wikipedia harm. At all. And if I have done it harm, than it was an error and I most likely would've complied with the opposing viewpoint.
===

Disagreeing with the ban Sergecross73 placed on me I began leaving bluff messages on my talk page: "Fine I'll just edit using another account."

I then (complete bluffs :) listed a fake To Do list. "On other account: 1. Correct typos on Squirrels 2. Add citation on Beyoncé 3. Delete false information added to Physics 4. Add leah oh in NBA" etc.

Despite having no proof of my fake activity, Sergecross73 indefinitely banned me and revoked my access to my talk page. That's it. Over 10,000 edits and three years down the drain.

Side note, Sergecross73 LOVED using past warnings against me. I was a good and honest user so I never erased things from my talk page. Sergecross73 saw the rookie mistakes I made during my first year, and some of the older warnings I received (which I in fact took to heart and used the criticism to better myself) and applied them to my most recent BLP related edit (an error) to finalize the ban.

Now it was finally time to make a new account. I know sock puppetry is the number one sin of Wikipedia but we all forget the reasons they're placed: to prevent vandals and people who disrupt Wikipedia; NOT to eliminate users administrators have personal grudges against. It's also a way of tracking IP activity and pinpointing all edits to one person which is fine by me, I'd love if all my edits were pinpointed to one account, but whose fault is it that this isn't the way things can be?

Using my first sock account, I built up quite a reputation. I got a few barn stars and had hundreds of edits MOSTLY just being typo fixes and citation related. Sergecross73 somehow found out my account had similar activity to my original and blocked the account, even though there wasn't any malice there.

The cycle continued over and over again. Many accounts down the drain. "Chrissymad" who isn't an administrator joined the bandwagon and treated it as a game, creating a "sock drawer" and using petty insults against me despite my gentle nature. Quite the trash talker. The only administrators more notorious than Sergecross73, "Ferret" joined around this time. I can see why Wikipedia user Ferret has such a simple name: all of the hate pages and complaints online about Sergecross73's tyranny will trace back to him, but Googling "ferret" won't necessarily bring up the Wikipedia editor now will it?

Ferret all of the sudden began adding potential sock puppets that weren't even ME to the sock drawer and now I was being blamed for edits (by the way, most of which didn't even seem harmful) that weren't even MINE. He didn't even use IP-technology, he just saw that people were attempting to edit typos I was trying to edit, and the dude hates my guts so much (due to an argument we had) that he doesn't care who gets injured along the way, as long as there's no chance I get to engage in something I love.

I asked my friend to log on her computer and try making some typo fixes that were bugging me but she got banned too. She was enthusiastic about trying Wikipedia but her plans to edit articles that were of her interest was stunted and she didn't have a chance to be a part of the community because ferret saw that she had relations with me and thus wasn't worthy of contributing.

Over the course of my time on Wikipedia, I was thrilled to contribute photography of my own to various articles. An article about dogs that had no photos now had a beautifully taken photo of a dog that met all the relevancy of the article. And so on. Ferret took it upon myself to get every last photo I'd uploaded to Wikimedia Commons taken down on grounds that they A. Belonged to a sock, B. Were low quality (which they weren't by any means), and C. Weren't mine he backed up this claim in saying a few of them were screenshots. Which they were, I emailed photos from my phone and camera to myself, and downloading them takes awhile so I used the application "Screensaver" to quickly instill them within my files. Ferret is cruel, every photo I ever uploaded was removed and all articles that had a picture of mine were affected.

Ferret is also slanderous. He told various people that my sole intention of contributing to Wikipedia is "putting pictures of my friends on Wikipedia articles", which is outrageous. I took a picture of a mountain clear, relevant, and the only photo on the page but since my friend was standing there, smiling, in the bottom left corner, it could back up his slanderous claim. Ferret said the same for other pictures. One article was about genetics and I was attempting to show the correlation in facial features of sisters. One article was about facial scarring and I took a cool picture that went well with a paragraph. I uploaded some clear and concise sports photos too. Nonetheless Ferret began disregarding my original BLP related errors and began telling administrators "this guy uses socks to upload photos of his friends to Wikipedia". All administrators mindlessly believe each other without a second thought so what was I supposed to do?

There's a Wikipedia Discord page. For Wikipedia related discussions of course. Unfortunately Ferret is the number one staff member there. I tried asking him about my bans. I tried being civil. I apologized. I tried telling him I understood Wikipedia's guidelines. In a very blunt and rather immature fashion, he insisted he wouldn't listen to my rebuttles. I still tried to enjoy myself talking with other Wikipedians about what we love films, music, and Wikipedia. Ferret even unbiasly helped me with a few things. Then we get in an argument on Wikipedia and the guy BANS me from the Discord. Whenever I tried rejoining the Discord with other accounts, he'd ban them instantly. Since Discord isn't technically Wikipedia, he lost all professionalism and resolved to completely insulting me in front of the other Discord attendants. He told them how much he loved banning me and watching my in vein efforts. He slandered me again and told the users I was just "some annoying kid". He's well aware I'm in my mid-20's (he's seen a photo of me and the bio I kept on my original user page (including details about college life)) and yet he wants others to believe I'm some millennial attempting to "troll". Friends I made on the page said "wow I didn't know" and told Ferret how glad they were that I was gone. Keep in mind, I've been polite in front of all of these people times have been quite merry. And Ferret manipulates them just like that. I lost all access to the Discord without warning and when I tried to rejoin he's instantly ban me. Luckily ONE of my alts stuck around and I was able to monitor all of the activity. It just goes to show how immature some administrators can be. I mean the guy plays Steam games and listens to the most childish music which I personally find admirable... I don't judge but the way he resolved to calling me "some kid"... just really irks me.

Finally, when all hope was lost and I was falling into a pit of despair, completely defenseless, I relentlessly gave up and promised the administrators that I'd undergo a standard offer. A six month period of no editing. As unfair as this all is, I'd do it. Ferret promises he'd vouch for me when the six months were up and personally review my appeal, which meant a lot to me and encouraged me, even more, to take six months off and reflect.

Four days in, Ferret resets my standard offer. Apparently some guy tried fixing a typo I tried fixing with a sock. Ferret uses this opportunity to frame me, as said guy. Okay, fine, whatever maybe Ferret legitimately believed the dude was me. Okay, I'll try this once more. My hands aren't even touching the keyboard, I'm out practicing basketball, I come in, not even three days later Ferret resets my standard offer and completely changes his mind. "I won't even consider the standard offer anymore," Ferret says, "if he ends up doing it successfully, feel free to look at his appeal, but I want nothing to do with it". He then avidly discouraged anyone from sympathizing with me. Sometimes he'd pop back into my talk page with a new professionally crafted accusation and tell others to make sure not to "buy it". He'd continue and use every last morsel I've listed thus far in the review against me, and his tag team buddy Sergecross73 would turn the blind eye or even participate himself and encourage other administrators to do their best to eliminate me.

What frustrates me the most about the entirety of this situation though, is that I'd spend days using socks (yes, I know it's bad) making productive and beneficial edits and Sergecross73 and Ferret would stop what they were doing and go on a full out witch hunt, and take the time to revert every single last edit made by a suspected account, whether it was mine or not (yes innocent people were getting their edits reverted). The two administrators were literally ADDING typos and incorrect information to Wikipedia articles, knowingly and ON PURPOSE... it finally became apparent to me that they had no concern for the well being of Wikipedia... they didn't care how messed up an article was... their grudges consumed them and as long as an edit by the one who opposed them was removed, they could sleep at night.

So then other innocent Wikipedians would go in after seeing the typo and it would bug them as it had bugged me and they'd try to change it for themselves but BECAUSE it was a type of issue (within an article) that I myself was once concerned with, the tag team can't take any chances and they will revert the (beneficial) edit and BAN the innocent person. The cycle continues and literally some typos may never be fixed until the editors' demise. They actively search articles I once edited, on a daily basis, blinded by the lust of eradicating someone who went against their wishes. Using their power, they've found a twisted way of satisfying themselves. In a BDSM sort of way, they know it hurts me, and I find it cruel that they continue doing this. And I find it incredibly agitating that there's editors like this, on Wikipedia, WITH power, more concerned for their personal desires than doing good with their said power.

It's quite ironic: I was indefinitely BANNED for re-ADDING (deemed) information to an article. And now Sergecross73 and Ferret are re-adding incorrect information to articles on a DAILY BASIS.

I hate giving these two all the glory, as MANY other administrators joined in the fun. "Chrissymad", "NinjaPirateRobot", "Ohnoitsjamje", "Oshwah"... and I feel petty mentioning this next detail, it almost paints MYSELF as immature mentioning this, and I don't wanna lose any respect for saying this: but there's a REASON these administrators receive so much hate. There's a reason hate pages and entire feeds exist about these individuals. There's even PETITIONS regarding these guys... asking that they be removed, and that the tyranny may one day end.

The founder of Wikipedia had a vision in which everyone could contribute and this is not what he intended. I'm actively trying to make the site better and these guys have grudges/thirsts for power.

I'm not just another vandal who's butthurt over a little argument. But I've been fighting for months without giving up, passionate over (not revenge but) being avenged. Over avenging Wikipedia, that is. I wanna do it justice. I hope this review can at LEAST catch the attention of someone who's (been) aware of the corrupt administrative team and might be able to do something about this. Or maybe someone finds this and can nod their head and go "yeah something like this has happened to me before... I can agree with this."

This isn't a vanity project. This is an explanation as to why I don't want harm for Wikipedia and how I won't cause any harm and how I'm willing to prevent it.

Like I said earlier I've offered Wikimedia large sums of money in donations. They don't take requests so my checks weren't of interest to them or at least, my requests weren't. But I just find it strange how the developers of Wikipedia the ranks that are literally ABOVE the administrators will say they're powerless to end this stuff.

There needs to be exceptions and alternatives to the standard offer. In my case that simply won't work. And not only that but people in my position shouldn't have to endure six months away from something they've loved for no reason. Okay, Wikipedia was huge to me I'd wake up every morning, excited to log in and make it a better and more knowledgeable place. It felt good that people were reading improved articles that I edited. (NOT a vanity project, okay?) Heck, my friends and family knew me as the Wikipedia guy. I even told my English professor that I was considering joining the team in the distant future. But not now, that is.

AWK! Not to mention Oshwah revoked my access to my talk page for "hateful language" to the administrators simply because I called their editing style "preference driven" and this all happening moments after Sergecross73 left a blurb of text with not one not two but three cuss words and a remark saying he doesn't want me around followed by Ferrer voicing his intentions to continue erasing traces of me. When he deletes days worth of editing all of which were unopposed by other editors it's a horrible feeling. I've spent hours researching, and have lost a lot of sleep over the past few months trying to figure this out.

Review wise I'm going to need to give Wikipedia a one star raiding. How could I not? I'd spare it a star and maybe give it two, simply because I love Wikipedia and the vision behind it so much. But I can't bring myself to do it. Not while Sergecross73 is laughing at all the underdogs. Honestly look at his (and others alike) edit history... these days he doesn't even edit articles, he literally spends all of his time on users' talk pages enthralled by banning debates. Same goes for Ferret. It's just trying to get people banned. Sure they must've done good things to GET them the administrator position. Heck they must've created a lot of articles. And revised a lot of information. But their edits over the last year or two don't involve making Wikipedia a better place it's just edits trying to make it THEIR place.

Sergecross73 and Wikipedia user Ferret. They're destroying the platform, along with many others.

~ DJS

Date of experience: August 28, 2018
Florida
1 review
3 helpful votes

Great source of information
February 8, 2016

Tons of information on various topics.

Date of experience: February 8, 2016
California
1 review
3 helpful votes

Cool!
January 21, 2016

Awesome resource!

Date of experience: January 21, 2016
Germany
2 reviews
12 helpful votes

Best free encyclopedia
June 20, 2015

Best free encyclopedia, whenever I have a question, I turn to Wikipedia.

Date of experience: June 19, 2015
North Macedonia
11 reviews
23 helpful votes

I use it daily
June 3, 2014

I use it daily
The best website, second to none!

Date of experience: June 3, 2014
India
7 reviews
12 helpful votes

My brain :)
March 31, 2014

My brain :)

Date of experience: March 31, 2014
Texas
4 reviews
7 helpful votes

I am so glad for Wikipedia it has all my answers, any...
February 21, 2013

I am so glad for Wikipedia it has all my answers, any research I need I can just go to wikipedia.

Date of experience: February 21, 2013
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13 reviews for Wikipedia are not recommended