Wikipedia

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

Wikipedia's 12 million articles (2.8 million in the English Wikipedia) have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. But does this collaboration lead to a high quality Internet reference tool? Wikipedia is a true “wiki” in that articles undergo a formal peer-review process and changes to articles are made available immediately to all readers. No article is owned by its creator or any other editor, or is vetted by any recognized authority. Except for a few vandalism-prone pages that can be edited only by established users or in extreme cases only by administrators, every article may be edited anonymously or with a user account. Wikipedia has never claimed to guarantee its validity as a “high quality” reference but its success stems from the fact articles are often self-policed by users and frequent editors who have made it their mission to make this wiki as valid internet reference as possible. I use Wikipedia on a daily basis to look things up and even with its easy open source editing model, I have never looked at the history of an article to determine its quality, validity or look to see if the article I am reading was recently vandalized. Like millions of other students, I generally use Wikipedia as an informal reference tool. I understand that it is not acceptable to use as a scholarly or primary reference in academic work but I will continue to use it as a stepping stone to learn more about anything and everything. There are lots of well written articles on Wikipedia but user anonymity means author bias and bogus information will never be eliminated.