Wikipedia Reliability Criticism

Discussions center on the unreliability, biases, and limitations of Wikipedia as a source, emphasizing its editable nature, political slants, and the need to consult original sources or edit histories.

➡️ Stable 0.5x Politics & Society
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5
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#4319
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Keywords

NY corrections.html HN AKM nytimes.com WikiPedia i.e ADHD E.g AK wikipedia sources source wikipedia article page reliable biased reputable edited information

Sample Comments

almosthere Dec 24, 2025 View on HN

A wikipedia article has to attribute a source, and their sources are biased af.

effingwewt Oct 2, 2021 View on HN

More useful is a bullshit metric.You seemed to take all of this as an attack against you personally, I assure you it was not, please calm down.No one said there was a better source, only that Wikipedia is far from perfect.No specifics need be given Wikipedia when its a truism that Wikipedia can be edited by anyone.Nevertheless here[1] is a page from Wikipedia about the reliability of Wikipedia.And since you are asking for specifics as if none exist, here[2] is an HN thread

DanBC Sep 30, 2015 View on HN

Even wikipedia tells people not to use wikipedia as a source. It's a reasonable point.

hagbard_c Apr 26, 2025 View on HN

No, Wikipedia is no better than any other site which allows user edits and in many ways reliably biased towards certain narratives - which narrative depends on the subject of the Wikipedia article. Wikipedia articles should always be read in conjunction with the Talk and Edit history pages and even then it is necessary to find original sources for any claims made in Wikipedia articles.

themitigating Jul 28, 2022 View on HN

Why are the sources that people cite in Wikipedia not vulnerable to the same issues?

moorhosj Mar 22, 2019 View on HN

==1) Wikipedia is not a reliable source of information, try again.==I used the person's own source to display the cherry-picked nature of their data, try again.

pms Aug 2, 2014 View on HN

Could you provide any arguments, instead of just bashing Wikipedia?

wolverine876 May 30, 2023 View on HN

You're citing Wikipedia as a source on this issue?

arjie Feb 14, 2017 View on HN

Wikipedia is an aggregator not a source. It's like HN, a useful place to find links to where reputable people have said things.

Intox May 15, 2023 View on HN

Wikipedia has an article about the reliability of wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia