Why do people question the validity of the information on Wikipedia?

I like Wikipedia as much as I like Google. Wikipedia is such a place where the founders wants to give an accurate and the bitter truth of each and every fact that one could possibly get. Provided there is enough concrete source to validate the content. Anyone can edit, however there are rules and regulations to make the things just and right. Many people make mistake while trying to present good content and it can be corrected any time sooner or later by the one who have spoted the errors. There are also some protected content to avoid vandalism which shows that Wikipedia care. They have a community strongly commited to the cause of all that Wikipedia stands for. I trust them. But hey, human errors do happen so it is also your responsility to make sure the source are not dead linked and make the best use of Wikipedia.

Thanks.

There is no f-ing wrong with people who said wikipedia can be edited by anybody. What they said are true. Once i read a wikipedia article about Bollywood actor Danny Denzongpa. It mentioned his religion as Hinduism. Now, this is totally false as the actor is a Buddhist. Now that article has been corrected. There is also half truths and wrong information in wikipedia articles. If you know well about an actor and then you read about him in wikipedia, it would be easy for you to spot mistakes. Else, you may get carried away with wrong information.

I myself use Wikipedia, but having tried to make edits to it - I typically and quickly find those edits removed,

Wiki is a lesson to us all - it's A resource rather than THE resource, and like any resource, is subject to bias and influence in ways we aren't aware of.

So when you say people don't question the validity.

People do.

Google's biased too. You do understand this, right?

And the rankings are its preferences for what IT may use as a reliable resource.

There are other search engines out there. Bing's a great example of one. There's also excite (which I wish they'd place more effort into), ask (which sucks), yahoo (highly biased as well) - and more.

Create your own search engine if you're not happy with google's rankings. They aren't incredibly hard to make for yourself and you can get away from the biases and censorship which happens with these engines.

Because they do not understand how Wikipedia works and imagine that because anyone can edit an article that those edits are accepted without question. If Wikipedia was not reliable it would not have survived for more than a decade and be one of the most used and valued sites on the Internet.

Because anyone can indeed edit Wikipedia. Usually the information is reliable but there are exceptions, every wikipedia page usually has sources at the bottom of the page, if you wish to check for credibility check the sources. Also, googling can not be called researching, you're simply searching something from the internet.

It's not allowed to be sited in most papers as anyone can change the information on Wikipedia or they could do at one point don't know if that's still going. Your search, just because it returns a Wiki page is not determined by the "correctness" of that page more so its search rankings and content being related not necessarily correct.

However I myself use Wikipedia for research purposes just not for any assignment related documents.

Anybody can edit wikipedia articles but the changes are validated by editors in wikipedia these editors are either people who have been contributing to wikipedia or wikipedias own people so wikipedia article are really the best source of knowledge

Some of the time, the information on Wikipedia can be incorrect. I once saw a Wikipedia article about jackrabbit milk, and how it's getting rarer and rarer and now there's a black market for jackrabbit milk. However, I agree that most of the time, Wikipedia is a good source.

Nothing is wrong with people. Wikipedia is simply a well organized message board that gives people a free source for links referencing information. Wikipedia itself is not an actual source of information and people who rely on it as their be-all-end-all for information are sad

Wikipedia is fine as a portal, starting for further research, or a quick reference for information. While it is true that there are filters and editing practices in place so that is is generally credible and saying "anyone can edit it to say anything" is not quite true, one should always verify anything from Wikipedia and never use it as an ending source for academic or professional applications.