What are some pros and cons of using Wikipedia as a valig source?

I am doing a debate with some others. It is in school and I am in eighth grade. Many kids rely on Wikipedia as a valid source for researching. What are some pros and cons for it? Thanks so much!

The major con is that the information on Wikipedia simply may not be accurate. It is a peer reviewed website,which means that people can go and put up what what they know, think they know, or want to. Not everybody is exactly as smart as they think they are, and so you may be getting false information, when you use Wikipedia.

But a pro is that some of the people may know what they are talking about. To be honest it is almost like yahoo answers, people may answer and know what they are saying, while others may not. On top of that, Wikipedia it is free. If you are using wikipedia, i recommend doing some light reasearch on what it says.

So the main points:

Pro
- Wikipedia is now monitered for accuracy in information.

-a lot of articles do site reliable sources for the information presented.

-Has a lot of information and with relevancy too

Con
-The person who writes the article may not know everything on the topic and may get information wrong.

-not all enties can be reviewed by the time someone finds them.

mostly some of the information is wrong eg my Friend was doing research on an artist and it said he died in a weeks time hmm and also people disguise their own views of people on there and mostly they are inappropriate.. i would really read ad look into what you get and make sure your in a position to back up your comment from some were else on the tinternet

Uh:

PROS:
-Free
-Resourceful
-Usually find what you need
-Posted info by us Users

CONS:
-Info could be not accurate (Posted info by us Users)
-Teachers know this as well unless they aren't computer users
-Not using any effort to search

Hope it helps.

Well, Wikipedia allows anybody to delete or put on anything to the website they want.....So, this usually isn't a good source because any one can come on and put ANYTHING they want....I'd say there aren't really any good things about it

pro- Wikipedia is now monitered for accuracy in information.

con- not all enties can be reviewed by the time someone finds them.

pro- a lot of articles do site reliable sources for the information presented.

con- The person who writes the article may not know everything on the topic and may get information wrong.

it has a lot of information but some of it is not accurate because ANYONE can edit it. use it as a valid source as long as you know that it's not always accurate. good luck!

you can messup other peoples articles (read the invention of the telephone)

We don't use Wikipedia as a source because anybody can make an article and edit it. It's good as a jumping off point, but there are more authoritative sources on the Web out there about almost any subject.

I know some people that post false informations in Wikipedia. Some of them are still there.

So be carefull with Wikipedia. There are a lot of vandalism and false information there.

The biggest con is that the information on Wikipedia simply may not be accurate. It's a peer reviewed website, meaning people go and put up what what they know, or think they know. Not everybody is exactly as smart as they think they are, sadly, and so you may be getting false info. when you use Wikipedia.

But a Pro is that some of the people may know what they are talking about. To be honest it's almost like this, yahoo answers, people may answer and know what they are saying.... others, eh, not so much. Plus it is free. If you use it, I suggest you at least try checking behind what wikipedia says.

pro:You can find out just about anything on it

Con: Some things on wikipedia aren'talways right

the pros are that its free and that easy info the only con ive found so far is that because just normal ppl can write the articles, there can be lots of mistaakes and depending on what youre using it for, teachers can easily find out that you got the answers to stuff on wikipedia

all that information is fake u can change wat evr u want

a professor of mine from one of my classes last semester told us that she heard a story about a guy who was a professor in Europe and he went to wikipedia to create an autobiography on himself. well, his ex-wife found his info on wiki and decided to edit some of it to include what a scumbag he was and such. doesn't take a genius to figure out she resented him. either way, anybody can post up there and it won't always be correct or unbiased information. however, if it's just for fun trivia then i say wiki all the way! i love reading up on movies and TV shows there

PRO: there is easy to find info that people need
CON: anyone can edit it so it can be inaccurate

i think you could use it but not as your base, please find some other form of research to mainly use.

Wikipedia is *NOT* a valid source, so there are no pros or cons to it AS a valid source.

Some information on it is valid and some isn't, but there's no way to tell, using only Wikipedia, which is which.

At any given moment, there can be any newly-posted "information" that, while it looks good enough to have passed casual scrutiny, is totally false. Never depend on what you see on the web as the final word on anything. Not even this.

college instructors do not consider wikipedia a valid source because anyone can put anything on it.