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Wikipedia

From Mathematics Is A Science
Revision as of 20:10, 17 March 2011 by imported>WikiSysop
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The mathematics part of Wikipedia is an encyclopedia in the narrow sense of the word. It's very useful in general, but not as good as a place to learn math. The problem are:

  • the presentation is very dry,
  • the content is often very sketchy,
  • there are no proofs,
  • "trivial" details, "elementary" examples, "easy" exercises are missing.

Long term, Wikipedia is just too small! What will surpass Wikipedia as a source of information is the internet itself. And since Wikipedia discourages outside links, it won't be an integral part of this depository. And who needs a middleman anyway?

My personal problem with Wikipedia is its anonymity. You can't, and sometimes don't want to, take credit for what you write because:

  • you are anonymous yourself;
  • anonymous morons will edit or simply delete your contributions;
  • anonymous bureaucrats will make final decisions.

For alternatives, see Math online.