Wikipedia

You've probably read something by me without realizing it because of Wikipedia. I wrote entries on Meiselman and Rosenblum back in my haredi-lite days, and they've hardly changed since I wrote them. I also contributed a good deal to the Rav's article as well and I was a mediator for a (unresolved) dispute on the article regarding the Medzibizh dynasty. I definitely wasn't the best editor in the world (I was young. Hey, I'm still young, still learning.), but I saw how things work behind the scenes. So -- even while I recognize how Wikipedia is constantly improving standards and adding important articles (this one didn't come til after the good rabbi's death) -- I know how arguments and politics and fighting and misunderstanding and pranking and silliness all contribute to undermining Wikipedia.

But that doesn't mean that the "Linking-to-Wikipedia-means-you-shouldn't-be-taken-seriously" meme should be taken as a meaningful point. Let's face it, anybody who does good research on the Internet reads Wikipedia. It has really good general treatments of the issues and then when it comes to the details -- where, even though it's often quite good, you can't trust it -- it has links to reliable sites and references to reliable books. So Wikipedia is just about always a good starting point and I will continue to link it.