Wikipedia

I found it very interesting when the book talked about the certain (and rarely) topics that they actually ban from being created. I'm still not sure how I feel about Wikipedia's censoring of "Criticisms of Barack Obama" because the site is a user-generated site and I don't necessarily think it is a bad topic. The book brings up that there are criticisms of past rulers (Nero, Augustus, etc.) or even of George W. Bush, so I don't see why Barack Obama should be any different. Honestly, I understand that there is a high possibility of false or over-exaggerated information being put on the page, but that is why the site is user-generated and not claiming for the information to be 100% concrete facts. If a person wants to run for office and put themselves out into the nation/world as a leader, they should expect to be criticized. Not only does criticism come with the territory, but potentially if Obama wanted to, he could use the page as a way to see what people are complaining about (although he would take most of it with a grain of salt). I also was intrigued to learn about how people who regularly edit pages are regulated...I have never personally added anything to Wikipedia, but now I would like to try and get involved with something (probably music/bands).
Later, in Chapter 4 of the book when Dalby is talking about why/why not to use Wikipedia, he quotes Paul Boutin discussing the negative aspect of Wikipedia stating: "Even if a reference tool is 98 percent right, it's not useful if you don't know which 2 percent is wrong" (90). I agree with this statement 50% of the time...I believe that if you are looking on Wikipedia for serious/education related information then it is a horrible source. Nobody should be trying to learn or quote from Wikipedia about topics such as World War II, biographies of famous world leaders, etc. At the same time if somebody wants to look up less serious topics such as rules of sports games, or members in a band, etc. then I feel that Wikipedia can be an extremely convenient and useful tool.