Re: Is there a genealogy Wiki anywhere?

On Wed, 7 May 2008 19:42:59 +0100, "Don Moody" <dpmoody@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:

>
>"Steve Hayes" <hayesmstw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
>news:frr324tbt1cg6fs64c9tflbvlhmu2sptq7@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Is there a Wiki for genealogy anywhere?

>I hope you never hear of such a thing, if by a Wiki you mean the 
>original model where anybody can submit anything and muck about with 
>the submissions of others but there is no expert refereeing and no 
>rejection of opinionated nonsense.
>
>If you want an on-line encyclopaedia of real worth, it has got to be 
>written by experts, refereed by experts, edited by experts, and 
>maintained in an ongoing way by experts. Those experts, being human 
>beings, will need money to live on. A hell of a lot of money for a 
>hell of a lot of expertise.

Actually as a source of general information, Wikipedia is very good.

Of course in any serious research one would need to verify information
found
there, but for many purposes it provides enough information to get by
with.

A few years ago I read about some clown who was charged with fraud, and
convicted, for entering false information in Wikipedia. Apparently some
firm
had used the false information he had entered and suffered a financial
loss as
a result. They d him down and sued him, and it became a criminal charge.
His
defence was that it was a harmless prank, and that nobody takes
information
found on the Internet seriously anyway. The court did not accept that it
was
harmless, since the firm had provided evidence of harm suffered, and he
was
convicted. I forget the details, and whether he was fined or imprisoned. 



>
>Where is that money going to come from?  And if your answer is Pay Per 
>View, then who is going to provide the many millions of capital to set 
>the thing up before the first viewer pays?
>
>Don 
>

-- 
Steve Hayes
E-mail: hayesmstw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (see web page if it doesn't work)
Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/famhist1.htm
     http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7783/