Tuesday, August 5, 2008

I love Wikipedia.

I'm sure my usual critics will label this post as useless, or stupid, much like my posts about Kevin Costner and Canadian Murderers... but I don't care. I feel a need to profess my love for the greatest website, and information tool known to man: Wikipedia.

To begin, it marvels me that such a resource of endless information even exists. I find it entirely remarkable that people have come together on the net for something other than arguing about Kevin Smith movies and playing World of Warcraft, to not only create such a site, but maintain it with such fanatic consistency.

Today, I had a thought that I wanted to remember where I knew the actor Christopher Eccleston from. I'm rewatching the first season of Heroes on DVD, before the release of the second season of Heroes, and as you may recall he plays the part of Peter Petrelli's "mentor"... the Invisible Man. Imagine my surprise when Wikipedia was quick to inform me that DUH he played the Ninth Doctor, on one of my favorite shows, Doctor Who. With his costume and character on Heroes, I didn't recognize him at all. So that was cool, it answered my question. What came next was a little less expected. I've been a fan of the modern incarnation of Doctor Who, of which the 4th season just ended on Friday night on the Sci-Fi channel, but I was either not alive or not exposed to British television when the show was on in the 80s.

So, with the help of Wikipedia, I was able to read all about Doctor Who, filling in information gaps that have plagued me for the last few years. There were DOZENS of pages full of information about The Doctor and all this companions. For the sci-fi nerd inside of me, it was incredibly fulfilling. I can now call myself something of an information afficionado for Doctor Who.

Then, I saw a blurb about Joss Stone getting cast to portray Anne of Cleaves, on the Showtime hit show, The Tudors. I am also a fan of this show, and in my curiosity I decided I would once again peruse Wikipedia, this time for information about Henry the 8th, and his wives. Again, pages upon pages of information came across my screen, filling me in on all sorts of stuff I didn't know before.

I guess it's kinda dorky if you want to look at it that way, but there's just something really awesome about a database that HUGE, that has that much information in it. I mean, I only looked up information about TWO topics and I was seriously hooked. Was Wikipedia around when I was in High School? That would have been awesome!

DevonLohan.com should have it's own Wikipedia...

So, what are your thoughts on Wikipedia? Sound off in the comments and let me know if there's anything I should look up!

3 comments:

  1. I like wikipedia, but the only thing that is annoying is when people post fake crap, then millions of idiots believe it, and huge rumors start. Such a waste of time.

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