lammert - 8:20 am on Aug 17, 2005 (gmt 0)

The bad thing of Wikipedia is that anyone can edit it. :(
The good thing of Wikipedia is that anyone can edit it. :)

On every field there are experts in the world, but many don't maintain a website themselves, yet they have loads of valuable information. What I often see is that someone starts an article on Wikipedia with basic information which is not always 100% correct. Within a few weeks a real expert has found the page by accident, sees the incorrect information and edits it until there is a really good article from an authorative source. Those expert editors would never start their own site, but editing an article on Wikipedia is easy, doesn't cost any money, and no technical website knowledge is needed.

The fact that you don't have to sign up may attract spammers, but in my niches, the number of experts that contribute because it is so easy is far higher than the number of spammers. And in general the editors do a good job to remove spam quickly.