Wikipedia:Why Wikipedia is reliable
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{{nutshell|You can rely on Wikipedia because vandals and hoaxers will be warded off from Wikipedia until only hardworking, dedicated editors are left.}}
It's really quite simple. Wikipedia is a biased implementation of the infinite monkey theorem. Given enough time, we will write everything that can (or has) been written. The bias is that each monkey is given a cattle prod and encouraged to use it on their fellows. Over time, several behaviors are noticed:
- Overly sensitive monkeys depart, although not always before a mild psychotic break.
- Erratic monkeys swiftly wise up, often after a period of intense zapping.
- Monkeys who remain and age here gather around a set of behaviors that include mutual grooming, (extremely careful) dominance/hierarchy posturing, mutual grooming, and mutual grooming.
- Thus, only the most fastidious monkeys are found in quantity, obsessively checking, rechecking, fact checking, proofreading, and copyediting the work as a whole. Vandals and grasshoppers are repeatedly zapped until even the hardiest depart, and All Is Well.
That is why you can trust Wikipedia content. Absolutely. Most of the time.