User:Some helpful person/toast

Very long boring inspirational speech

I like to write potentially inspirational things from time to time, so here is a toast to Wikipedia or something (in my highly arrogant understanding of it; it is perfectly fine if you do not agree). :]

*ahem*

Wikipedia is one of the greatest sources of general information the world ever seen. Millions of people editing an encyclopedia sounds crazy at first, and yet in 25 years it is in a way better state than one could ever imagine: not a chaotic mess of misinformation, but one of the most complete and constantly improving knowledge bases in the whole world, which billions of people knowingly or unknowingly rely on almost every single day. It seems that when millions of people with all sorts of backgrounds (and by extension biases) come together to edit each other's articles, there are always people who will care enough about one thing to counteract those who don't, and combined with the editing policies and systems in place to ensure all edits remain productive, Wikipedia conceptually thrives.

It bothers me that some people don't like Wikipedia, considering it disreputable simply because those without a professional background can change it whenever they feel it necessary. That is simply not true, and those people are party poopers. Due to Wikipedia's nature, it is bound to contain undesirable content at any given time, but as it is not a static publication anything incorrect that's added to it will almost immediately be fixed by somebody else. Thus, it does not reflect the biases of one person acting alone, but a collective of people editing and building upon each other's work to ensure it remains objective and useful.

In fact, arguing that it is unreliable because anyone can change it is perhaps one of the most widely upheld logical fallicies. In today's world it is unfortunately possible for any one person to publish a work and push it up to a high place on the Internet without the use of Wikipedia, particularly on social networks run by the wealthy. Having anyone able to edit Wikipedia at any time actually makes it the most objective and comprehensive encyclopedia, where the writing does not reflect the thoughts of one individual, but over time becomes representative of the general population, especially through the multitudes of citations and edits contributed by many rather than the arbitrary thoughts of few.

Exiting philosophical mode, Wikipedia has an article for practically everything (i.e. everything notable by the consensus of at least ten people, which is a lot). I can literally search for 18th century race horses, game console emulators, historical conflicts, sci-fi characters, comets, international events, every cake in existence, lost silent films from places I've never heard of, radioactive elements, philosophical quotes, schools in Scotland, my next magazine, and even silly meta things all on the same website. It is truly amazing in a way that I can neither comprehend nor explain. With hundreds of thousands of people editing it all at once, it provides the most encyclopedic information possible for more subjects than could possibly be named... including, you know, normal things.

And the most amazing thing about it is, the edits of millions has provided information to billions upon billions of people, no matter if they'd like to admit it, whether it be knowledge, images, data, books... the list goes on.

I hope that as time goes on, Wikipedia will not be left behind, but right there to document everything that comes next. I hope people will escape this mindset of "smart people write, dumb people learn," and that Wikipedia will age gracefully and come to be accepted by jerks. There is truly no greater source of information in the world than one that anyone can edit.

Shoutout to non-profits like this one and the Internet Archive for using the Internet the right way.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Happy birthday Wikipedia. I hope you appreciate this really long birthday card. Let us toast to many more notable anniversaries!

Some helpful person (talk) 05:13, 16 January 2026 (UTC)