Wikipedia. Fact or Rubbish?

I think this is my favourite tutorial blogging task, so far. We have been asked to go onto Wikipedia and find two articles/entries that we are "experts" on and judge whether or not the articles are reliable or if in fact they are complete rubbish. We have to write a blog on these articles and to consider the following things in our lovely blog.

* Is this an accurate article?
* Does it cover all the basic facts that you'd need to understand this topic?

* Does this article follow the Wikipedia guidelines for useful articles?

* Is this article fair and balanced, or is it biased towards a particular side or argument?

* What changes would you make to this article to improve it and make it useful for the wider Wikipedia community?

The first article I reviewed on Wikipedia was an article about Robert Smith, the lead singer and instrumentalist of The Cure. I only found a few minor things that I believe are incorrect and would be misleading to somebody wanting to know more about the formation of The Cure and Robert Smith' s role in this. Other than these few mistakes I found the article pretty accurate and rather interesting. I also noticed that it does cover all basic facts in helping somebody understand Robert Smith.

Oh my gosh! The incorrect 'facts' and the things I would change to make this article on Robert James Smith superb!

The Wikipedia article on Robert Smith states that The Cure founded in 1976. Wrong! The Easy Cure formed in 1976, they did not drop 'Easy' from their name until 1978. So to all you Wikipedia and Robert Smith fans, The Cure did not technically form until 1978 when they also became a trio by dropping Porl Thompson. The Cure originally started as a trio, which Wikipedia editors failed to mention as well, it wasn't until 1984 that Porl Thompson rejoined the band. I thought that it would've helped adding in the following information to the article on Robert Smith to somewhat understand Smith's changing styles of music and an insight to his personality and attitude with his fellow band members.

Thompson was a Cure from June 1977 to May 1978 and from April 1984 to December 1992. Thompson originally played guitar for The Cure however he was dropped from the band as his style was at odds with Robert Smith's growing preference for minimalist songwriting. Porl rejoined The Cure in 1983 on saxophone and occasionally played keyboard.

The article on Wikipedia about Robert Smith is fair and unbiased. When the person who created this article spoke of Smith's style concerning music and fashion, they did not put him down they created interest and also backed Smith up by adding a quote from Smith in an interview he did for The Holy Hour, to add credibility to the fact that Smith's public persona of a 'depressed' image does not reflect in his songs. "At the time we wrote Disintegration...it's just about what I was doing really, how I felt. But I'm not like that all the time. That's the difficulty of writing songs that are a bit depressing. People think you're like that all the time, but I don't think that. I just usually write when I'm depressed." http://imaginaryboys.altervista.org/english/cure/articles/tib_holyhour.htm.

Robert Smith is extremely talented among many other things. I believe this article about him on Wikipedia demonstrates this well. I now think it is love.

If I could come back as one person in my second life, it would be Harry Potter!

OK, the second article I searched on Wikipedia was Harry Potter because I am pretty sure that reading the series 3 times and watching the DVDs about 4 times over, would make anybody an expert. I am beginning to think Wikipedia is reliable because this article on Harry Potter, or as some people like to call him 'Harry Pothead', is credible. I also learnt some things I didn't know myself. I thought I knew everything when it comes to Harry Potter.

This article is accurate, fair and unbiased, the only thing that I would change about the article is add way more photos, because who doesn't like looking at pictures?