Credible Sites?

For my class, we were instructed to go to several different sites on the web and evaluate them for credibility.

Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
One of the first tip-offs that this site is not credible is the lack of author information.  The site lists no names for the authors and only lists an obscure organization.  Also, the host of the site is not an educational site.  This site was created in 1998 and hasn't been updated since 2005. 

The site is very deceiving because there are several links within the site that will take the user to find more information, and it is very user-friendly.  However, many of these links will take the user to sites within the same host which decreases it's credibility.

If the reader did not already know, upon research of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, we find out that this site was a hoax created to test Internet literacy. It was a very successful hoax, because the majority of the students in the experiment believed the content on the site.



Martin Luther King Jr. - A True Historical Examination

This site was much easier to deem not-credible than the first.  The site had rap-lyrics on it's front page, which does not lend to credibility.  Also, when clicking around the site for further information about the authors, it can be found that the site is hosted by a white-pride group.  The site references articles in newspapers, but doesn't give any links or show the actual newspaper article. There is nothing on this site to give any indication that it would be a credible source of information.


All About Explorers

Again, this site appeared credible at first.  However, upon closer examination it can be quickly ascertained that this site is another hoax.  First, the content of the site is clearly not historically accurate.  The site claims that Christopher Columbus used telephones and that Magellan named the Pacific Ocean after his daughter and was shot by an AK-47. 

When looking at the link for the authors of the site, it can be found that the entire site was created by teachers to teach internet literacy.

Dihydrogen Monoxide Research DivisionThe first major tip-off that this site is not credible is that Dihydrogen Monoxide is a fancy way of saying "water."  Also, the site is hosted by a blogging site, not an actual educational site. While it does provide links to accredited conservation sites, the linked sites are water conservation sites, which do not support the "claims" made by the site. 

Overall, this was a very engaging assignment.  I had a good time looking though these funny sites and assessing their credibility.