With the presence of internet technology, we can easily obtain information without any limitations of space and time, but the problem is not all information on the internet can be justified. For that, we must be able to sort and choose which websites can be used as references and which websites cannot be used as references.
Websites that can be used as references
The easy solution to be able to distinguish which website can be used as a reference is to look at the domain. When a website has an official domain (address), the website can certainly be used as a reference. Why? because the website is clear who the owner is, so if there is an error in the posted information then the organization or institution that owns the official domain is responsible
What websites can’t be used as a reference source?
Websites that cannot be used as a reference source are:
- Wikipedia
Wikipedia cannot be used as a reference source because the website allows anyone to edit the information contained in it, so the author is not clear. You can imagine, when there is information about libraries (for example), then there are people with other knowledge backgrounds who do not understand libraries. Then he edited the information about the library. then it can be ascertained that the edits are less credible
- Blogspot.com and Wordpres.com
Why can’t Blogspot and wordpress.com be used as a reference? because the website is private. Personal websites are in principle the same as we are making statuses on social media, for example on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. the name of the status is up to the creator of the status. is it not?
So that the content of the information on the website is less credible. Then what is the solution regarding the 2 points above?
We’ll see, on Wikipedia, or in Blogspot/WordPress there is a source if it turns out that the information contained in it has a source, and the source is confirmed to be valid, then go straight to that source
Website Features That Can Be Used as a Reference Source
Then the question is, if we find a website with a .com, .net, .web, .org and other dot domains, how?
Well, several characteristics can be used as evaluation material, namely:
- There is information on the person in charge
Responsible information on the website is usually proven by the existence of a menu about us, about, contact us, contact us. With this information, it is clear the owner of the website, so that if anything goes wrong, the person who is responsible is the owner of the website.
- the information in it is objective
Are you objective? The point is objective, namely presenting information by the facts, not exaggerating, and not vilifying other groups.
- Not many ads
So when we find a website with .com, .net, .web.id, .org, and other dot domains that already meet the 3 criteria above, then the website is a trusted websites.