Talk:The World Factbook

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This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.

Contents

[edit] "Fact" Book?

The only facts that this book contains are the names of the countries and where they are located. Everything is is politicized and not factual, especially in the area of history and demographics. Come on, it is put out by the CIA for crying out loud! The CIA is the most sinister branch of the government that is NOT bound by law. They more or less work on behalf of the most sinister and sneaky government in the world. Most people in th eUS don't believe the government, so why believe that even sneakier and low-down CIA "fact" book? Besides, how are they a SOURCE for all nation's business? The sources should be those nations first, but clearly each country listed on Wikipedia should have multiple sources, not just the CIA as the bible. To rely only on the CIA for this site almost makes me think it is run by the CIA!--71.235.94.254 05:33, 30 July 2007 (UTC)


You claim that "everyting is politicized and not factual". Could you please provide SPECIFIC examples of countries where the demographic or historical data in not accurate and provide the "accurate" info that you believe should be in its place.

Oh and please cite you more accurate sources. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 38.102.195.118 (talk) 13:12, August 22, 2007 (UTC)

The CIA is a perfectly acceptable source for information, as that is one of their primary goals - gathering intel. Please don't let your anti-american bias overwhelm your logic User 71.235.94.254. Travis Cleveland (talk) 12:02, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Yep, CIA is as good source as KGB, or MI6. Not biased at any direction, but always maintaining strict neutrality. This Travis guy seems quite funny for me, actually :) If anybody questions any information from US government sources, you have to be anti-american :) Perhaps Travis' bias is overwhelming his logic? Woden (talk) 15:57, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Travis Cleveland, you are an idiot. The CIA is the executive branches hit squad that masquerades as an "intelligence" agency, and the "intel" they do gather is sub-par by all accounts. I'm an american and even I know this. Do a little research so you know what the hell your talking about. INO Exodus (talk) 23:29, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

It's interesting that there is little info out there on the accuracy of the World Fact Book. It is cited in many discussions of international economic data--for example, google "EU inflation rate" and every site uses the WFB as the original source. But only on the most recent 2008 update do they even have a separate entry for "European Union". The WFB doesn't cite it's own sources---hopefully they are better than the info on Iraq's WMD's. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.187.33.115 (talk) 06:38, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

I for one, do not greatly trust the Factbook. I don't know how many deliberate politically-driven inaccuracies it contains (although I'd be surprised if there were none), but there are certainly several errors. For example, the UK administrative divisions bit (admittedly quite complicated) contains at least 4 mistakes (e.g. "Ile of Wight") and inconsistencies. And that's for the UK, one of the USA's closest allies! Imagine how accurate the pages for N.Korea or Iran are... Bazonka (talk) 16:51, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
Bazonka, I agree with ya on the WFB Factbook and reliability. While a good primer, I would not trust it as my only source for info, like I wouldn't trust any encyclopedia as my source. As for errors, there are many. For example, the Factbook has the Queen's Representative in the Cook Islands as the "UK Representative" [1]; this has not been corrected - even though I have told them of it. Besides errors, there are also some POV areas. For example, users on Albanian message boards have complained about the Kosovo entry: [2], [3] and this guy has complained about the British Indian Ocean Territory entry: [4]. In short, we should use lots of care and discretion with the Factbook as we do with the 1911EB. - Thanks, Hoshie 08:05, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Long section

The Oddities and controversies section seems rather long. Should it be shortened? RJFJR 15:13, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm working on it. Since my last edit, i've removed the Isle of Man and trimmed the Yugoslavia part a bit. - Thanks, Hoshie 00:50, 20 January 2007 (UTC)
Why not add something about the strange definitions of political systems they have? No defintions are provided and their use seems somewhat arbitrary.

[edit] 2007 edition

It should be noted that the 2007 version caved in to Gaullist fiction by deleting the French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion entries and putting their information in the "France" page. —71.215.217.161 02:45, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm going to work on this soon with a little less POV. - Thanks, Hoshie 03:11, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
Update: I have added a few words about this in the article. - Thanks, Hoshie 12:12, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Link audit

I have just done a clearing of links. Here we go:

The GPO links are good, but I don't think it's good to have a dupe set of links to previous versions isn't helpful.

To me, these links:

  • On stephansmap.org: The CIA World Factbook accessible by location and date range; covers the years 2001 -- 2006. All Factbook entries are tagged with "cia". Requires graphical browser with javascript.

The idea of integrating the Factbook into stephansmap.org was to provide a different way of reading the Factbook -- first by selecting region, then by selecting a time-frame. That's why I added the link to the wikipedia article. I still think it is an interesting presentation. (And not spam) I'll leave it to someone else to put the link back on the wikipedia page though. Stephanwehner

I took a second look at the link. You have done well with your projet. I feel this adds a new dimension to the article! It also beats reading a bunch of flat HTML pages. - Thanks, Hoshie 23:02, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

seem to be Spam. They look interesting but they don't add to the article.


As for this link:

We already have a "device friendly" that's current. Why do we need an older one?

- Thanks, Hoshie 23:49, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Good article nomination

Passed. Congratulations. :) I can't think of many ways to improve the article itself--It's really good as it is. One thing that you should consider addressing is the redlinks. It's not part of the article itself and I'm not faulting you for that, but it doesn't look good when there's a number of redlinks for organizations for which there is no article. Kari Hazzard (T | C) 15:56, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] increase in number

This week the CIA added entries for Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin. I have updated the figures in the article by two. The CIA itself hasn't noted this yet, so there is no source (outside the profiles themselves). I hope this is well.- Thanks, Hoshie 02:48, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

It's been two weeks since the addition and there is no progress on the entries and no note on the front page. For the purposes of WP:V, I have rolled backed the numbers to where they were in January; that number has a source. - Thanks, Hoshie 06:56, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
There is a note now for Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin but also a few other changes Iles Eparses has been dropped and East Timor is now Timor-Leste-- (Shocktm | Talk | contribs.) 21:00, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
These have now been added, except for St.-Martin and St.-Barth, mainly due to the fact that their edition to the Factbook seems to be obvious. - Thanks, Hoshie 07:12, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
More info. I just checked the World entry and it gives the number I was expecting. I've used this to update the article.- Thanks, Hoshie 11:26, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] HTTPS only access?

Since when is the Factbook https-only? Anyone know?

Even the Google cache info on it reflects HTTPS. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mccabem (talk • contribs) 21:01, 16 October 2007 (UTC)


== this website stinks you sall be able to find facts on a pecific place!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.43.8.75 (talk) 21:15, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Self-reference

Many Internet sites, including Wikipedia, use information and images from the CIA World Factbook.

This is a self reference, and as such, should be removed. This would, however, detract from the article; so instead I believe the reference to Wikipedia should be replaced with a reference to another website. --Muna (talk) 04:42, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

This has been removed. - Thanks, Hoshie 19:33, 29 February 2008 (UTC)