Which Wikipedia is reliable?

At times, search results may present identical Wikipedia text across various websites. Wondering why? Vira Motorko, the editor of Ukrainian-language Wikipedia, helped us to understand this matter.

“The classic Wikipedia resides on the domain http://uk.wikipedia.org, which is self-evident. Wikiwand serves as a reader site for Wikipedia. It doesn’t have any organizational ties to Wikipedia, yet the site’s creators aimed for a more contemporary design. The theme is customizable, so feel free to use it if you fancy. However, there is no point in using Wikiwand for those who edit Wikipedia since editing is against the rules in Wikiwand.

But, the third site is fraudulent. 

  Although the text is sourced from Wikipedia, it’s an outdated version (check the date). Not only does it lack a license or a proper source link (it even has its own copyright at the bottom - what a nerve!), but it also displays a whole bunch of malicious ads.

Numerous Wikipedia mirror sites exist. Some comply with the license and include necessary links, albeit in fine print, while others do not. The downside is that for articles absent from Ukrainian Wikipedia, many of them show poor machine translations from other languages, often ranking quite high in search results.

So, be careful and inform people who aren’t aware, particularly schoolchildren preparing for lessons who might unwittingly accept “hellishly tortured” machine translations as accurate. 

“We already have our hands full with our own articles. Do you know how offensive it is when someone attributes the hypothetical nina.az to us as well?” sighs Motorko