My friend Jeremy recently noticed that an article he and I co-wrote in college was cited in a Wikipedia entry.

Neat! I realize this will sound corny, but I’m still flattered whenever anybody cites something I wrote. Why not be? It’s a signal that somebody considers my work useful and authoritative—what a compliment!

With this in mind, I had to ego-search Wikipedia for my name to see how many times I’ve been cited. The answer is 12 times. And on an odd collection of subjects!

• The Times-Picayune (x2)
• Corbis
• Marcus Bleasdale
• MetaFilter
• Radio Free Penn State
• Microstock photography
• Kerry Fonda 2004 election photo controversy
• John A. Lawless
• Adnan Hajj photographs controversy
• Thomas J. Abercrombie
• Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

How does this compare to how many times I’ve cited Wikipedia? I use Wikipedia occasionally to check information, but I rarely cite it in a story. It’s usually better to find out where Wikipedia got its information, and consult that source. It turns out I have cited Wikipedia only four times:

• PDN, Aug 21, 2006: Iwo Jima Photographer Joe Rosenthal Dies At 94 (in a link to a photo)
• PDNPulse, July 20, 2007: iStockphoto To Offer Surprise 100% Royalty Day
• PDNPulse, August 22, 2007: A Sticky Wiki
• PDNPulse, June 29, 2009: Photo of Protester Giving Ahmadinejad the Finger Almost Certainly Fake

For all its well-documented flaws, Wikipedia is an incredibly useful tool. But if they come around asking for donations, I can tell them I already gave.

Related post: The fall of Chris Anderson