Varnent at Wikimania 2016 Professional free and open knowledge advocate, communications professional, former professional queer youth advocate, Wikimedian, WikiQueerian, policy wonk, tech nerd, nonprofit capacity building geek, Episcopalian, and video gamer - among other things.
NOTE: I work as an employee for the Wikimedia Foundation, but my work on this username is in my capacity as a volunteer and should be treated as such. While I was a volunteer for many years before my work with the Foundation, I started with them officially in September 2015. Unless otherwise stated, any edit to this wiki by me is an act of a regular member of the community, not a legal or official office action of the Wikimedia Foundation. Official acts by me in the line of my work will be done from my office account, User:GVarnum-WMF.
...it is inappropriate to cite Wikipedia as a source, because it is updated in real time. So from the time you cite a Wikipedia page to the time another person looks up your citation, the page may have changed. Citations are usually only applicable to static publications that do not change once they are published. Wikipedia is not a static publication, it is dynamic!—it changes every minute. In this sense, Wikipedia is not a reliable citable source.
How reliable is Wikipedia as a general resource? Very reliable. Most of the content on Wikipedia is accurate, and many subjects are updated faster than the news. But, Wikipedia is subject to being edited by almost anyone and any time, and the edits may be biased, out of date, incorrect, or malicious (vandalism). Therefore, it is advisable to double-check what you learn in Wikipedia against other sources.
Keep in mind that many volunteers monitor Wikipedia for errors. Since there are so many people reading the articles and monitoring contributions using the Recent Changes page, and using watchlists, incorrect information is usually spotted and corrected quickly.
Some argue that new errors are also introduced all the time, so that the overall accuracy rate is not really improving. Nevertheless, by encouraging people to help with correcting articles, validating content, and providing useful references, errors will eventually be greatly reduced.
The more accurate Wikipedia becomes, the more it attracts additional contributors. It is a self-reinforcing cycle!
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