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I've noticed a lot of Wiki-hate on here, so my purpose is to figure out which one is better, and please cite valid reasons why. To the best of my knowledge, Lexicanum is a very incomplete source, whilst the Wiki has far more information on it that is just as reliable, and is accepted as a reliable secondary source on all of the other forums I've been on.

They have different strengths. Lexicanum is great for finding a lot of obscure information, while the Wiki often has more information, but it doesn't cover as many topics of as the former.

Basically it depends what you're looking for. Both source their stuff and do a pretty good job of keeping the articles clean and easy to read.

Lexicanum typically cites its soruces with greater accuracy and covers established canon.

The problem with the wiki is although it might have more information as ClockworkZion points out, their standards are a bit lower in the sense that they do cover fan marine chapters and other non-canon material from what I remember. Although it's clear sometimes that they make sure that its not an official piece of fluff it can sometimes cross-contaminate the other articles/pages since their formatting is a bit messier.

And wiki copy paste way too much from their own bloody pages. Everything's written 10 times over.

Its like asking Digital Storm Desktop or Compaq

The Wiki does a terrible job of sourcing, it also doesn't distinguish between the validity of sources. Fanfiction can get on there, it also doesn't screen its editors like Lexicanum does.

They're both fairly gak, though Lex seems to be better at keeping their sources straight.

 Grimskul wrote:
their standards are a bit lower in the sense that they do cover fan marine chapters and other non-canon material from what I remember.

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warhammer_40k:Canon

They do not.

They have different strengths. Lexicanum is good when what you read must be 100% sure it's canon. The wiki has WAY more information, though. For example, compare the following two articles

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Iron_Hands

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Iron_Hands

An easy ctrl+f reveals that the word 'iron hands' is written almost ten times as many times on the former than on the latter. The implications are clear.

So use the wiki when you want lots of info that is 98% true, use Lexicanum when you want info that is 100% true and amount is less important.

Thinking on it a bit more I basically rank the wiki's in the order of looking stuff up as Lexicanum, 1d4chan and last the 40kWikia.

I prefer the wiki as it's usually right in my experience and I have never encountered fanfiction on there. Lexicanum is filled to the brim with stubs and holds too little information for my tastes even if the sourcing is better. I pretty much never go to 1d4chan...

40kWiki's writing quality is variable, especially:

And wiki copy paste way too much from their own bloody pages. Everything's written 10 times over.

It's kind of embarrassing how often you'll see the same phrase or paragraph used in a long article. It also has a more "enthusiastic" style of writing, which I don't consider a virtue for a reference for an encyclopedic source (though I will admit that it makes for a more entertaining read).

Lexicanum just has a lot more polish. 40kWiki does have more overall content, but it has a critical lack of boring nuts-n-bolts reference pages.

(confession: while I consider Lexicanum better, I spend a lot more time reading the 40k wiki and 1d4chan)

 Ashiraya wrote:
I prefer the wiki as it's usually right in my experience and I have never encountered fanfiction on there. Lexicanum is filled to the brim with stubs and holds too little information for my tastes even if the sourcing is better. I pretty much never go to 1d4chan...

I enjoy 1d4chan for the conversational tone and approach that you can tell they're passionate about what they're covering which allows you to get excited with them over the same things.