Growing Wikipedia Revises Its 'Anyone Can Edit' Policy

[rodeodance]

Growing Wikipedia Revises Its 'Anyone Can Edit' Policy

By KATIE HAFNER
Published: June 17, 2006
.........

Wikipedia's come-one, come-all invitation to write and edit articles, and the surprisingly successful results, have captured the public imagination. But it is not the experiment in freewheeling collective creativity it might seem to be, because maintaining so much openness inevitably involves some tradeoffs.

At its core, Wikipedia is not just a reference work but also an online community that has built itself a bureaucracy of sorts — one that, in response to well-publicized problems with some entries, has recently grown more elaborate. It has a clear power structure that gives volunteer administrators the authority to exercise editorial control, delete unsuitable articles and protect those that are vulnerable to vandalism.

Those measures can put some entries outside of the "anyone can edit" realm. The list changes rapidly, but as of yesterday, the entries for Einstein and Ms. Aguilera were among 82 that administrators had "protected" from all editing, mostly because of repeated vandalism or disputes over what should be said. Another 179 entries — including those for George W. Bush, Islam and Adolf Hitler — were "semi-protected," open to editing only by people who had been registered at the site for at least four days. (See a List of Protected Entries)
...........

Those measures can put some entries outside of the "anyone can edit" realm. The list changes rapidly, but as of yesterday, the entries for Einstein and Ms. Aguilera were among 82 that administrators had "protected" from all editing, mostly because of repeated vandalism or disputes over what should be said. Another 179 entries — including those for George W. Bush, Islam and Adolf Hitler — were "semi-protected," open to editing only by people who had been registered at the site for at least four days. (See a List of Protected Entries).........

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/technology/17wiki.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=all

[rodeodance]

1. ``the accuracy of an article grows organically.````

.Much discussion of Wikipedia has focused on its accuracy. Last year, an article in the journal Nature concluded that the incidence of errors in Wikipedia was only slightly higher than in Encyclopaedia Britannica. Officials at Britannica angrily disputed the findings.

"To be able to do an encyclopedia without having the ability to differentiate between experts and the general public is very, very difficult," said Jorge Cauz, the president of Britannica, whose subscription-based online version receives a small fraction of the traffic that Wikipedia gets.

Intentional mischief can go undetected for long periods. In the article about John Seigenthaler Sr., who served in the Kennedy administration, a suggestion that he was involved in the assassinations of both John F. and Robert Kennedy was on the site for more than four months before Mr. Seigenthaler discovered it. He wrote an op-ed article in USA Today about the incident, calling Wikipedia "a flawed and irresponsible research tool."

Yet Wikipedians say that in general the accuracy of an article grows organically. At first, said Wayne Saewyc, a Wikipedia volunteer in Vancouver, British Columbia, "everything is edited mercilessly by idiots who do stupid and weird things to it." But as the article grows, and citations slowly accumulate, Mr. Saewyc said, the article becomes increasingly accurate............

[tanyev]

2. I don't understand why the entries for Einstein and Ms. Aguilera

would need protecting. Einstein--what's to dispute? Ms. Aguilera (I'm assuming Christina Aguilera)--who cares?

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. The Einstein entry may have been silly vandalism

for a joke - or it may be idiotic anti-semites attacking any famous Jew - who knows. Looking at the history, Einstein got a lot of stupid edits the administrators had to back out - like replacing his biography with "I like horses", or renaming the Institute for Advanced Study to "Institute for Beginner Study" - all from the same person within 5 minutes. There was also one guy who insisted on putting in line breaks which aren't standard Wikipedia formatting, and did it about 4 times while everyone else tried to keep them out. It looks like a silly ego trip on the part of a few people.

[dsc]

4. Actually Einstein has some contraversy

in that some people feel his wife may have written his award winning work. I have no idea how reasonable that theory is but I have repeatedly heard it.

[tanyev]

5. Whoa...I never heard that before.

Thx for the info. I'll have to do a little reading up on Einstein, I guess.

[T_i_B]

Looking at the list of things that can no longer be edited

it almost looks like it's just freepers and DUers doing all the vandalism on Wikipedia!

Protected articles

Cannot be edited:

· 2004 United States voting controversies, Ohio

· Cuba

· Islamophobia

· Elitism

· Kosovo

· George W Bush

· Christina Aguilera

· Human rights in the People's Republic of China

· Military budget of the People's Republic of China

· Messianic Judaism

· Islam and anti-Semitism

Semi-protected articles

Users can edit only if they have been registered with the site for at least four days:

· Tony Blair

· Michael Jackson

· God

· Emo

· Shakespeare

· John Wayne

· Ku Klux Klan

· Christianity

· 11 September, 2001

· Anarchism

· Sex

· Food

· Comfort women

· Mahatma Gandhi

· PlayStation 3

· Boston, Massachusetts

[T_i_B]

6. Looking at the list of things that can no longer be edited

it almost looks like it's just freepers and DUers doing all the vandalism on Wikipedia!

Protected articles

Cannot be edited:

· 2004 United States voting controversies, Ohio

· Cuba

· Islamophobia

· Elitism

· Kosovo

· George W Bush

· Christina Aguilera

· Human rights in the People's Republic of China

· Military budget of the People's Republic of China

· Messianic Judaism

· Islam and anti-Semitism

Semi-protected articles

Users can edit only if they have been registered with the site for at least four days:

· Tony Blair

· Michael Jackson

· God

· Emo

· Shakespeare

· John Wayne

· Ku Klux Klan

· Christianity

· 11 September, 2001

· Anarchism

· Sex

· Food

· Comfort women

· Mahatma Gandhi

· PlayStation 3

· Boston, Massachusetts