Wikipedia to tighten grip
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says the wiki Web encyclopaedia written and edited by Internet users from all over the world plans to impose stricter editorial rules to prevent vandalism of its content.
Following the election of the new Pope Benedict in April, a user substituted the pontiff's photo on the Wikipedia site with that of the evil emperor from Star Wars, Reuters says. "The picture was only on the page for a minute. But whoever opens the article at this moment will get annoyed -- and therefore doubt our credibility," Wales told German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Aug 08, 2005 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(2)
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2 comments about 'Wikipedia to tighten grip'The pic of Palpatine may have been up only a minute, but the link to the version of the article with the picture intact was all over the blogs. It was pretty funny, but embarrassing to Wikipedia.
Recently, the Wikipedia entry on the "hairy ball" theory of topological mathematics had to be protected from vandalism before it got linked from Fark.com.
Posted by J0hnnyB at August 8, 2005 12:17 PM
I'm frightened to think how they are going to stop things like this. The real problem lies in unfamiliarity with the medium. No wiki article can be understood by simply reading what's on the front page at the moment you log on. Readers won't grasp the essence of the article without at least a glance at the page history and discussion. Furthering that understanding seems a much more appealing solution than any excercise in authority to try and squeeze the wiki world into the preconcieved notions of new readers.
Posted by Marshall Kirkpatrick at August 16, 2005 4:39 PM
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TrackBack URL: http://www.cyberjournalist.net/cgi-bin/mt-tab.cgi/1126
1 Weblogs reference 'Wikipedia to tighten grip' Wales Considering Content Controls for WikipediaTrackback excerpt: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung , which requires registration, about some ideas he has for protecting quality content in the encyclopedia, according to this Reuters article Cyberjournalist includes. [Read More]
Posted on j's scratchpad at August 9, 2005 12:39 AM
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