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Wikipedia May Restrict Public's Ability to Change Entries
Bits —
Stung by criticism after vandals changed Wikipedia entries to erroneously report that Senators Edward Kennedy and Robert Byrd had died, Wikipedia appears ready to introduce a system that prevents new and anonymous users from instantly publishing changes to the online encyclopedia. The new system, called Flagged Revisions, would mark a significant change in the anything-goes, anyone-can-edit-at-any-time ethos of Wikipedia, which in eight years of existence has become one of the top 10 sites on the Web and the de facto information source for the Internet-using public. The idea ...
Bits: Wikipedia May Restrict Changes
NYT > Technology —
Stung by criticism after vandals changed Wikipedia entries to erroneously report that Senators Edward Kennedy and Robert Byrd had died, Wikipedia appears ready to introduce a system that prevents new and anonymous users from instantly publishing changes to the online encyclopedia. The new system, called Flagged Revisions, would mark a significant change in the anything-goes, anyone-can-edit-at-any-time ethos of Wikipedia, which in eight years of existence has become one of the top 10 sites on the Web and the de facto information source for the Internet-using public. The idea ...
Wikipedia Co-Founder Calls for Major New Moderation Policy
ReadWriteWeb —
... the system of "flagged revisions" in an attempt to reduce the amount of vandalism on Wikipedia, stating that recent death announcements of Senators Edward Kennedy and Robert Byrd on Wikipedia could have been "100% prevented" by this system. ...
Jimmy Wales Pushes For Flagged Revisions After Fake Death Reports
Wired: Epicenter —
... to implement a pre-screening effort called Flagged Revisions after several unfortunate, but not unfamiliar incidents last week on the site including edits falsely reporting the deaths of Sens. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). Janis Joplin’s entry was also tampered with and eventually locked down after a "30 Rock" episode aired involving the cast messing with the entry themselves. ...
Maybe Britannica is on to Something
SitePoint —
... that would place some articles under the care of expert reviewers who would fact check any major changes. What prompted Wales to make the suggestion was edits to articles for two US senators that incorrectly reported them dead last week. The false edits were corrected within minutes, but on a site as high traffic as Wikipedia, minutes could potentially be long enough to fan the flames of rumor. And sometimes rumors on the site have stayed unchanged in entries for months. ...
Proposal to flag, approve Wikipedia revisions provokes ire
Ars Technica —
... for "elephant," for instance, or last week's episode of 30 Rock). But the edits to the Byrd and Kennedy bios attracted national attention after the Washington Post ran a piece about the five minutes of inaccuracy. ...
Wikipedia to add editing safeguard for the living
Webware.com —
... in the aftermath of a false entry that was posted by a user, saying Sens. Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd had died after an inaugural luncheon in January. ...
