Winky
Sunday, May 21, 2006
I'm sure all those of you who use the internet on a regular basis must know wikipedia. The online encyclopedia that is written and moderated by it's users. I'll admit to being a bit of a community obsessive, so the concept of wikipedia suits me just fine. As I'm sure we've all heard though, wikipedia has been having some problems, most famously of which is vandalism. Though this has always been a possible problem, it comes to light more and more as the reason people don't use it. It's a shame as the site self moderates well, with most mis-information being reverted within 2mins (IBM research, 2002).Alas the more people that use the site, the more bad elements there will be. Earlier this year the Capitol Hill servers had to be banned during an investigation to profile adjustments of public figures. The UK parliament servers also had to be similarily investigated for such profile grooming. Infact, profiles are probably the most vandalised pages on wikipedia, along with the entry on cheese. There was a recently famous example in which two radio one DJs vandalised each others profiles on air, I don't think that is a good example to set. There is a list of funny vandalisms that have been kept for interests sake and there is also list of regular vandalised pages, if you want to know whats most likely to be dodgy
Still, my faith remains. When me and my ma hit the Telegraph Saturday general knowledge crossword and get stuck, the first port of call is always wikipedia (or winky, as my aunty calls it). Pages that are almost invariably safe are the scientific and technology pages. I doubt anyone but the geeks look at those pages, so that keeps me happy. Another page thats safe? My article I did on Manston village earlier this year. More than you ever wanted to know about a small village in the ass-end of Thanet
posted by SkinOfStars @ 10:56 pm,
