There's also idiocies and unprofessionalism.  I once saw an entry about an 
actress, and it described her as being "hot". 

Stuff like that slips by all the time.  Also, you can really put anything you 
want there, as long as you have a reference link (which can be self-serving).  
In the case of issues that aren't tracked very intently, it often gets 
overlooked. 

Alex


-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On 
Behalf Of [email protected]
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 12:45 PM
To: [email protected]; David M Chess
Subject: Re: [funsec] The 15 biggest Wikipedia blunders



--- On Mon, 8/31/09, David M Chess <[email protected]> wrote:

> Calling these "blunders" is a bit misleading; they're pretty much all 
> instances of vandalism.  And most instances of vandalism are fixed very very 
> quickly (within minutes or better).

True, I've fixed a few myself.  Usually some sort of political statement (i.e. 
"Dr. such and such murdered unborn children...").  The auto-correcting (and 
perhaps auto-vandalizing?) nature of Wiki is one of its most unique 
characteristics.

> It would be more interesting to see
> a list of untruths that persisted for (say) longer than a
> day.  And to see some analysis of which were successful vandalism and
> which were something else.  Otherwise, "Wikipedia has at
> various instants contained false statements!" really isn't all that
> interesting, and doesn't really tell us much...

I think it would take something of a concerted effort to perform such an 
analysis.  Only once have I gotten dragged into the midst of a wiki-editors' 
war, and what I learned is that there are some folks who put a lot of effort 
into bending the W to reflect their views.  Researchers would have to have at 
least as much free time to dedicate to the task to come up with a useful 
analysis, but it would certainly be valuable.

-chris


      

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