Dear Dan & safranim, --- "Rettberg, Dan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Steve-- > I truly appreciate your concern, and understand your > point about this being > an opportunity for good. However, assuming that > these sites can in fact be > changed by anyone at anytime, how long are they > likely to remain as we leave > them?
That's an excellent question, Dan. Unfortunately, it has no simple answer. This is where the comment I made about "periodically monitoring" specific entries in the Wikipedia comes into play. I don't really think it's even a question of how often an entry will be "corrupted" because that is an unknown variable. It's more a question of how often a "correct" version will be in the Wikipeda, how often an entry is properly updated. That variable is dependent on the number of people monitoring an entry and the frequency of the monitoring. For example, if 24 AJL-ers were to volunteer to each look up the "Association of Jewish Libraries" entry at the top of the hour (each choosing a different hour), then we would know that the entry was correct at least once every hour. Another factor is probability. I don't think that the entry for "Association of Jewish Libraries" is likely at all to be a victim of frequent vandalism. I doubt it will get "vandalized" at all. I also don't think that AJL is political or controversial enough for the entry to be challenged as factually incorrect or biased. In Wikipedia, by the way, no articles are labelled "biased" or "factually incorrect", but the accusations that they "may be" (which is listed at the top of the article) can be just as bad. If one of us were to become an "Administrator" at Wikipedia, we could (theoretically) "lock" certain entries. Locking an entry prevents people from editing it, but it is (as far as I understand it) used rarely and only for short periods of time. Also, in Wikipedia, a history of challenges made is kept (indefinitely) in the "talk" section for an article. A list of changes that have been made since the article was first written is also kept indefinitely (which is also helpful for reverting articles back to their original content). Personally, I find the "Talk" and "Page History" sections to be as interesting --- and often MORE interesting --- than the current version of the article itself. Examples of the more relevant (for AJL-ers) challenged and modified articles include : Anti-Zionism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Anti-Zionism Deir Yassin massacre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Deir_Yassin_massacre First Intifada http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:First_Intifada History of Israel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:History_of_Israel Israeli terrorism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Israeli_terrorism Israelis and anti-Palestinian racism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Israelis_and_anti-Palestinian_racism Jenin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Jenin Menachem Mendel Schneerson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Menachem_Mendel_Schneerson West Bank http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:West_Bank White Supremacy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:White_supremacy Zionism and racism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Slogan_%27Zionism_is_racism%27 Zionist conspiracy theories regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Zionist_conspiracy_theories_regarding_the_September_11%2C_2001_attacks Zyklon B http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Zyklon_B (I was apparently the most recent modifier of this article and am keeping it on my Watchlist) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 at osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
