On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 1:53 PM, Thomas Morton <morton.tho...@googlemail.com > wrote:
> > > That process takes* much much longer* than 2-5 days. > > > > > > > > > Yes, but it takes place *before* publication. :P > > > > > Not at all. > > My specific experience was while consulting on another matter for a firm; > they were surprised to find their name had been noted in connection with > some years-before legal action (quite a disturbing one) in a prominent > printed encyclopaedia. > > I helped them get in touch and resolve the issue. > > It took about a week for initial contact to prove successful - the material > was reviewed, taking another two weeks, and "amended internally". The next > years print run was currently happening, and they were unable to modify the > problem. > > So all in all it took about 18 months for a correction to be published. > > I happen to know of several other examples where incorrect material is > still being published years after the point has been brought up. > > Whilst you will get some material sent out for review I don't believe it > accounts for much of the content. And, as such, is something of > misdirection on the issue. > > I'm not arguing Wikipedia is the solution. But the argument that > printed encyclopaedias are better at this I know to be false. > > Tom > Well, it is still true that in a conventional encyclopedia, everything goes through vigorous professional fact checking *before* publication. We have nothing to compare to that. Not even Pending Changes. Surely that is a very, very significant difference indeed? As a result, the kinds of inaccuracies we have in Wikipedia can be in a whole different league than the sort of error you might find in Britannica; there is often active malice at work, as opposed to the occasional cock-up, and you are talking about the no. 1 Google link for a person or company, rather than something appearing on page 582 of a dusty tome that few people own, let alone read. Andreas _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
