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Yay!
"We are no longer at the point that it is acceptable to throw things at the wall and see what sticks," said Michael Snow, a lawyer in Seattle who is the chairman of the Wikimedia board. "There was a time probably when the community was more forgiving of things that were inaccurate or fudged in some fashion -- whether simply misunderstood or an author had some ax to grind. There is less tolerance for that sort of problem now."
Wikipedia to Limit Changes to Articles on People
by Noam Cohen for the August 25 New York Times
Hope "the blogosphere" follows the lead.
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I hope Wiki gets a better reputation in the process. One factoid cancels the value of ten thousand facts, it seems. I join your "Yay."
August 26, 2009 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Me too. Thanks for this. When I was researching for my post today on Ted Kennedy I found this on the page for Mary Jo Kopechne:
It made me sick. . .
August 26, 2009 11:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yay, also; I'll bet that policing job won't be an easy one.
August 26, 2009 12:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I find the evolution of the Wiki pretty interesting. But really, when I read this - I think they're essentially just codifying something that already happens in Wiki.
One of the most interesting parts of the Wiki are the discussion pages - the arguments and concepts tossed around on the backside of the pages between editors. I remember reading somewhere that the majority of Wiki pages are edited by a very, very small number of frequent editors - despite the impression that anyone, anywhere can do so.
Anyone who has ever edited a Wiki piece probably has run into one of these Wiki-police before - who will oversee whatever you're writing and inform you if you somehow missed one of the Wiki's nine million guidelines/rules for writing articles. So really they're just moving that part of it so the public can't see it - that's really the big change. It's probably a good thing, but I'll miss the other way - I get a kick out of watching the process of truth-finding in the Wiki. ;)
August 27, 2009 8:03 AM | Reply | Permalink