Aug 19, 2007

More on unauthorized Wikipedia editing

Admitting that Wikipedia cannot control unauthorized edits, Jimmy Wales had this to say:

Jimmy Wales, founder of the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, says the site discourages such “conflict of interest” editing. “We don’t make it an absolute rule,” he said, “but it’s definitely a guideline.”

By not making “conflict of interest” editing a rule, Wikipedia will continue to be rife with editing by anyone with an axe to grind.

It will take more than WikiScanner to police the millions of Wikipedia entries.

One must be naïve indeed to use Wikipedia entries as solid research material.

For more information about the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, click on the Wikipedia category in the left sidebar of this web site.

Link to the NYT article here.

= = = = = = = = = = = = =

UPDATE


Wikipedia vandalism traced to Democratic Party. Link

www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/technology/19wikipedia.html?hp=&pagewanted=print