Wikipedia ends unrestricted editing

Posted by David Walker on Wed 26 Aug 2009

Takes aim at malicious rumours and bogus information

It's strength was in its openness, but very soon, Wikipedia will be imposing restrictions on certain elements of the site, with the aim of cutting back on article 'vandalism' and the spreading of malicious rumour.

The newly introduced 'flagged revisions' will enable 'experienced volunteer editors' to adjudicate on any changes made to the Wikipedia pages of a living person before that page goes 'live'. Which means Tony Blair's middle name cannot be changed again to 'Whoop-de-do' or more seriously, prominent people cannot be implicated in serious incidents or crime, as was the case with US journalist John Seigenthaler, whose page was edited to suggest that he had been involved in the assassination of US President John F Kennedy.

With more than three million English language articles on the site, Wikipedia is going to need an awful lot of editors or face a serious slowdown in the turnaround of information with the change. Quite possibly it will face both, not to mention the wrath of its devoted users, who probably see one of the site's core assets being removed. But although the new system is officially a 'trial', it's unlikely to be reversed down the line.

'We are no longer at the point that it is acceptable to throw things at the wall and see what sticks,' said Michael Snow, 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 axe to grind. There is less tolerance for that sort of problem now.'

Link: Wikipedia (via Daily Telegraph)

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User Comments

By marovingean

26|08|2009 13:48

The unrestricted editing was always a double edged sword for W/P, whilst it helped with its enormous growth, the 'comedians' out there were always the reasons there was controversy. Maybe theres a new era being ushered in for this user generated content...

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