Posted on 12/24/2005 2:29:33 PM PST by indcons
THE debate over Wikipedia has hit a fever pitch in recent weeks.
Supporters of Wikipedia, the user-edited online encyclopedia, are pitted against traditionalists who call the site inaccurate and irresponsible.
The latest salvo came this week thanks to Rogers Cadenhead, who did a bit of cybersleuthing and reported on Workbench that the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, had altered his own Wikipedia biography. Wired News picked up Mr. Cadenhead's discovery, and a heated debate ensued on Wikipedia discussion boards.
According to Mr. Cadenhead's interpretation, Mr. Wales made the changes to play down the role of his former editor, Larry Sanger, by deleting references to him as a co-founder. When other volunteer editors undid his edits, Mr. Wales repeated them twice.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Wikipedia is user-edited. Don't like a biased article? Change it.
I have to confess that I usually find it to be pretty reliable.
No...it is not that easy. When it comes to political topics, the liberal mods there freeze biased topics or reverse changes. I know because it happened to me when I made changes to the FR entry there.
Should this be the only reason why Wiki should "die a natural death"???
I think not.
I'm a frequent user and sporadic contributor to Wiki, and yes, it has its faults, including some liberal bias, but I feel administrators and hardcore contributors are taking steps in order to make a more balanced, more reliable encyclopedia.
With some retooling, Wiki can survive.
Amen, brother.
Kind of defeats the purpose if one has to know more than the encyclopedia.
Well, you have the option of opening a NPOV dispute for such an article.
If you don't take any action to guarantee fairness in a given article, but instead whine, moan and bitch like you're doing right now, then don't complain.
Well, it ain't that easy.
You have to substantiate your contributions with sources in many cases.
If the "Times Online" followed the Wikipedia format, they'd be more accurate.
How do you know that I haven't taken any action? Since you are assuming so much about my "whining," you must be an ASS. You started the insults first so don't complain now.
On a more charitable note, Merry Christmas.
So when are we going to start our own?
Just throw in NPOV (neutral point of view) in the edit summary and chances are, yor changes will be kept.
Care to enlighten us and tell us about instances of your "taking action"???
Merry Christmas to you, too!!! :)
It was Wikipedia that gave birth to the whole Wiki phenomenon, and some contributors still refer to Wikipedia as "Wiki".
No!!
We have already exchanged Christmas wishes :)
What a snothead.
I said the Wiki phenomenon, not Wiki itself.
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