Wikipedia Founder Seeks Limits on Editing
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has recommended reigning in edits of entries to the free-access online encyclopedia. The result has been an extensive dialogue in which the German Wikipedia community has provided some guidance based on its experience.
Partly responsible for Wales's move could be the polemics in the recent U.S. presidential race (with its much hightened Internet attention) that got some recent unfortunate exposure on Wikipedia. Entries for politicians in the so-called biographies of living persons (BLP) in Wikipedia have attracted more interest than ever, going through alternate (sometimes minute-to-minute) edits by political supporters and foes alike in the pursuit of "fact." The specific item that triggered Wales's concern was a news item in the Washington Post from January 21: "Kennedy, Byrd the Latest Victims of Wikipedia Errors." The two U.S. senators, who for personal reasons had to excuse themselves from parts of the post-inaugural events, were suddenly declared "dead" by one of the Wikipedia authors. The Post's article (and the extensive comments to it) was enough to prompt Wales to change the Wikipedia editing ground rules. The suggestion on his User Talk page: "This nonsense would have been 100% prevented by Flagged Revisions."
Wales is describing a process that the German Wikipedia edition had already implemented in April 2008. Flagged revisions (FRs) are extensions "where edits are made to certain articles, [and] those edits might not be immediately visible to readers, until they have been 'sighted' by someone trustworthy." In the German model, these "sighters" are regular and trusted editors. The idea was not to proof the accuracy of entries, but to prevent "blatant vandalism." As Wikipedia's own entry for "flagged revisions" currently says, "When a revision is reviewed by a trusted editor, that revision is tagged in the edit history, while in the meantime, article development can proceed with the most recent revision. If changes to the page seem constructive, any reviewer can tag the new version."
Wales now wants to introduce the FR concept generally in the English Wikipedia edition, based on a community survey that returned a 60% favorable rating for the approach: "This is a very wide margin, with 20% separation between the pros and cons," as Wales argues. He suggests a number of ways to implement the approach and, as in the German model, it will undergo "an extensive public test-beta."
As is customary in the Wikipedia community, the change Wales suggests will involve rigorous discussion in which the German prototype might get serious consideration. A report from the German Wikipedia community claims statistics that "the number of edits on [the German] WP has significantly gone up since sighted revisions were introduced." However, an opponent of the plan reminded the community that "~20% of German regulars quit after FR was implement[ed]," a statement incidentally crossed out in Wales's user talk.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
OSJH and LPI Release 2024 Open Source Pros Job Survey Results
See what open source professionals look for in a new role.
-
Proton 9.0-1 Released to Improve Gaming with Steam
The latest release of Proton 9 adds several improvements and fixes an issue that has been problematic for Linux users.
-
So Long Neofetch and Thanks for the Info
Today is a day that every Linux user who enjoys bragging about their system(s) will mourn, as Neofetch has come to an end.
-
Ubuntu 24.04 Comes with a “Flaw"
If you're thinking you might want to upgrade from your current Ubuntu release to the latest, there's something you might want to consider before doing so.
-
Canonical Releases Ubuntu 24.04
After a brief pause because of the XZ vulnerability, Ubuntu 24.04 is now available for install.
-
Linux Servers Targeted by Akira Ransomware
A group of bad actors who have already extorted $42 million have their sights set on the Linux platform.
-
TUXEDO Computers Unveils Linux Laptop Featuring AMD Ryzen CPU
This latest release is the first laptop to include the new CPU from Ryzen and Linux preinstalled.
-
XZ Gets the All-Clear
The back door xz vulnerability has been officially reverted for Fedora 40 and versions 38 and 39 were never affected.
-
Canonical Collaborates with Qualcomm on New Venture
This new joint effort is geared toward bringing Ubuntu and Ubuntu Core to Qualcomm-powered devices.
-
Kodi 21.0 Open-Source Entertainment Hub Released
After a year of development, the award-winning Kodi cross-platform, media center software is now available with many new additions and improvements.