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Maybe if Wikipedia folks worked together, there wouldn't be so many abandon articles. Many are quickly discouraged when factual corrections are removed or reverted, with the wrong information. Even heavily cited sources are removed because someone else thinks that they aren't relevant.

Abandon articles may not have been abandon if interested parties weren't discouraged from making changes.

I've known other publication authors who were unable to edit their own information. Some were as simple as a wrong age. Even familiar third parties couldn't get the correct information to stay, because it would be reverted, removed, or changed to different incorrect information. "No really, my birthday is ..." is considered a lie, but trust a blogger who says

"Baba Wawa (a.k.a. Barbara Walhters) was born in 1602"

I found one particular instance that was very ... well, stupid. Paraphrased, it said

"The formula used is a closely held secret, that no one knows. It is well known to be water."

That came after multiple edits saying it is just water. The "closely held secret" version quotes an unrelated organization who isn't in the area. The factual citation was from a local news organization. It's like quoting Pravda about a Wisconsin cheese festival, and saying that WISN is irrelevant because they actually had reporters there.

I've heard of other things, like specialized scientists correcting errors are themselves told that they are wrong, making it impossible to fix until someone else says it.

Rather than correcting information, or adding new information, people learn to just say "Don't trust the Wikipedia information, it's wrong, and they won't let anyone fix it." Sadly, they're right.

Wikipedia's abandonment problem won't get fixed, as long as people are discouraged from doing the work correctly.

Seriously, you've never seen it? The woman who started the #yesallwomen trend on Twitter had to close her account because of all the rape threats she was getting.

That doesn't surprise me, I'm sorry to say. But I'm given to understand that any high-profile person on Twitter gets all kinds of threats, rape or otherwise. Obviously females are more prone to rape threats than males, but all 4 links (~2 minutes of Google News for "twitter threat") are for males and death threats. It's all the ass-end of the internet and warrants no concern

Not at all. I'm saying it's every geek or nerd's responsibility - along with everyone else's responsibility - to speak up when they see it. *Every* incident? Only if you're personally there for *every* incident, in which case, I'd have to wonder why you're always in the wrong place.

Is it your responsibility to stop *every* fire? No. If you see someone's house on fire, wouldn't it be a good responsible act to call the fire department, rather than just shrugging and walking away? Of course it is. Does it matter that you're not going to stop *every* fire? Of course not.

Fair enough, that's basically what I meant. But it seems like that doesn't really address the problem - you still have little pockets where this BS is tolerated, and I don't know how "nerds" can fix that to the extent that they don't make up those pockets. Seems like a more targeted group term could help.

I thought you said you couldn't think of any instances of harassment, and now you're throwing up specific examples like a Call of Duty server? Which is it?

I don't play Call of Duty, it's just a stereotypical example. I've seen it played a few times, and it seemed like a hell-hole, but there were no women so my statement stands - I've never seen a woman get harassed in an online forum. I've seen places where I suspect a woman likely would get harassed, were one present, but I don't even know what it looks like. Would it really take the form of such cliched, tired kitchen and sandwich jokes? Seems about as scandalous as "ima make u suk my dick fag0t" or a goatse link - what is this, 2002?

It used to be a common word everywhere. Up here in the North where we don't accept that language and speak up when its used, it is not prevalent. As you note, it's southern racists... and apparently no one in their circles is saying "stop using that word".

Precisely, so what's the plan for dealing with those problem circles in particular? (rhetorical question, if I knew I'd be doing it!) Blaming that behavior on "people", even "southern people" isn't very useful for winning allies - but that's essentially what's happening here with "nerds". You (n.b. "people in general") drive a wedge into the community and put people who are otherwise very sympathetic (like me!) on the defensive completely unnecessarily.

Telling people "just grow a thick skin" or "put up with it" is being part of the problem. Sure, you don't harass people... But you're not standing up to those who do, and you're telling their victims to suck it up. That makes you not quite as bad as the harassers, but no where close to being a good person. Ever hear the old poem about "they came for [X group], but I said nothing, because I was not [X]"? It's not supposed to be an endorsement of staying silent.

Here's where you and I disagree. This is a nuanced point for the internet, but basically the worl

So this image should be illegal? http://www.wisn.com/image/view...

It is the law even if it was illegal to shoot video in a bar it is illegal to attack someone.
The law is clear the morals and ethics are also clear to anyone that has a brain.

So if you want it to be illegal for you to shoot video of you and your friends in a bar then pass the law. Good luck with that.

Cops aren't universally dicks. In Wisconsin, we had one write himself a ticket for a driving infraction.

That said, when seven dashboard cameras "fail" just in time to assault someone's rotator cuff, you can't give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

Thats great the Smithsonian has robots.....
but can they keep the museums running during the government shut down?

http://www.wisn.com/r/27452506/detail.html

Every accident would be avoidable if you drive at 5 km/hr, no matter what the conditions are.

O RLY? So this accident could have been avoided if the doctor was driving at 5km/hr?
Semi Loses Tire, Causes Fatal Crash
http://www.wisn.com/news/14548863/detail.html

The sugars from the corn get converted to ethanol, and the "everything else" is still used as livestock feed.

It looks like the by-product of ethanol is only good for some livestock but not others. If you're not dairy or cattle, you're left in the cold, kind of like Maple Leaf Duck Farms. I found this article to be quite interesting and worth a read.