Slashdot Mirror
Wikipedia Semi-Protection Begins
seanvaandering writes "Admins began applying their recently announced 'Wikipedia semi-protection' feature this week. The first articles to be semi-protected were George W. Bush, Hitler, and Jesus Christ, barring the newest 1% of all users and anonymous visitors from modifying the article (apparently Satan didn't make the cut). Does this mark the end of the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit?"
It was a joke.
Wikipedia really needed to do something like this, and banning anonymous changes to a few reasonably stable articles seems like a decent compromise. The articles can still be edited by most people who are into wiki.
That being said, all this outcry over a couple articles being changed is way over hyped. That nature study that showed that it was nearly as accurate (in science articles) as the online encyclopedia britannica just confirmed that.
The articles that are semi-protected are mostly huge writeups that are more or less complete by now, it's not like they would be edited much anyway, it would be a different thing if the page about George W Bush was to be semi-protected as a stub, i.e. when it needed a huge flow of information to be made. A good reason for unprotecting a page would be if huge discoveries had been made about it and it needed much input, like if someone proved Jesus was a hoax.
It's also a good thing to have to keep the vandals out, it's been rampant since the John Siegenthaler controversy.
There should be an equation for article editing. An article should be given a value ranking its popularity and users should be given a rank, ranking their contributions to the wiki community. Only highly valued contributers should be able to modify high ranking entries.
If you want to edit Hitler you must frist be a proven, intelligent, useful contributer. If you want to write an entry on the superconduction uber widget, knock yourself out. My 2
These measures may slow the casual trolling and idiocy but it will do nothing to deter or prevent the more dedicated trolls.
I'm a coder and I can't imagine why Wikipedia would want to semi-protect select articles, and not *all* articles. (Bitflag vs Micromanagement)
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
The key similarities between Bush and Hitler are that both are fierce nationalists pushing agendas that include aggressive foreign policies and a reduction in civil rights. The conditions in Germany following WW1 gave Hitler the support he needed; the conditions in America following 911 gave Bush the support he needed. Both societies were deflated and wanted to rally around a strong leader. Both leaders used that to their advantage, breaking long-standing rules, purportedly for purposes of strengthening the nation.
Nationalism and intimidation is how Hitler did his thing. It's creepy as hell to watch the President deflect pertinent questions with patriotic jargon. It's even creepier when DHS agents bang on people's doors who aren't doing anything wrong. Of course Hitler went farther, and of course W isn't the first president to do such things, but that doesn't make it any less creepy.