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Stephen Colbert Wikipedia Prank Backfires
Vicissidude writes "The champion of 'truthiness' couldn't resist making fun of a website where facts, it seems, are endlessly malleable. But after making fun of Wikipedia on Monday night's "Colbert Report," Colbert learned some hard truths about Wikipedia's strength in resisting vandalism. Here's how the segment started: 'Colbert logs on to the Wikipedia article about his show to find out whether he usually refers to Oregon as "California's Canada or Washington's Mexico." Upon learning that he has referred to Oregon as both, he demonstrates how easy it is to disregard both references and put in a completely new one (Oregon is Idaho's Portugal), declaring it "the opinion I've always held, you can look it up."' Colbert then called on users to go to the site and falsify the entry on elephants. But Wikipedia's volunteer administrators were among those watching Colbert, and they responded swiftly to correct the entry, block further mischievous editing, and ban user StephenColbert from the website."
After all, if administrators don't block users, than the vandals win, and that's just not patriotic at all...
~ C.
plan on voting for the Stewart/Colbert ticket in '08 !
I went to the elephant listing on wiki that night. Apparently the population of elephants has tripled in the last three months. That is quite impressive, as each female elephant gives birth to one child at a time (twins and beyond are very rare) and there is a 22 month pregnancy period.
All it did was demonstrate that Wikipedia is capable of defending itself from obvious vandalism. It does nothing to further the argument that Wikipedia is anything more than a big bag of trivia, edited by people who argue endlessly about whether captain Kirk wore a yellow or marigold shirt.
As an Oregonian, this greatly offends me! Why do we have to be in the middle of all this? Being compared to third world contries and such. :(
Then again, there are people that still try to go whale watching in Lake Michigan.
Considering how many whales I've seen on that little beach across from the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago I can see why.
Only kidding, honey - it was the other women on the beach, honest!
I heard the amount of "irony" and "satire" have tripled on television in the past 6 months.
Let's check wikipedia and see if it's true.
(It isn't)
In many of the more relaxed areas of the world, Wikipedia has already supplanted the local libray as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal -or at least wildly inaccurate- it scores over the older more pedestrian collection in two important respects. First, it is doesn't charge late-fees; and second, it allows lazy people to do research without having to get their fat-asses outside. (With apologies to DNA...)
To all potential Wiki vandals... the ceiling cat is watching.
Yes, but they sure demonstrated "some hard truths about Wikipedia's strength in resisting vandalism."
All vandals who go onto national TV and announce their intent beforehand will be stopped!
After all, Oregon is just Hawaii's Europe...
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
They've foiled Stephen Colbert's future nefarious plots by banning his account. If only there was something he could do like create a new account.
Apparently the population of elephants has tripled in the last three months. That is quite impressive, as each female elephant gives birth to one child at a time (twins and beyond are very rare) and there is a 22 month pregnancy period.
I believe I read that same article. I learned that unique among mammals. elephants' legs are actually hollow, affording the opportunity for small creatures, such as mice, to hide inside without detection.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
With Bush and Gore absent from the ticket, that's absolutely true.
The special bonus would be the most hilarious Vice-Presidential debate ever.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Unknown SlashMeme Error on line -1, you insensitive clod.
You're forgetting where you are. This is Slashdot.
Screw the rules, I have green hair!
Somebody is living in Wikiality.
The best education consists in immunizing people against systematic attempts at education. - Paul Feyerabend
Waitaminute!!!! What? Lake Erie, 62 feet? Come on dude! What are you smoking? People have drowned in Lake Erie when there have been boat accidents and storms. You can't have that happen in only 62 feet of water. You need something like a million feet of water before that kind of thing is possible. Lake Erie is at least a million feet deep somewhere in the center.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
If I look up "Humorless" in the Wiktionary, does it say "See Wikipedia Community"?
Dear GOD IN HEAVEN there was a brief period of time when a page claimed there were TOO MANY ELEPHANTS in the world!
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!
Under various accounts, using various proxies, etc. I got bored one weekend and hacked up a little script to assist me, and monitor "progress". 58 have been corrected.
First, check for and avoid the regularly-updated-and-reverted articles - there are enough OCD types already fighting for who can most aggressively adjust the content to their worldview, making them pretty crap anyway (unless they've been locked down, in which case other biases come in..). Hell, the script even collects data on who reverts the articles I've adjusted, so I can build up a list of wikipaedophiles whose pet articles (identified by recent edits) can be left alone.
For the articles where "no-one really cares", we operate most effectively. At its most basic, we can automagically change a number here and there, remove or reorder events by simple substitution of prepositions (s/before/after/ is surprisingly effective!), etc. God knows it's only a metter of time before I try applying some of the analysis tools I used when fumbling about with interlingua (RIP) a few years ago.
Much better to spin some inventive prose, then add a non-existent reference to an old tome that likely no-one has read. Build up a stub. Wiki loves to quote figures such as "number of articles" (quantity over quality, yay!), promoting the best as if they in any way represented the state of the rest, so I'm doing my little bit.
Incidentally, I wonder if similar practices occur in the field of Open Source contributions? In that case, it couldn't be a matter of contributing simple code that *doesn't work*, but volunteering sufficiently complex and functional enhancements that nevertheless include some subtle vulnerability, which following contribution and deployment provides the cracker with a waiting herd of machines to compromise.
But Wikipedia itself has million sources (contributors)!
factor 966971: 966971
Lake Erie is by far the wimpiest of the great lakes!
I disagree. Lake Erie is the only one of the great lakes to be combustible.
6. The Wikipedia is rife with libel
I wonder how much money Britannica paid him to say that.
Not even "Live Talk with Lively McLive"?
Good job, citizen! I'll stake out the pages on giraffes and naked mole rats. Anyone want to take the night watch?
*** DRINK MORE COFFEE ***
Man... I haven't seen this much bitterness since an Enron retirement party.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
That is because in Soviet Russia, your wife is KGB!
It's comments like these that truly make sense when you read them in the same tone of voice that the Simpsons Comic Book Guy uses.
I used to, but then they went and redid all the districts (I'm in Texas).
I do know both of my senators though (Coryn and Hutchison).
For the analogy to work, your non-cowardly ex-isolationists would have to declare war on Japan, and then inexplicably divert the bulk of military force to conquering, say, Indonesia.
Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
Wrong! The point of the story was to reveal how the Democratic Party is hiding the truth about the resurgence of the elephant population. They will do anything to suppress the true popularity, and therefore population, of anything related to elephants, the proud image and icon of the Republican Party.
Another leftist conspiracy exposed for all the world to see. (Abe) For shame (/Abe).
crowd: ooh.... *starts cheering*
fataugie: *throws chair*
Ooooh, I know how this one finishes:
fataugie: Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! etc...
Yeah, we can't trust Wikipedia, but let's trust an Anonymous Coward posting on Slashdot!
And the above comment makes much more sense when you read it in the voice of one of the old men who sit up in the box seat and heckle the performers on the Muppet Show.
leftist field who hasn't been mugged. Amercan liberals are not liberals at all.
For the record: While technically written in English, the above made no sense whatsoever. I suggest that the author get a good night's sleep, and abstain from listening to talk radio for at least a week.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Dennis Miller has finally taken his seat at the Algonquin Round Table, only unfortunately for humanity, it was moved to the Star Chamber adjacent to Richard Perle's rumpus room. Even now he's smirking his way through The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, secreted away at his Vegas lair amid stacks of John Birch Society literature, states-rights pamphlets, and sticky Jack Chick tracts. Yes, it's a dark day when the witty ally themselves with the witless, but having the spinal column of that guy who managed to be the last guy to wiggle himself into the packed phone booth, setting the world's record, does play a role here. I don't want to go off on a rant here, but Dennis Miller has as much credibility as Edward Kennedy at a water-safety course. His head is so far up Newt Gingrich's ass that he can smell the chemotherapy drugs Newt's bedridden wife was on when he filed for divorce. It wouldn't surprize me at this point if Dennis Miller was discovered entertaining Mel Gibson with "how many Jews will fit in a volkswagen" jokes as they drunkenly swerve their circuitous way to Rush Limbaugh's house to lift up his stomach so Ann Coulter can "polish the little ditto." But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Thank you.