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Wikipedia Wars -- Lake Express Ferry

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the go-jump-in-the-lake dept.

vhfer writes "Wikipedia Warfare has become the latest tool in the battle between rival lake transport systems. The Lake Express Ferry, which links Milwaukee and Michigan, bypasses Chicago traffic. The competing SS Badger runs from Manitowoc, an hour North of Milwaukee, to Ludington, Michigan. The article in the Milwaukee Journal details efforts by SS Badger supporters to highlight some of the delays and problems experienced by the Lake Express, in an apparent effort to divert some traffic to the Badger. Numerous edits to the article added links to news articles critical of the Lake Express, and some derided presidential candidate John Kerry's 2004 ride and the political value of it. The operators of the SS Badger deny responsibility for all the postings, and also say they aren't Internet savvy enough to alter a Wikipedia article."

7 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. This article wouldn't be complete ... by GillBates0 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...without a link to the Lamest Edit Wars in Wikipedia.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  2. T'warn't Me What Done It by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ah! The memories. When I was but a tad my dad would take the family in the stationwagon from Midland to Minneapolis, via Ludington to Manitowoc (famous now for aluminium cookware) on the C & O ferries. The SS Badger may hark from those days, it looks like it does. Back then there was a lot of traffic across the lake from Wisconsin, where automobile furniture (seats) and body parts were transported to Detroit with the assistance of several of these large boats which could hold several rail cars in their holds. They'd also take on automobiles and passengers for a nominal fee. They ran like clockwork, regardless of the weather and crossings in poor considtions could be the kind you spent clutching a paper bucket. I found chewing gum helped.

    Nice to see they still run them. If the weather's fair I would consider a drive to Ludington (or Manitowoc) just for the ride. Ludington's a nice place to visit and camp.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:T'warn't Me What Done It by crozell · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yup...the Badger was one of the C&O ferries, built in the early 1950's. When C&O finally sold off the ferries another company (MWT I think) ran them primarily as freight ships for a while before they finally had to shut them down. It just wasn't profitable after it became so easy to get rail traffic through Chicago and when maintenance costs for the ferries increased with their age. The boats sat idle for a while before a businessman invested a bunch of money to refurbish one ship (the Badger) as primarily a passenger ship in the early 1990's. It is still a coal-fired steam ship (reciprocating, not turbines)....really interesting both historically and mechanically. I know TFA was about the wikipedia war, but the underlying political debate that started the ill-will between these companies is also really interesting and doesn't get mentioned much in the linked articles or the wikipedia entries.

  3. The true failing of Wikipedia... by GundamFan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This points out the biggest problem with Wikipedia, people are selfish. When questions of NPOV come up the disscusion offten becomes not what the NPOV is but who's oppinion will be included in the article and accepted as truth.

    There is a Penny-Arcade comic that sums wikipedia up nicely I can't (due to a proxy) look it up right now...

    Disclaimer: I am a huge Wikipedia fan... but I only "trust" non political geek culture (Comics, video games) to be relitivly accurate.

    --
    I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
    Mark Twain
  4. Problems on the fringes by ZachPruckowski · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wikipedia works rather well at the core. Articles about science topics, or most history topics are OK. There are issues with current event topics, but there are plenty of editors working on those. the real problem that no one mentions with Wikipedia is on the fringes. there are 1.3 or so Million english articles. Some of them are poorly translated paragraphs from other languages. Some of them are straight lifts from a Press Release, and some of them are pretty incomplete. This is one such case. While editors can work on NPOV more directly with articles like George W. Bush or Jesus, there are only a handful of editors working on the fringes. I was hitting up the random pages button, and a few days ago, I stumbled across the "Miss Bikini of the Universe" page (no jokes, please). It consists of a few poorly translated paragraphs, a picture that's three years out of date (but attractive nonetheless), and a notice that Ukraine's candidate won the most recent one (which apparently was over the weekend in China somewhere), but no mention of the winner's name, DoB, etc. Now, I tried to do some cleanup - verb tenses, complete sentences, etc., but the page needs an awful lot of work, and frankly, I'm busy, and the orginal writer looks like he ran a few news articles through Babelfish.

  5. What? No link to WikiTruth? by wowbagger · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What? Nobody (at least, nobody above +2) has posted a link to WikiTruth? Well, let me do so then.

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    www.eFax.com are spammers
  6. Re:Different Experiences by crozell · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I mentioned this in another post, but there's a lot more to the story than what is reflected in TFA or wikipedia. Customers that just want to get from point A to point B (without driving) will generally want to get there as fast as possible unless the transportation is part of the reason to take the trip. That obviously makes the Lake Express ferry appealing to a fair number of people, and it is likely that some people that would have taken the Badger otherwise will now opt for the Lake Express ferry.

    Normally this would just be a free market issue - let the company with the best service at the lowest price win out. The ill-will comes in because the Lake Express ferry received a very controversial federally subsidized loan to start their business (minimizing the financial risk taken by the individuals starting the company). Much of the community around the Badger felt like this was unfair because it amounted to the federal government subsidizing one company to compete against another. Much of the community around the Lake express ferry thought that the Badger people were just whining, or didn't care how it happened as long as their community saw the economic gain of the new ferry.

    I forget some of the details now, but IIRC it appeared especially controversial because this was an unusual application of this particular maritime subsidy program and the congressional representative heading the relevant committee happens to have the ship builder in their district that built the Lake Express ferry. So, to some people it looked like thinly-veiled quid pro quo.

    Not trying to argue a point here....just want people to know that (though the wikipedia war is childish), there is a lot more to the story than what's in the linked articles.