See Who Is Whitewashing Wikipedia

Decius6i5 writes "Caltech grad student Virgil Griffith has launched a search tool that uncovers whitewashing and other self-interested editing of Wikipedia. Users can generate lists of every edit to Wikipedia which has been made from a particular IP address range. The tool has already uncovered a number of interesting edits, such as one from the corporate offices of Diebold which removed large sections of content critical of their electronic voting machines. A Wired story provides more detail and Threat Level is running a contest to see who can come up with the most interesting Wikipedia spin job."

Comments

TFA Interesting

[Stanistani]

I was fascinated by the CIA's edits... mostly adding details... and this:

"One CIA entry deals with the details of lyrics sung in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode."

Nerds.

Re:TFA Interesting

[SDF-7]

But of course they did... the lyric "They got the Mustard out" is Joss Whedon's attempt to reveal that it was, in fact, the CIA that got Colonel Mustard out of this country to cover up their complicity in his war profiteering and the murder of witnesses to it.

Communism was just a red herring.

Re:TFA Interesting

[Nexus7]

So you're saying CIA agents can get mod points too?

Re:TFA Interesting

[ksd1337]

One CIA entry deals with the details of lyrics sung in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode. [citation needed]

BS

[kamapuaa]

Yet another case of anti-Wikipedia prejudice. Diebold has been editing the content of Encyclopedia Britannica since at least the 7th edition, but the mainstream press never even bothers to report on *that* kind of thing!

Re:BS

[kevin_conaway]

You do realize that the 7th Edition came out in 1827, right? Its funny. Laugh.

No, I didn't and now I feel like an idiot. Its times like this that I'm glad my slashdot name isn't linked to my real identity

Re:BS

[howlingmadhowie]

and even more amusing is the way he used wikipedia to look it up. little does he know, that the encyclopedia britannica has been editing wikipedia since 1964 to make it's own books look older and more authoritative.

Re:The encyclopedia ANYONE can edit.

[somersault]

No. Quote, or quote not. There is no credit.

Re:Reminder to self: whitewash from home

[gEvil (beta)]

Oh wait, I'm not important enough to have anything to whitewash.

Yeah, only the really important people are allowed to have picket fences...

Don't you mean . . .

[StefanJ]

. . . their own truthiness?

New poll topic!

[Anonymous Coward]

Who has whitewashed their wikipedia entry the most:

Diebold
Rumsfeld
Any article dealing with "Islam in country x"
Cowboy Neal

What's with the path?!?!

[Skadet]

Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Too many connections in /jizz4/web/wikipedia/docs/name2ip.php on line 154

?!?!?!

Re:The encyclopedia ANYONE can edit.

[seyyah]

What did you expect? Everyone has different truths.
Fuck me. Someone please go and wipe the postmodernism wiki now!

slashdotliberalwhining

[Peter Trepan]

I'm glad someone added the slashdotliberalwhining tag.

I can't tell you how much it bothers me when some whiny liberal drags out another tinfoil-hat theory about how "Big Business" is trying to manipulate public opinion by obfuscating facts, or how some (ooh!) big, scary police state is abusing its powers.

We're an established first-world country with a tradition of freedom, and it's not as if we're ever going to slip into fascism like the Germany or Italy of last century, or into a police state like modern China or Russia, or into a gilded age aristocracy like every country in the Americas except the United States and Canada.

So relax, whiny liberals. Such dangers are unheard of. If we seem to be slipping in any of those directions, just shut up and take it like a conservative - silently and complacently, without a doubt in your mind that no matter how badly things seem to be going, our superiors have things well in hand. Only losers whine about truth and decency. If you're a winner, you'll cheer for the winning side, no matter how repugnant its aims.

Wikipedia whitewashing won't matter...

[TheGreatOrangePeel]

...and for the record, everyone in Germany from 1939-1945 was out on holiday.

Clarifying the NSA

[The Angry Mick]

Now this was just silly . . .

Someone deep inside the National Security Agency helpfully adds a line to the disambiguation page for "NSA." The addition: "National Softball Association".

Re:TOR

[click2005]

I think the ease with which their voting machines can be altered/hacked proves they don't know anything about IT security.

Re:The encyclopedia ANYONE can edit.

[DrSkwid]

Painters are usless. They can only paint pictures.

Re:Jews

[BobMcD]

Wow. You make that sound almost as bad as the Anonymous Coward's on slashdot...

Re:I battle this from time to time

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Slashdotters, please tell me how I should edit this posting and make it disappear? If you don't want to post details publicly, please send me an email, to adrian.smith@r.congman.third.district.nebraska.us , thanks a bunch.

Re:The encyclopedia ANYONE can edit.

[lpangelrob]

We don't have a tool yet that can ask a question, and until we do, the only intelligent system in the universe that know of will be the human mind.

Well... we do... but the value of the questions the tool gives us is rather obscure.

Eliza Chat Bot: Hello, I am Eliza.
Me: How are you?
Eliza Chat Bot: Would you prefer if I were not ?