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Edit-Approval System Proposed For English-Language Wikipedia

Posted by timothy on from the would-take-a-lot-of-editors dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A group of powerful Wikipedia insiders are pushing for FlaggedRevisions which will require a 'trusted user' to approve of edits before they go live on the online encyclopedia. There is also opposition but with support of founder Jimbo Wales it is likely to go through. The German version has tried the system, leading to three-week delays between edit and publication. The English wiki with its higher number of anonymous editors per trusted user is expected to suffer longer queues if FlaggedRevisions is implemented on all articles. This comes just a few days after Britannica announced that readers will be allowed to suggest edits and have them reviewed within 20 minutes. Will we see the day when Britannica can be edited almost instantly while editing Wikipedia requires fighting bureaucracy, patience and the right contacts?" Note that, according to the quote from Jimmy Wales in the linked article, this system would only be used "on a subset of articles, the boundaries of which can be adjusted over time to manage the backlog."

7 of 439 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Doesn't Matter by larry+bagina · · Score: 4, Funny

    [citation needed]

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  2. Re:Will there be no wiki truths? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    How sad that I'll never again get to read that Nicole Richie was born in the town of East Bumfuck.

  3. Re:This is a shock? by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Funny
    I think wikipedia will win out in the long term because:
    1. It is slightly cheaper
    2. It has the words Don't Panic written in it.
    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  4. Re:Will there be no wiki truths? by enjo13 · · Score: 5, Funny

    You sir have master (with incredible (and absolute)) skill the art of parenthetical (the use of parenthesis to denote (or markup (or provide additional detail))) writing.

    My hat is off to you :)

    --
    Turn s60 photos into awesome videos with mScrapbook for all S60 3rd edition phones!
  5. You need to check out ED by ion.simon.c · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sounds like Encyclopedia Dramatica is just the place that you're looking for!

  6. Re:Will there be no wiki truths? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You sir have master (with incredible (and absolute)) skill the art of parenthetical (the use of parenthesis to denote (or markup (or provide additional detail))) writing.

    My hat is off to you :)

    You write with a lisp.

  7. Re:User preference to view un-reviewed articles? by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 2, Funny

    While there are spammers and others who wish to manipulate wikipedia, there is also a strong leftist bias to the site.

    [[citation needed]]

    --
    The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.