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Wikipedia Announces the Most Edited Articles of 2016 (npr.org)

Posted by BeauHD on from the developing-news dept.

Wikipedia has revealed its most edited articles of 2016. Believe it or not, the two most edited articles of the year were for Deaths in 2016, which was edited 18,230 times, and Donald Trump, with 8,933 edits as of December 21. NPR reports: Some are completely unsurprising -- like the articles about Brexit, the Panama Papers, the Orlando nightclub shooting, and other recent and controversial news topics. The popularity of editing others is somewhat more mysterious: like the article for RuPaul's Drag Race, and one for a fictional character named Beverley Gray -- the subject of a series of 26 mystery stories written between 1934 and 1955. The article on Vincent Van Gogh was also edited thousands of times in 2016, as editors reportedly sought to clarify misunderstandings about the artist in hopes of achieving "featured" status for the page. The most edited article by far was for Deaths in 2016, which was edited 18,230 times. David Bowie, Janet Reno, Gwen Ifill, Leonard Cohen, Fidel Castro, Muhammad Ali, John Glenn and Prince are among the notable people who died this year. Donald Trump's entry was second, with 8,933 edits as of Dec. 21. If history is any indication, there's a good chance the president-elect's Wikipedia page will come under even more scrutiny: The Wikimedia Foundation revealed earlier this year that George W Bush's article has the most edits of any article in English in the history of the site, with 45,862 revisions at last count.

78 comments

  1. What I love by ckatko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is that just because something is edited the most, doesn't mean the article is of high quality, or importance. It seems far more likely that Donald Trump's wiki is more of a proxy war for people's frustrations with politics, and the "Weapons" are cleverly twisting Wikipedia's rules to get what you want.

    I'll be surprising nobody but the most staunch biased people, that Wikipedia has plenty of great articles but you NEVER go to the "dark side" of Wikipedia... which is anything hardcore liberals might find interesting and worthy of "parking"--sitting on an article, watching any changes, and ferociously fighting any changes you don't like. As long as the parking-person is more willing to fight than you are to see the truth (almost always), then they win. And Wikipedia becomes this world of dicks fighting turf wars over control of mere words.

    I'll never forget reading the article on "Political Correctness." It was horrific. Like entering a completely different (hence "dark") Wikipedia. It called PC a "pejorative" word (you know, like a hate word used to hurt someone). It argued that PC didn't actually exist AND that it was actually a good thing at the same time. It didn't even try to be rational and in the the talk pages? They "ruled" that any professor, article, or idea they didn't like was "violating Wikipedia's rules". Rules they didn't apply to their own links to radical blogs with readers in the dozens.

    I'm no fan of that conservative wikipedia (ew...) but man, it sure would be nice if people were as fair and rational as they claimed to be. It doesn't help when the heads of the project at Wikimedia don't call them out and try to stop it. You know, "it's only 'wrong' if the dicks are saying things you don't agree with." Which strikes me, as an adult, and an outsider, as rather sad. A willful corruption of a wonderful idea "for the greater good."

    And I say all of this AS A LIBERAL. But I'm honest first, and political second. I honestly don't understand why people are so willing to obscure facts, and twist Wikipedia guidelines to push their agenda. It's like trying to put my head into that of a serial killer, or an alien. I can't even begin to figure out why people do it. Isn't the truth a noble goal in, and of, itself? And wouldn't you want to be on the side of the truth, even if it goes against your preconceived ideas about the world? Oh well...

    1. Re:What I love by DonaId+Trump · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...sniff...

      WRONG

    2. Re:What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Slashdot is a conservative site, you need to leave.

    3. Re:What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      > just because something is edited the most doesn't mean the article is of high quality, or importance

      I'll say, just a quick glance at the top edits shows that most concern movies and other pop culture detritus.

      captcha: insipid

    4. Re:What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Rationality is not among the aims of Wikipedia.

      Wikipedia is an aggregator of verifiable content. That's it.

      If the world-space of content is irrational, so should Wikipedia be.

    5. Re:What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sad!

    6. Re: What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll never forget reading the article on "Political Correctness." It was horrific. Like entering a completely different (hence "dark") Wikipedia. It called PC a "pejorative" word (you know, like a hate word used to hurt someone)

      Being pejorative doesn't require hate or trying to hurt anyone. If I use the term 'politically correct' I'm invariably criticising whatever I'm describing that way. That's all 'pejorative' means.

    7. Re: What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not quite. Wikipedia is an aggregate of information which is popularly believed to be true. Not of fact or Truth, verifiable or not.
      And that's their words, not mine.

    8. Re:What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I looked at the article on political correctness, It doesn't seem nearly as bad as you say.

      Also, PC is a pejorative term for a lot of people. I don't think you really understand the meaning of "pejorative". The fact that you are focusing in on that single word, you don't know what you are talking about, you don't even understand how to use the english language... makes me want to just tell you to fuck off.

    9. Re:What I love by ClickOnThis · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'll be surprising nobody but the most staunch biased people, that Wikipedia has plenty of great articles but you NEVER go to the "dark side" of Wikipedia... which is anything hardcore liberals might find interesting and worthy of "parking"--sitting on an article, watching any changes, and ferociously fighting any changes you don't like. As long as the parking-person is more willing to fight than you are to see the truth (almost always), then they win. And Wikipedia becomes this world of dicks fighting turf wars over control of mere words.

      I'm not sure why you're calling out "hardcore liberals" here. I have no doubt that hardcore conservatives also "park" in the way you describe.

      I'll never forget reading the article on "Political Correctness." It was horrific. Like entering a completely different (hence "dark") Wikipedia. It called PC a "pejorative" word (you know, like a hate word used to hurt someone). It argued that PC didn't actually exist AND that it was actually a good thing at the same time. It didn't even try to be rational and in the the talk pages? They "ruled" that any professor, article, or idea they didn't like was "violating Wikipedia's rules". Rules they didn't apply to their own links to radical blogs with readers in the dozens.

      I just did a quick read of the Wikipedia article on Political Correctness. It's an exhaustive (exhausting?) historical and academic treatment of the term, but I don't see that it's "horrific." The supposed inconsistencies are easily seen as the various contradictory uses of the term in various historical contexts. I didn't see anything about the supposed controversies in the talk pages. Care to enlighten us with links?

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    10. Re:What I love by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      Slashdot is a conservative site

      Says who?

      Slashdot is driven by content submitted by users. If you think it's conservative, then it must be because you think you're "winning." I prefer to think that nobody is winning, we're just all here for a spirited discussion.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    11. Re: What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that you Donald?

    12. Re:What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And there you are, eschewing reason for your team of choice. Requiring citations of others but only requiring your own feelings to prove your views, and ignoring what you hate in conservatives.

      Perhaps the reason why you do not see the criticisms presented are the same reasons why Neo-Nazis think they are making the world a better place.

    13. Re:What I love by Crashmarik · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Maybe in the old days. It seems the last thing the left who have colonized slashdot want is spirited discussion.
      It's similar to what happens with Wikipedia. The ends justify the means even when or perhaps especially when the people pushing for a particular end can't properly articulate their positions.

    14. Re:What I love by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      And there you are, eschewing reason for your team of choice. Requiring citations of others but only requiring your own feelings to prove your views, and ignoring what you hate in conservatives.

      You are confused. Reason demands an implicit evenness of culpability in the absence of other evidence. The OP provided no evidence that liberals were solely to blame for "parking." As for citations, I provided them, and the OP did not.

      Perhaps the reason why you do not see the criticisms presented are the same reasons why Neo-Nazis think they are making the world a better place.

      When you Godwinize the thread, you have lost the argument.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    15. Re:What I love by Mashiki · · Score: 4, Informative

      You should check out the gamergate page. Not only have dozens of editors been banned for edit warring, but the entire thing is a complete mess where even factual information is removed because it's contrary to the people who are pushing a narrative. That's the same article where a dozen hardcore feminists were banned for edit warring, and it's gone to abcom at least 3 times because of progressive parking and edit warring. It's pretty sad when "know your meme" and "encyclopedia dramatica" have more factual articles.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    16. Re: What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Since when does fact or truth enter the idea-scope of Wikipedia?

      Wikipedia is all about [citation needed] for the topics deemed as significant enough to warrant an entry. It doesn't matter whether the cited material contains truth. Whether something is "true" or not shouldn't even enter the mind of an editor. If you think about "truth" when editing an entry, you're doing it wrong.

      At most you need to balance the POV when multiple sources are available and they demonstrate divergent interpretation.

      And being verifiable doesn't mean "being validated as fact". All it means is that the source can be retrieved as public record (archived web page, Usenet posting, news, journal or book publication, or private manuscript available from a public library).

      If the content on a topic is only available from some extreme right wacko blog, the topic is either too insignificant, or it is somehow significant enough (unlikely) but the best you get happens to be just that extreme right wacko blog (and you should stick with it until more sources emerge). Hopefully if the topic is significant, there will be enough public material in the pool from which you can write a balanced entry.

    17. Re:What I love by zuxun · · Score: 2

      a proxy war for people's frustrations with politics

      The only one frustrated with politics is Donald Trump.

    18. Re:What I love by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's worse than that.

      I am not a big Wikipedia contributor. But an avid reader. It's fun to spend a few hours reading and eventually wondering "now how the fuck did I end up here?". Same happened recently when I ended up on the page about a certain style of the top ornament of certain Greek pillars. Probably not the page too many people will go to, and certainly the pet project of someone since, let's be honest here, who the fuck gives a shit about the style of Greek column top ornamentation in a certain period in a certain area of the classic Greek times?

      Now, this page had been vandalized and, being as popular as it is with probably 2 hits per decade, had not been spotted yet. Somewhere inside the 3-4 screens worth of wall of text, it informed in no uncertain terms about the sexual preferences of some gentleman that I never heard about but now know a lot about his favorite bedtime pastimes. Considering this at least slightly off topic for Greek columns (ok, not completely, to be honest, but still... probably not too appropriate at least) I dared to do the unspeakable: Revert a vandalism attempt. Marked it as such and went on, merrily thinking I finally gave something back to the community that provided me with many hours, if not months, of enjoyment, entertainment and information.

      I returned there a day later, mostly for egosurfing to be honest, and to pat myself on the shoulder, only to find it vandalized again. Actually, my revert had been reverted. To make a long story short, after another revert of mine, and the ensuing revert of my revert, I was informed that I should please refrain from "edit warring" and that I better leave the article alone now if I value my account.

      So I have concluded that it is highly relevant for the understanding of Greek column design that a certain person in Maine is really into buttsex.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    19. Re:What I love by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 3, Informative

      The same problem is why I never really got into contributing to Wikipedia.

      In the earlier but not early days, I would occasionally fix obvious minor errors -- spelling mistakes in someone's name, one technical term written when another similar-sounding or similar-looking term was obviously intended, that kind of thing. After the first few such changes were reverted, apparently (semi-)automatically with no justification given, it became clear that whatever Wikipedia was aiming for, accuracy wasn't one of the things it was actually set up to achieve.

      What really wound me up, though, was seeing a few technical articles about mainstream subjects in computing that were not just slightly wrong but completely misrepresenting the topic. More specifically, they were taking an established technical subject with many years of history and development behind it, and instead of describing all of that, they merely described some modern bastardization that had become popular with the young, enthusiastic, but inexperienced crowd. Usually that seemed to happen after someone abused terminology in the recent past in connection with some new product or service that had become the current hyped thing, and a handful of editors within the related community who maybe just didn't know any better then appointed themselves the custodians of that page.

      Sometimes, more knowledgeable people would try to correct some of the errors, or at least raise the issue of the overall distortion on the talk pages. Those talk pages would then exhibit the most absurd rationalizations for why the new, distorted version was right. They'd argue that the meaning of terminology established for decades had changed almost overnight. They'd point to numerous sources all from within that same very new community, and refuse to see or accept that there was already a much larger community with a much longer history using the term another way that hadn't suddenly disappeared. It was like a real-time demonstration of the Dunning-Kruger effect, which was particularly ironic, because that was sometimes a favourite cliche to throw at people who had probably been using the ideas under discussion since before the unhelpful editors had been born and who probably knew more about the subject than all of those other editors put together...

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    20. Re:What I love by TuringTest · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Talk pages are your friend in these cases. If you post a rationale for your correction there, some experienced editor might be able to intervene and set things straight, or at least start a resolution procedure to gather opinions from more people.

      If you're editing as an IP without a user account, this will also make less likely that the spambot will revert your anonymous contribution (although in the case you describe, it might have been an asshole editor instead; the only solution for it is to ask for a third opinion or other conflict resolution procedure).

      --
      Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
    21. Re:What I love by TuringTest · · Score: 1

      I've read a paper where they found that the most edited articles are almost always the most controversial, not necessarily the most popular. The most obvious themes are politics, religion, and naming of geographical and historic figures, as well as Wikipedia's own rule pages; but large time-spanning edit wars may occur for any obscure topic. They even keep an archive of the lamest edit wars.

      --
      Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
    22. Re:What I love by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Perhaps the reason why you do not see the criticisms presented are the same reasons why Neo-Nazis think they are making the world a better place.

      When you Godwinize the thread, you have lost the argument.

      You weren't compared to Hitler. You were compared to deluded sheep who baa on command. Whether that's an apt comparison or not is another argument, but it's not Godwinning. (I'm certainly not going to look up PC on Wikipedia, that sounds tedious.)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    23. Re:What I love by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I have very rarely edited Wikipedia, by installing some facts into some automotive articles. Those facts have stayed there. If they got reverted I wouldn't cry, because I didn't spend a lot of effort on them. I looked them up not for Wikipedia's benefit, but for mine.

      I would never expect WP to retain edits, even useful ones. That helps me think of contributing to it even though it is an overdramatic political wankfest. Of course, it also helps me not think of contributing to it. If I write a whole article on something not included in WP, I'm certainly not going to post it there. I'll post it someplace I have control over the content, then people can cite it on WP.

      Of course, I've also accidentally tripped over a case where a WP article cited one of my webpages as a reference... in my webpage, I had cited the WP article in question. And the information I had got from the page was specifically where WP was citing my page. Someone had gone looking for a new citation, presumably because the old one dropped off the web, and then made a truly shit decision. If they had just scrolled to the bottom of the article, they'd have found the WP article they were editing in the Bibliography.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    24. Re:What I love by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I suppose my disappointment is not so much that I spent five minutes trying to help and my help was then rejected, it's that if that happened to me on something where I know WP was wrong before and my change was right, then clearly I can't trust other articles on subjects where I'm not an expert in case the same thing happened. I imagine those operating WP would be the first to say you shouldn't trust WP as a primary source anyway, as I think they always have, but still, rejecting objectively correct changes damages the credibility of WP as a whole.

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    25. Re:What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      This sounds like a lot of the postings on Slashdot about Wikipedia. The poster apparently did something sensible, and a Wikipedia editor apparently responded in a bad way.

      However, it's unsatisfying to only get one side of the story without any way of checking it. In this case it looks almost checkable, as there aren't that many Greek column articles, and Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian haven't had a huge number of edits. I couldn't find the relevant changes there, so I assume it's a more obscure article.

      If someone has this kind of story in future it would be great if they could post the actual Wikipedia change as an AC.

      Assuming this isn't just made up, I'd agree with the previous poster that the talk page is your friend. Also it would be good to have a focussed change (i.e. just get rid of the Maine guy) and a good edit summary.

    26. Re:What I love by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Sorry, it was not important enough for me to go through a lengthy discussion about how buttsex is probably not a relevant issue for column ornamentation. If that's what they want, buttsex is what they get.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    27. Re:What I love by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I really don't remember what it was, it was a column style I haven't heard before which is why I took a look, curious how it would differ from the others (since I just learned that moment that there are actually many different styles through the times and between the various city states). I also don't remember what language it was now, whether it was English, French, German or Italian (speaking multiple languages on a similar level leads to not remembering what language you read something in), which sure doesn't make it easier to find the article again.

      Next time something like this happens I might actually try the talk page, if only to ask whether buttsex is an important aspect of the column style and relevant enough to the understanding of the artistic value of the ornamentation to reinstate it

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    28. Re: What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Slashdot is a site not totally owned by leftists. That makes it a conservative site to those with closed minds who only ever even brush up against different ideas here on Slashdot.

    29. Re: What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well! That comment quickly spun off into teh hate.

    30. Re: What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In truth, Godwin's law only applies to usenet, where threads can go on for weeks and months. Because of how Slashdot is set up, discussions are self extinguishing in hours or at most a day or two.

      Godwin's law can only be misapplied in most modern blog type settings.

    31. Re: What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Some wiki articles need to exist simply to serve as honeypots, as places used to trap and incinerate trolls.

    32. Re: What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trump is the Drano of politics. There is no frustration there. Just a compelling need for 'politics', a stinking clump of grease and hair and shit, to be dissolved and flushed out of the way.

    33. Re:What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As you said " I was informed that I should please refrain from "edit warring" and that I better leave the article alone now if I value my account." it seems like this was while you were logged in to Wikipedia. Therefore it seems like you could go back through your edit list - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... - and find the article.

      Most importantly, you could find out if the problem is still there, or look through the page history for when it was removed.

    34. Re:What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also the context you supplied makes it seem like you could probably concentrate on English rather than the other languages. Someone posting abuse about someone in Maine in the FR, DE, or IT versions would be a huge loser even by the low standards of Wiki vandals.

    35. Re:What I love by fbobraga · · Score: 1

      I'll never forget reading the article on "Political Correctness." It was horrific. Like entering a completely different (hence "dark") Wikipedia. It called PC a "pejorative" word (you know, like a hate word used to hurt someone).

      Here in Brazil there's much controversial discussion about this subject ("Political Correctnes" or, in Portuguese, "Politicamente Correto"): many use this term as a pejorative adjective, citing the "Dictatorship of Political Correctnes" (a total nonsense, to me...) when some kind of subtle discriminatory action (that not even the makerrecognizes it...) is spotlighted

    36. Re:What I love by fbobraga · · Score: 1

      You know, "it's only 'wrong' if the dicks are saying things you don't agree with." Which strikes me, as an adult, and an outsider, as rather sad.

      this, several times!

    37. Re: What I love by fbobraga · · Score: 1

      Is that you Donald?

      it's what the username says: https://slashdot.org/~DonaId+Trump

    38. Re:What I love by fbobraga · · Score: 1

      Slashdot is a conservative site, you need to leave.

      you must be new here...

    39. Re:What I love by fbobraga · · Score: 1

      I just did a quick read of the Wikipedia article on Political Correctness. It's an exhaustive (exhausting?) historical and academic treatment of the term, but I don't see that it's "horrific."

      Maybe OP is refering to the Portuguese version (https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politicamente_correto) - note that the content is vastly different in the two idioms, it's not a simple translation (the Portuguese one seems FUD to me...)

    40. Re: What I love by fbobraga · · Score: 1

      +1 Informative

    41. Re: What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Noble" an idea that died when we started to drop bombs on farmers to combat an other idiology. We live in an era where wars of ideology are fought, not just in other peoples countries, but in a logical land we call the internet. Before we can tell anyone who we are, we must first know what we are; humans. Masters of manipulation. This very medium of communication is evident of this.

    42. Re:What I love by GoChickenFat · · Score: 1

      Slashdot is a conservative site

      Says who?

      Slashdot is driven by content submitted by users. If you think it's conservative, then it must be because you think you're "winning." I prefer to think that nobody is winning, we're just all here for a spirited discussion.

      Um...it's a joke.

    43. Re:What I love by TuringTest · · Score: 2

      My point is that, if you say "this is vandalism" at the talk page, someone else may find it without having to review the full history of article edits.

      There's no requirement that you have the lengthy discussion yourself. Wikipedia is a collaborative project after all, and surely there will be someone else willing to spend the time fighting the vandal.

      --
      Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
    44. Re:What I love by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 1

      Talk pages are your friend in these cases. If you post a rationale for your correction there, some experienced editor might be able to intervene and set things straight, or at least start a resolution procedure to gather opinions from more people.

      Yeah, that works sometimes, particularly on articles that are popular enough that various editors might monitor them. If it's something too obscure and you happen to come up against a "king of the hill" situation against some editor, good luck. That was the final straw about when I stopped trying to improve Wikipedia -- I'd long since given up actually trying to write new content due to continuous warring over stuff that didn't matter (and, worse, once a situation was apparently "resolved," a few months or a year later, some jerk could come along and trash the whole thing and start up the controversies again). I basically gave up after an ADMIN had an edit war with a bunch of obviously much more knowledgeable users... who weren't even trying to delete his (preposterous) perspective; just trying to add other viewpoints to the article to make it less biased.

      Anyhow, after that I did still occasionally make a minor correction where I saw a factual error -- ALWAYS accompanied by a Talk Page note, because I saw how many edits tend to be summarily reverted for no reason.

      Than a few times that didn't work. Once I had an editor even try to report my IP as being highjacked for no apparent reason just because I had cited evidence that disagreed with the article. (That was in a case where I hadn't even EDITED the article -- I just brought up some proposed ideas to fix it on the Talk Page. Eventually, I contacted some admins and they stepped in to calm things down.)

      After a few times of such nonsense, I got pretty frustrated. The last straw was about an article talking specifically about the text of a primary source. I altered the article slightly to delete misleading info and made a note on the Talk Page. Edits were summarily reverted. I fixed it again and put literally a DOZEN citations on the text of the primary source on the Talk Page. This time the "king of the hill" figured he'd try a different strategy and just waited two weeks, thinking I'd probably just forget about it. Then he/she posted "unsupported edits reverted" in response on the Talk Page and changed it back.

      I don't have time for that sort of crap. I don't have time to run to admins to fix obscure -- but clear -- errors and enter into some sort of conflict resolution... which could ultimately be undone 2 years down the line by some other idiot who just happens upon the page and wants to "fix" it again.

      Until Wikipedia adopts a "stable" version system of some sort for pages that have achieved consensus and figures out some way to take into account ACTUAL editorial expertise on a subject when it's offered, I will never contribute again. As far as I can tell, it's a shrinking community of hardcore wackos who are more interested in having policy debates whenever someone threatens their "policed content" than actually improving content.... meanwhile, all the time the "barbarians are at the gates" in terms of vandals, people making malicious or paid or distorting edits, etc., and it's only getting worse.

      In such a culture, it's bound to breed paranoia and people struggling to revert any changes on their work. I completely get why they do it -- because it's a defense mechanism in an utterly broken system. That doesn't mean I want to take part in it.

      I'd even go so far as to encourage subtle vandalism on Wikipedia (though I can't bring myself to do so), because the faster we draw attention to its foundational issues, the faster it might actually be abandoned for a better system or the public will wake up to how much crap is going on "beneath the surface." Reform is no longer possible within the system, if it ever was -- studies on the issue showed that Wikipedia coalesced as a bureaucracy very early, with ongoing debates o

    45. Re:What I love by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I suppose my disappointment is not so much that I spent five minutes trying to help and my help was then rejected, it's that if that happened to me on something where I know WP was wrong before and my change was right, then clearly I can't trust other articles on subjects where I'm not an expert in case the same thing happened.

      Yeah, spend a few years editing on and off (as I did, several years back), and you'll realize how common this problem actually is.

      I imagine those operating WP would be the first to say you shouldn't trust WP as a primary source anyway, as I think they always have, but still, rejecting objectively correct changes damages the credibility of WP as a whole.

      The problem isn't just the rejection -- since you CAN usually fight enough and escalate the situation enough to get the correct information into the article. Depending on who you're fighting, this might be rather simple or could take a detailed knowledge of Wikipedia procedure and many hours of time investment.

      That's all problematic in and of itself... but the larger issue is that even if you fight to get something corrected, there is absolutely NO guarantee it will stay that way. This is a particular issue with stuff where there's a popular "consensus" on an issue, but the subject experts realized that was wrong decades ago. (This is particularly true in many humanities disciplines, like history, where stuff "everybody knows" is frequently wrong. And there are often plenty of non-specialist sources written by otherwise reasonably reputable people where you can still find the old "myths" propagated.)

      So, you spend a few days and a lot of effort to get the "right stuff" in, but then a year from now some idiot comes along with some popular citations, rewrites the article, and throws out that stuff you fought so hard to get in. It's not just wasting your effort to get stuff in -- it's then committing to perpetual policing of the content. (And thus it's no wonder why many editors start getting attached to pages -- they themselves probably made some improvements over whatever idiots they kicked off years ago, so they get overprotective.)

      Say what you will about the reliability of old paper encyclopedias or their bias or errors too. Sure, that stuff existed. But they didn't spontaneously generate new errors on your shelf so that you never knew whether a given article got better or worse since the last time you opened the book.

    46. Re:What I love by TuringTest · · Score: 1

      Yeah, nothing to object to your accurate summary of how things go on at "the sun of all knowledge".

      The thing that keeps me going in and participating (besides the desire to restore some unjustly removed content, and the obvious addictive nature as a social game AND a massive multiplayer game) is a long term vision, which is shared by few people.

      Think that 20 or 40 years from now, the current vandals and trolls that own any particular article will be gone (there will likely be new ones, but there's hope that they will camp at some ''other'' article); and, since every edit gets logged and distributed under a classic share-alike license, a future editor really interested in that specific topic will be able to trace back the full history of changes and old versions, probably assisted by some AI machine learning tool that will detect the edit wars and fact-check which side seems more likely to be right.

      Assuming that deletionists or some other totalitarian state don't get to lock and burn the whole thing down, the project is the first wide-scale, distributed attempt to create a universal compilation of general knowledge since the times of the first encyclopedia; and this one is self documenting every turn of the way. Even its many failures will allow future researchers to study how not to set up a collaborative project and how early neticens behaved when the internet was young.

      I agree with you that being a part of it doesn't necessarily feel nice, though.

      --
      Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
    47. Re: What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have no doubt that hardcore conservatives also "park" in the way you describe.

      I'm sure they'd love to, but conservatives don't have the kind of Friends in High Places required to pull it off. You clearly got no idea what you're falking about.

    48. Re:What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should check out the gamergate page. Not only have dozens of editors been banned for edit warring, but the entire thing is a complete mess where even factual information is removed because it's contrary to the people who are pushing a narrative.[...] It's pretty sad when "know your meme" and "encyclopedia dramatica" have more factual articles.

      Direct links for the lazy:

      That's the same article where a dozen hardcore feminists were banned for edit warring,

      Oops, you believed the Guardian. It's a common mistake. What actually happened was that one feminist editor Ryulong was banned after he was caught begging for money from the activist group GamerGhazi which was formed by Reddit's SRS clique to suppress the spread of information about Gamergate. That's like asking for money from the Trump campaign after changing the name of Hillary Clinton to "Lying Hillary." They were still going to let him off the hook but Ryulong acted like a total ass on the last few days of the arbitration case so one or two of the votes flipped.

      Every other hardcore feminist editor got away with it. Then the admins took vengeance for their friend Ryulong by instantly banning anybody who reported the misbehavior of any of the hardcore feminist editors in any other area of the wiki. They also took out a bunch of the Japanese editors who tried to correct Ryulong's misspellings where this white fanboy had made himself Wikipedia's final judge of Japanese spelling and grammar and had previously banned anyone who disagreed with him. When Gamaliel got elected to the Arbitration Committee a year later, ArbCom quickly banned two prominent editors who had presented evidence against Gamaliel during the Gamergate case, Cla68 and The Devil's Advocate, without presenting any justification for either ban. It was straight out of Kafka.

      Some people still mistakenly think that the adults will take charge if you stay calm and reasonable and don't break the rules. That has been tried and results in a quick and permanent ban. Explaining your own position is "soapboxing" and "beating a dead horse" and is grounds for a ban. Having strong sources to support your position makes you a "POV-pusher" who is "not here to build the encyclopedia", which justifies a permanent ban. Presenting evidence of rulebreaking by the admins is "trolling" and "sockpuppetry" and merits an instant ban, and they are likely to remove your comments and insult you on the way out. If you try to appeal your ban on the grounds that you never broke any policy, your appeal will be rejected and you are likely to have your talk page access revoked. You are required to confess to sins you have not committed and proclaim that the admins are correct in policy when they are not. The place is run by completely irrational people who belong in an insane asylum.

      For further reading:

    49. Re:What I love by bongey · · Score: 1

      WTF are you talking about the Politcal Correctness article is complete crap. Just count how many times they say "right wing", "conservatives", and they go as far to devote an entire section to right wing political correctness. Your just a troll or a idiotic liberal that really thinks nothing has bias except fox news.

    50. Re:What I love by bongey · · Score: 1

      You are joking right? What really happens is a pack of liberal trolls and sock puppet accounts come out vote your edits down or just strait delete your talk topics from the talk page.

    51. Re:What I love by Baloo+Uriza · · Score: 1

      If you think reality is "the left" when it's really "the center," you might need to get out of your conservative safe space and return to reality.

      --
      Furries make the internet go.
    52. Re:What I love by Baloo+Uriza · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure why you're calling out "hardcore liberals" here. I have no doubt that hardcore conservatives also "park" in the way you describe.

      Because American politics have a conservative wing that is so far out there and is so convinced that they are entitled to having a monoculture that anything that has a neutral point of review, and by extension, reality itself, has a "hardcore liberal bias" from their perspective. The same ones that think Breitbart and Fox News are neutral, and NPR and BBC are leftist plots to make them look stupid. I'd love to say this was a rare thing, but it seems this is the nominal middle of the modern Republican movement.

      --
      Furries make the internet go.
    53. Re:What I love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The left never even gets close to reality, thanks for the demo of this fact.

      3/4 of the states are red
      The House
      The Senate
      The Executive Branch
      All Red

      Who is living in a safe space ?

  2. Trump by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trump will defeat Gyna! All hail Trump!!!!

  3. Together by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the two most edited articles of the year were for Deaths in 2016, which was edited 18,230 times, and Donald Trump, with 8,933 edits

    We can do it - we have 8 date to make around 10,000 edits - let's make the Donald Trump article great again!

    1. Re:Together by Calydor · · Score: 1

      What, by deleting it for lack of relevance or notoriety?

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  4. The Truth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tends to have a liberal bias.

    1. Re: The Truth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But you conflate liberalism with rationality.

    2. Re: The Truth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Citation, please.

  5. Spell Checker Gone Awry by zenlessyank · · Score: 1

    Submit for editing.

  6. Deaths page is a perennial by ZipK · · Score: 2

    Death wins every year.

    1. Re:Deaths page is a perennial by No+Longer+an+AC · · Score: 1

      I'm not really surprised that's up there - along with Donald Trump.

      Ignoring politics for a moment we lost some important and popular people. Prince, David Bowie, John Glenn, Leonard Cohen, Gwen Ifil, John McLaughlin, Harper Lee, Florence Henderson, Abe Vigoda, Merle Haggard, Gene Wilder, Muhammad Ali, Paul Kantner, Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and Arnold Palmer but not Carl Palmer.

      Glen Frey, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Janet Reno, Fidel Castro, Shimon Peres. Gordie Howe, Bernie Worrel, that guy from Mr. Ed, Noel Neill, Antonin Scalia, George Kennedy,

      I skipped over a lot of people to make my list that short.

      Some of those people were old anyway and weren't expected to live and weren't doing much, but others were too young and had a lot more to offer the world.

      Keith Richards is still alive!

      You know that meme that floats around the internet that says "Hey Mick, look who I outlived this week".

      Now I don't wish death upon Mick Jagger, but it's coming someday and how are they going to re-work that meme? "Hey Mick, look who I outlived this----Mick? Are you still breathing? Mick?...Mick? Oh bloody hell, now I've outlived Mick Jagger."

      And then the Rolling Stones will be truly over. Or maybe Keith Richards will die first. Either of them is a good bet to die soon.

      No sympathy for the devil.

  7. the prncesss and her ex from marketing lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the problem is not fake news. the problem is fake content. everytime i start seaching for shit to favorite on twitter, bots start generating shit and following me. it's super annoying.

    1. Re:the prncesss and her ex from marketing lol by fbobraga · · Score: 1

      bots on twitter are always annoying!

  8. Mod parent down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Your a fool for coming up with this brash nonsense. Wikipedia has NO bias since its peer edited. What that means? Many people can come in and frankly DO come in and change things, so there is this natural "balance" that one person cant break.

    Take a step back, maybe go to some college classes, rethink your arguments. Wikipedia is one of Man's greatest acchievements.

    1. Re:Mod parent down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed

    2. Re:Mod parent down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're a fool for not understanding the way Wikipedia works and how the rules are selectively applied based on interpersonal relationships and ideological tribalism.

      Take a step back. Maybe go to some collage classes. Rethink your opinion. Wikipedia is a great idea poorly executed because it was predicated upon people being rational and able to look beyond their own personal biases.

    3. Re:Mod parent down by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 1

      Wikipedia is one of Man's greatest acchievements.

      Hear hear! I'd even go further to say that Wikipedia is the single greatest endeavor in the history of humankind: To make freely available the sum total of human knowledge to anyone, and allow anyone to contribute to that knowledge. In my humble opinion, nothing else beats that.

      --
      Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
    4. Re:Mod parent down by fbobraga · · Score: 1

      Wikipedia has NO bias since its peer edited.

      Do you believe in Santa Claus too?

  9. The most reverted article, on the other hand, by justthinkit · · Score: 1

    The most reverted article, on the other hand, is not known because they had only used a 32-bit counter.

    --
    I come here for the love
    1. Re:The most reverted article, on the other hand, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mediawiki is written in PHP. You don't even need integer overflow to corrupt data.

  10. Most Edited Articles. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Deaths in 2016 is the most edited articles in Wikipedia. I can't believed it.

    Pragati Udyog established itself as a leading trader of Heavy Melting Scrap (HMS), Cast Iron Scrap and various grades of Aluminium Scrap.
    Pragati Udyog

  11. Post truth, post-truth by dna_(c)(tm)(r) · · Score: 1

    Or you could add Donald T. to the Deaths in 2016 page. Tweet that it's true because people are talking about it a lot and even Wikipedia picked it up. Then watch the number of edits on both pages explode.

  12. Once again, WikiPedia seems to prove it... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 1

    They focus more upon popularity of the site than accuracy of the site.

  13. pablum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know, this sort of mindless rhetorical garbage is popular in faculty lounges and is easily spoon-fed to stupid mushy-headed students who've not yet experienced enough of life to see it for what it is, but "The truth tends to have a liberal bias" and its equally idiotic rhetorical sibling "Reality has a liberal bias" is not anchored to anything.

    One might equally say "Mars is progressive" or "Jupiter is a Democrat", etc.

    "Mighty Mouse will save the day!" is a more rational statement.

    Note to the brainwashed youth: Every evil leftist ideology from the Communists of chairman Mao's revolution, the the Communists of Stalin, the Communists of Pol Pot, and the National Socialist German Workers Party (Google NSDAP) ALL tell young people that they are smarter and wiser than their elders, that the future is biased in favor of the ideology pushed by their teachers, etc. Read-up on the teachings of the "Communist Youth League" the "Young Pioneers" the communists youth groups, the (soviet) Young Pioneers, the Hitler Youth, etc.

    History repeats itself, particularly with the young who do not remember the previous iterations of evil and are thus easily tricked into it by happy rhetoric for another cycle.