NPR posted a story about Wikipedia graffiti on the entries for Clinton, Obama, and McCain. I mean it's things like this that make me hate the internet. I love that something like Wikipedia exists and I realize that this is the drawback to it, but honestly people, GROW UP!
There are robots that catch the blatant stuff, but human editors are policing the entries constantly. If you want to post opinion get a blog (we did). If you want to up facts fine, just do your research. Stuff like this:
Vozick also says that the discussion page associated with Obama is plagued by people asking why his profile doesn't include his Muslim faith. "The Muslim faith ... the discredited madrassa story: That goes in there all the time, I would say at least once a week ... 'Why doesn't it say that Barack Obama was a Muslim, is a Muslim, is going to be a Muslim, has Muslim family?'"As far as the most offensive thing she's seen in two years of monitoring Obama's page, Vozick recalls a summer evening, late at night, when she visited the page. "There was a picture there of naked men, black men in a sauna. ... It wasn't there very long, but it was put back a couple of times."
Just gets my blood pressure up. And yes if it were McCain it would make me just as mad. In fact his entry isn't safe either.
"McCain doesn't attract as visceral a reaction," he says. "Hillary — even long before she ran for president — she's always been an incendiary figure. ... As the election goes on, [McCain's page] will get more and more active, because of reasons of pure partisanship."


Comments (3)
You sound surprised to find that the average mentality age of the internet is a robust 7 years old (you stupid poopie face!)
It's a shame (but no surprise) that things like Wikipedia degenerate into stupid stuff like this. Wikipedia, in my opinion, is only really useful for basic information on obscure or mundane topics - for anything current, head to MSNBC or CNN.
Posted by Jared
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April 4, 2008 10:41 AM
Posted on April 4, 2008 10:41
Not surprised. Humanity never fails to disappoint me with stuff like this.
Posted by Scott
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April 4, 2008 10:47 AM
Posted on April 4, 2008 10:47
The simple solution would be to lock down the articles in question. It shouldn't be hard to limit access to 10 or 15 actual wiki employees, who can be tracked. And this isn't a new problem with wiki, either. Some of the entries/edits to the biography of Condoleeza Rice (and other members of the current White House)have been very abusive. It seems that those have been brought under control, though.
Posted by Dan
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April 4, 2008 11:39 AM
Posted on April 4, 2008 11:39