German site spearheads cybercitizens' initiative at Wikipedia

"We got pretty lucky," Wales said in reference to Nature's assessment, which found that Wikipedia had four errors per sampled entry versus three errors for Encyclopedia Britannica. In general, Wikipedia is strong on scientific topics, but not as good in the humanities, he said.

"Although we have that as a goal, we are not as good as Britannica yet," Wales said. Wales said that German Wikipedians will start an experiment with "stable versions" of entries that will restrict attempts to vandalize them.

Go on, then, give 'er a try. Although there's already safeguards aplenty for those who would wish to run this surprisingly effective social experiment off the rails, Wikipedia is going one more and instituting a new system with its German page. No longer will edits show up automatically -- they'll be held for approval, which for the Wikipedia community may only mean a matter of minutes. What's the huge problem with this? Are there "adrenaline junkies" out there who need that quick hit of authenticity, even if it'll be gone or modified by morning? God, I'll never understand those people, although Wales seems to be one of them.

Check out this primer if you're not exactly sure how Wikipedia works, because it's not going anywhere. The prob with Wikipedia is that it doesn't cover unpopular topics so well. You'll have a lot more luck finding information on, say, the Powerpuff Girls, than you would Denis Johnson. A flaw: but, moreover, a vulnerability, in that I could vilify Denis Johnson with novel, and thus irrefutable, lies. Thus the [perceptive] invocation that Stephen Colbert made in his show, and a resultant Wired article, wherein we find these three directives first: "PICK A FIELD THAT CAN'T BE VERIFIED. CHOOSE A SUBJECT THAT'S ACTUALLY SECRET. GET YOUR OWN ENTRY IN AN ENCYCLOPEDIA." Obviously Colbert is onto something, and it's up to our more conscientious, less comfortable-with-unelicited-opinions brethren to try this thing out. After all, if it works in Germany, you may eventually be able to piddle your 15 seconds of fame out on the front page of Wikipedia! Can you imagine?