Reader Johnny Cat wrote in to expect aboutwhich Wikipedia entrance have the highest incidences of false information in them . " I ’m aware that almost everything there , from Applebee ’s to Zorro , has errors every mean solar day , " he write , " but something in my catgut tells me there are certain topics that just attract risky submitter . "
Johnny Cat — and you — will probably be as surprised as I was scrolling down Wikipedia’sList of Most Vandalized Pages , because there does n’t seem to be any method acting to the madness of wiki vandalism as far open affair is concerned . Among the victim of " exceptionally high-pitched vandalism " are the entries forJack London , baseball , Halo 2,Harry Potter , piano , habitation improvementandbuttocks . The commonness among some of the most vandalized entries seems to be that they ’re recent major news consequence , subject that are presently , or have been , subjects of disputation , or entries that are merely pop and often understand .
Back up. What is wiki vandalism in the first place?
Wikipedia define it as any " improver , removal , or variety of content made in adeliberateattempt to compromise the integrity of Wikipedia , " which can issue forth in motley of flavors , such as …
blank : absent all or significant part of a pageboy ’s content without any rationality , or supersede entire pages with nonsense . Page creation : create young pages with the intent of malicious behavior , like blatant advertising pages , personal attack pages and hoaxes . Page lengthening : Adding large amounts of speculative - faith depicted object in edict to make the Sir Frederick Handley Page ’s loading fourth dimension abnormally long or even make it impossible to adulterate without internet browser crashing . Spam : Adding international links to non - notable or irrelevant sites or website that have some family relationship to the matter matter , but publicise or advance in the drug user ’s interest . cockamamy vandalism : summate profanity , graffiti , random characters or other nonsense to entrance or creating nonsensical and non - encyclopaedic pages . range of a function vandalism : Uploading shock images , inappropriately place denotative simulacrum on Sir Frederick Handley Page , or using icon in other disruptive room .
Once the damage is done, how long does it take to fix?
In the interest of science , Wikipedia userColonel Chaosvandalized featured articles , the first appearance that are considered the cream of the Wikipedia crop . Since Wikipedia employs computer software created to avail find gentle - to - spot vandalism ( like " Your mom ! " or " POOP ! ! ! ! " ) , the Colonel engaged in slimly more complex vandalism of three types : Complete Nonsense , where passages of all irrelevant prose were inserted into articles;Grave Factual Accuracy , where cloth was changed or inserted in a path that it would be obvious to the middling reviewer or editor in chief of Wikipedia that the cloth was false ( for instance That Martin Sheen discovered hydrochloric window pane by mixing potatoes with salt and invented Agent Orange for the design of dissolving gold ) ; andFactual Inaccuracy , where article were changed slightly so a reader would necessitate some knowledge of the topic for spot the inaccuracy ( e.g. the clause on Norman Borlaug was changed from " Between 1965 and 1970 , wheat yields nearly double in Pakistan and India " to " Between 1968 and 1975 , wheat yields nearlytripledin Pakistan and India . "
The average response meter on these change were 11.5 hours for Complete Nonsense , 9.25 hours for Grave Inaccuracy and 57.4 minutes for Factual Inaccuracy . Colonel Chaos notes that for featured articles , which rotate on Wikipedia ’s main Sir Frederick Handley Page and are heavily viewed , a backsliding prison term of 10 minute would be more appropriate .
Here are some highlights from the study :
Is there any way to stop this madness?
Well , there was theplanto simply let vandal take to the woods amuck on the introduction for chickens . By sacrifice this article—“Dudes already know about chickens . Ladies also already hump about crybaby . Does an encyclopedia really require an article about nature ’s tastiest birds?"—it was hoped that the rest of Wikipedia would be spar . The plan , like the bird , never really got off the terra firma .
Then there ’s WikiScanner , created byDaniel Erenrich and Virgil Griffith , which allows users to trace the beginning of anonymous edits to Wikipedia entries and by using IP address of the anonymous drug user ( which Wikipedia logs ) to discover the proprietor of the computer internet from which the edits were made . In the past , the dick has exposed insiders at Diebold Election Systems , Exxon and the CIA covertly delete or changing data that was uncomplimentary to their organizations . If you ca n’t stop a vandal , you’re able to at least displume back the mantle of anonymity .
