A Solution to Wikipedia Vandalism

On November 8, Dinosaur Comics featured a compelling argument about how to eliminate all the vandalism that occurs on Wikipedia. They even spun off a companion web site, Every Topic In The Universe Except Chickens dot com, dedicated to the project.

The problem was stated as follows.

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that everyone can edit. That's rad! It's a good place to learn a lot about the internet, sex, explosions, Ravenna, Ohio, and Captain Picard. ...

The problem is that dudes and ladies like to vandalize it with misinformation, falsehoods, stories about their cats, and sometimes even pictures of wieners in articles that aren't even about wieners. I saw that once.

THAT IS NOT COOL because what if you are using the internet for serious research and you ended up thinking that Jodie Foster was History's Greatest Villain? THIS GRIM VISION IS POSSIBLE WITH WIKIPEDIA. You would end up getting a D+.

And the solution.

I give you a new Wikipedia. A Wikipedia evolved, a Wikipedia that lives in the here in the real world. A Wikipedia that makes just one tiny concession to vandals, a concession for the greater good. I give you Wikipedia 2.0, otherwise known as Wikipedia: Every Topic In The Universe, Except Chickens (Dot Com).

HOW IT WORKS:

Simple! I just said. Instead of vandalizing Wikipedia in general, we all just vandalize the chicken article.

How does it work? Dudes already know about chickens. Ladies also already know about chickens. Does an encyclopedia really need an article about nature's tastiest birds? You know the answer is "no it most certainly does not".

Wikipedia simply GIVES UP that article to vandals, and in return the other articles, like the one about octopods (Humanity's Underwater ChumsTM), do not get vandalized.

Instead of a quantum encyclopedia, with vandalism and falsehoods peppered throughout at various locations AND at various times, Wikipedia becomes a consistently RELIABLE encyclopedia that covers every topic in the universe, except chickens.

Lastly, they asked the question that had to be asked.

WON'T WIKIPEDIA GET MAD?

No, Wikipedia cannot get mad because despite what some Wikipedia editors claim, Wikipedia is not actually alive. No nation on Earth recognizes Wikipedia as life.

The rationalization of how Wikipedia will embrace this proposal goes on in more detail and concludes with Jimbo Wales (fictional) firmly endorsing it. Except...

It looks like Wikipedia did get mad. They locked the article to all edits for over a week. So much for the perfect solution.

They recently have relaxed the restriction a bit. Now the chicken page says, "Editing of this article by unregistered or new users is currently disabled." A slight improvement, then.

Posted by Tom on November 16, 2006