WikiGnomes and Bigfoot
Grammar editing in the media spotlight
Andrew McMillen's February 3 profile of Giraffedata and his quest to rid Wikipedia of the phrase "comprised of" has been one of the most widely circulated and commented upon media stories about the encyclopedia recently. Giraffedata himself was recently interviewed (February 26) by the podcast Reply All about his work. The Boston Globe reported on (February 20) other WikiGnomes, focusing on the 400-strong Guild of Copy Editors. The Globe spoke with Miniapolis, Lead Coordinator of the Guild, DocWatson42, Fluffernutter, and Philg88. The Globe also discussed some notorious grammar-related conflicts on the encyclopedia, such as the long-running dispute between advocates of en-dashes and em-dashes and the resulting backlash from "hyphen luddites". G, S
Arrest reported in Wikipedia editing of Parsons article
Earlier this month, ITM reported on a Canadian government investigation into Wikipedia edits to the article Suicide of Rehtaeh Parsons from an IP address belonging to the Department of National Defence. Parsons' 2013 suicide at the age of 17, which her parents blame on Internet harassment following her alleged gang rape at 15 by four teenage boys, caused a nationwide outcry against cyberbullying. Two of the alleged assailants eventually pled guilty to charges of child pornography related to the distribution of a photo of Parsons. The Wikipedia edits appear to attempt to cast doubt on her alleged sexual assault and subsequent suicide. CBC News reports (February 26) that according to Parsons' father, Glen Canning, the father of one of those alleged assailants was arrested for making those Wikipedia edits from a computer at CFB Shearwater. The Department of National Defence confirmed that an unidentified man was arrested and released but refused to confirm a connection to the Parsons case. G
In brief
- Battlelines: The Sydney Morning Herald reports that University Researchers have counted reverts to compile a list of the top 100 contested articles on Wikipedia (February 25). S
- H. G. Wells predicted Wikipedia: Vox compares (February 23) H. G. Wells' utopian vision of a "Permanent World Encyclopaedia" to Wikipedia. Wells had written about the idea in 1937. A.K.
- Wiki Wars: Quartz features an article (February 23) by William Beutler on the recent "Gamergate and Grammy kerfuffles", which Beutler describes as part of Wikipedia's teenage growing pains. A.K.
- WMF Office bans: The Daily Dot examines (February 22) the recent uptick in global bans by the Wikimedia Foundation and related community concerns that the process lacks transparency. The piece, which focuses mostly on the ban of Russavia, features quotes from several Wikimedians critical of the global ban process, as well as comments by Katherine Maher, the Wikimedia Foundation's Chief Communications Officer. A.K.
- Where in the world is Jimbo?: The Dhaka Tribune reports that Jimmy Wales will be in Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 26 for the tenth anniversary celebration of the Bengali Wikipedia. WLFI-TV reports that Wales will present "Democracy and the Internet" at Purdue University on March 9, as part of their Series on Corporate Citizenship and Ethics. G
- #nottheonion: SBS satirist "The Backburner" jokes that "Greg Hunt Caught Editing Wikipedia To Deny The Existence Of Cyclones" (February 20). Greg Hunt, Australia's Environment Minister, was widely criticized in 2013 for claiming that massive bushfires were not linked to climate change because "I looked up what Wikipedia says". (See previous Signpost coverage here and here.) G
- Footprints: The Cary News reports (February 19) on an unsourced February 2 edit to the article Apex, North Carolina which claimed that "The town also has a long history of Bigfoot sightings, which has attracted many newcomers to the area." The Town Manager of Apex removed the sentence from the article on February 19 and told the News that "he has no personal knowledge of Bigfoot's existence." G
- Expensive lists: The Big Lead looks at the Wikipedia article List of most expensive association football transfers and ranks the best and worst (February 18). G
Discuss this story
I think Vox needs to give H.G. Wells a chance. For Wikipedia to achieve world peace, we have to have enough people in enough places making enough contributions that people can learn the crooked motivations behind every warmongering jailmongering politician of every stripe in the world, and learn the ideological and practical successes and methods of every popular movement throughout the world. Of course, world peace is reached only through apocalypse; ours is whether we can get enough people who simply want to see all the data and every point of view that we can fight off the shills and reputation management agents to keep the information in the encyclopedia. Wnt (talk) 23:59, 24 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, we didn't have time to include the Vox story this week. Look for it here next week.Gamaliel (talk) 03:47, 27 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]