Wikipedia grows up, changes editorial policy | The News is NowPublic.com

see larger image uploaded by smkovalinsky [q url=""]The popular and ubiquitous online encyclopedia Wikipediaplans to change the way people contribute to some of its entries. The site, run by theWikimedia Foundation in San Francisco, will limit changes to articles about people who are still living. Any changes to such articles by readers will have to be approved by an “editor” – likely a trained volunteer – before they appear on the page.Wikipedia, started by Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales, was originally intended as a site everyone could add to or change. But early on the business found out it had to lock some of its articles, particularly pages on popular lightning rods like George W. BushGeorge W. Bush, since angry people kept defacing them.. . . [/q] [q url=""]A Maturing Wikipedia "By creating a two-tiered editorial control infrastructure, Wikipedia is not going to hurt the site. It's only going to make it better," said Brad Shimmin, an analyst at Current Analysis. "Wikipedia is not the free-for-all it was three or four years ago. What we are looking at now is a maturing of Wikipedia in terms of the breadth of content that's up there leveling out a little bit and the control that's imposed on that content."Shimmin said industry watchers have always been surprised that Wikipedia is as deep and accurate as it is. He credits a number of interested individuals for that success. But there have been admitted issues with people posting inaccurate and even spiteful information."Even for a short period of time, you can't think it's OK to have bad content on a source that's trusted," Shimmin said. "You can't make that assumption anymore. The service is too valuable to too many people to post an article saying someone is dead when they are not dead and wait a couple of days until somebody figures it out."[/q]
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