Religion

cbayer

(146,218 posts) Fri Jul 19, 2013, 12:35 PM Jul 2013

Religion & Wikipedia: The 'Edit Wars' Rage On

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/religion-wikipedia_n_3618556.html

The Huffington Post | By Yasmine Hafiz
Posted: 07/18/2013 5:32 pm EDT

A laptop computer displays Wikipedia's front page showing a darkened logo on January 18, 2012 in London, England.

Scientists have analyzed page edits in 10 editions of Wikipedia to determine the topics most often fought over by editors of the open encyclopedia. The most debated topics included many religious subjects, like Jesus and God, according to research done by Taha Yasseri, Anselm Spoerri, Mark Graham, and János Kertész.

Rather than merely citing pages that changed a lot, they identified pages involved in "edit wars," that involved editors making changes that were almost instantly undone by another contributor. This proved the best method of finding controversial pages as pages often updated could simply belong to a rapidly changing field or topic. However, pages with words and phrases constantly removed and reinserted indicated a passionate disagreement surrounding the issue at hand.

The most controversial pages across all ten editions of Wikipedia were:

Israel
Adolf Hitler
The Holocaust
God

Other controversial subjects were Jesus, the Prophet Muhammad, and Christianity.

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Religion & Wikipedia: The 'Edit Wars' Rage On (Original Post) cbayer Jul 2013 OP

Does anyone control the edits that go into wikipedia? Jim__ Jul 2013 #1

As I understand it (and I could be wrong) anyone can contribute information cbayer Jul 2013 #2

The same state of heightened controversy spills over into religions dimbear Jul 2013 #3

Jim__

(14,083 posts)

1. Does anyone control the edits that go into wikipedia?

Reply to cbayer (Original post)

Fri Jul 19, 2013, 01:12 PM

Jul 2013

It seems that if certain phrases are introduced, then removed via a different editor, then re-introduced, etc, then wikipedia ought to exercise some sort of control. They might lock the pages and have editorial changes reviewed by management and the editors that are fighting, and only allow change that pass some sort of validation process.

I use wikipedia a lot and find that its information is usually correct, easy to find, and easy to use. I'd hate to see its reputation ruined by these petty squabbles over a limited subset of topics.

cbayer

(146,218 posts)

2. As I understand it (and I could be wrong) anyone can contribute information

Reply to Jim__ (Reply #1)

Fri Jul 19, 2013, 01:21 PM

Jul 2013

and there are editors that then review that information.

I think the wars here are between editors and contributors and not between editors. But I could be wrong.

dimbear

(6,271 posts)

3. The same state of heightened controversy spills over into religions

Reply to cbayer (Original post)

Fri Jul 19, 2013, 04:56 PM

Jul 2013

which only now exist as memories. It is quite remarkable how hot the edit wars rage in Mithraism. So bitter and hot that reputable scholars stalk off in disgust.

It would be unfair to just say offhandedly that religion brings out the worst in folks. The truth is that a scholarly field is more or less accessible to amateurs, so the kooks come out.

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