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Re: Sam, Dave, Time to Write Your Encyclopedia Entries!
Posted By: Lucky Wizard, on host 4.12.10.167
Date: Sunday, February 29, 2004, at 22:54:18
In Reply To: Re: Sam, Dave, Time to Write Your Encyclopedia Entries! posted by Eric Sleator on Monday, February 23, 2004, at 20:52:18:

> > Well, apparently I'm a gay rights activist and
> > married to Darien.
> >
> > Not sure what the use is of an encyclopedia that
> > any idiot (and here I'm specifically thinking of
> > Stephen) can write stuff in.
>
> The point is that most of the people who use it undo vandalism like that and are dedicated to writing stuff that isn't stupid.
>
> -Eric Sleator

Adding to Eric's point: Although there is some vandalism, it's not a big problem because it gets undone very quickly.

How? Well, each page has a revision history attached; users can view the revisions and compare them, and if they discover a destructive revision, they can quickly change it back the way it was.

There's also a feature that lists the most recent edits that have been made to the whole of Wikipedia. Some users keep a browser window on that page and look over any new edits to see if there's vandalism. So vandalism almost always gets noticed quickly, and therefore reverted quickly.

Lucky "Hasn't contributed to Wikipedia lately because of lack of time, but hopes to be contributing again in a few weeks" Wizard

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