General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSomebody added Paul Ryan to Wikipedia's Invertebrates entry
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Invertebrate&oldid=762135165ha!
marybourg
(12,620 posts)FSogol
(45,476 posts)herding cats
(19,564 posts)It's still there, too!
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,674 posts)bravenak
(34,648 posts)Freethinker65
(10,009 posts)yellowcanine
(35,699 posts)JHan
(10,173 posts)Because even the noble Horseshoe Crab knows Ayn Rand was ridiculous.
longship
(40,416 posts)Fun while it lasted, however.
R&
Raine1967
(11,589 posts)The_Voice_of_Reason
(274 posts)why they did not add him under slugs as well.
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)Do you complain about the corporate media? Wikipedia accepts no advertising. It charges no fee to anyone who wants to use it. Content is created by unpaid volunteers who idealistically believe in the mission of making all the world's knowledge available to everyone for free.
If you think that's a crazy mission statement, then don't volunteer, but at least respect the work of the people who do volunteer.
(Incidentally, it is a crazy mission statement. Truthfully has it been said that the problem with Wikipedia is that it works only in practice. In theory, it can't work.)
JHan
(10,173 posts)HeartachesNhangovers
(814 posts)Stonepounder
(4,033 posts)in this case:
tenorly
(2,037 posts)Wikipedia has long since taken over by corporate lobbyists, who have pretty much made sure articles that suit them read like PR fluff and those having to do with some adversary or competitor, like hack jobs.
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)First, as to whether "they themselves do approve," the Wikimedia Foundation has been very concerned about the developing problem of paid editing. You can read the policy on paid-contribution disclosure (including prohibition of editing with a conflict of interest) here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia: Paid-contribution_disclosure (except you'll first have to delete the blank space before the word "Paid"; sorry, I can't figure out how to make the link work when it includes a P after a colon so that DU software makes it smiley).
Now, obviously, corporate flacks can and do try to violate the policy, while the Foundation and Wikipedia volunteers try to catch them and block them. I believe that, in this ongoing cat-and-mouse game, each side has had some successes. But what's absolutely clear is that there is no truth to your charge that Wikipedia approves of any takeover.
Second, you assert -- without troubling to provide a shred of evidence -- that these corporate efforts have actually succeeded in taking over Wikipedia. The fact is that, even if a paid corporate shill makes the kind of biased edit you describe, and even if that person is not outed as a paid shill, that's hardly the end of the matter. Wikipedia's strength is the ease with which errors may be corrected. A shill's edit can be reverted by a disinterested editor.
I'll take one example that I know something about personally, because, as an attorney, I represented some of the families whose well water had been poisoned by General Electric. If you go to the Wikipedia article on GE, specifically to the "Environmental record" section, you'll find accounts that are quite damning to the corporation. I haven't participated in editing that article, but I'm sure there are plenty of Wikipedians who have it watchlisted, meaning that they'll be notified of any changes. If GE pays someone to clean up the article to make it "read like PR fluff", one of those unpaid editors will restore the information.
The section on GE's environmental record also includes some things that put the company in a good light, such as its involvement in renewable energy. Does that show there's a problem? No, it's completely proper. Wikipedia is there to provide the information, not to tailor the facts to a preconceived ideology (whether of the left or of the right).
If it's true that GE "agreed to pay a $250 million settlement in connection with claims it polluted the Housatonic River (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) and other sites with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other hazardous substances," and it's also true that GE's "Ecomagination initiative ... resulted in 70 green products being brought to market," then both those facts belong in the Wikipedia article. And there they are.
Fantastic Anarchist
(7,309 posts)It's troubling how many people attack Wikipedia, usually, as you noted, with no supporting evidence.
Wikipedia is a vital source of information whether said information is damaging or not.
I appreciate the efforts of those who are largely successful in keeping Wikipedia independent and fair.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)I see laughing, not celebration; so it may be more accurate to righteously admonish and studiously lecture on what we shouldn't be laughing at rather than what we shouldn't be celebrating, as your own standard of ethics is most absolute...
(Signed, a giggling Wiki content provider/editor)
elmac
(4,642 posts)to change many of Wiki's pages to spread their lies, revisionist history over the years. As the fascists say, fight fire with fire
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)First, you say "fight fire with fire". Does that mean we should try to suppress the Republican vote? I don't think we should descend to their level.
Second, although there is paid editing of Wikipedia, both the Wikimedia Foundation and the volunteers work against that. See my elaboration in #29 in this thread.
Third, even if you disagree with both those points, and even if you think that Democrats should try to "change many of Wiki's pages to spread {our} lies {and} revisionist history", this juvenile vandalism doesn't do that. It gets promptly reverted and has no effect except to make Democrats look silly.
Fantastic Anarchist
(7,309 posts)It's a pretty valuable source of information which includes links to original sources.
The volunteers do a respectfully great job of policing themselves.
shenmue
(38,506 posts)CherokeeDem
(3,709 posts)This made my day!!!!
Javaman
(62,517 posts)it's not showing up on my phone but on my computer.
meow2u3
(24,761 posts)I have it for posterity.
JDC
(10,125 posts)Fantastic Anarchist
(7,309 posts)While funny, we should remember that false information is bad information.
Free and fair knowledge should win the day, not falsehoods.
JDC
(10,125 posts)Not more false information. As a side note, it's a joke, you know it's a joke. I might suggest you save scolding for something more egregious and deserving. Please.
Fantastic Anarchist
(7,309 posts)I know it's a joke, and even acknowledged that it was funny.
I then gave my opinion that it was also dangerous. Funny and dangerous are not mutually exclusive.
I think you may have scolded me, though. Relax.
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)In 2004 I spent a lot of time editing the bios of the major-party candidates for President. In the Democrat's article, his name was changed from "John Forbes Kerry" to "Jean Francois Kerry". In the Republican's article, the statement that he was the son of former President George H. W. Bush was changed to say that he was the son of Satan.
I suppose a lot of people think that one of these edits was a really funny joke but the other one was just silly. There would of course be disagreement about which was which.
Then there are the adults, who think both these edits were juvenile vandalism. People who made enough such "jokes" would be blocked from editing, and rightly so.
JHan
(10,173 posts)#TheyAintNeverLied
ailsagirl
(22,896 posts)Thanks for the
MineralMan
(146,286 posts)Screen captures are good.
blueseas
(11,575 posts)Ones as well
VOX
(22,976 posts)I cannot THANK YOU enough!
Thanks.