Wikipedia

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At Wikipedia, High Drama Over Roads and Highways

A dispute over sourcing caused editors to 'fork' their 15K articles onto a new site

(Newser) - Since launching in 2001, Wikipedia has become ubiquitous, beloved by search engines that bubble it up to the top of related queries. But a rift at the open-source platform, as reported by Gizmodo and Slate , reveals that some of its page-level rules are being challenged by its steadfast community-run editors,...

These Are Wikipedia's Most-Viewed Pages of 2023

ChatGPT intrigued the most people, followed by deaths, Bollywood, and cricket, among others

(Newser) - In 2023, the English version of Wikipedia received more than 84 billion views, as people sated their curiosity on the topics that intrigued them the most. The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts the online encyclopedia, has now released its ranking of the pages that users read the most this...

Emily St. John Mandel Ran Into Odd Snag After Divorce

Wikipedia still said she was married, and she couldn't change it herself

(Newser) - On the Wikipedia page for Emily St. John Mandel—the bestselling Canadian author of Sea of Tranquility, The Glass Hotel, and Station Eleven, the last of which was adapted into an HBO Max miniseries—it's noted under the "personal life" section that she separated from executive recruiter Kevin...

Wikipedia: Keep Your Hands Off Our 'Recession' Page

Temporary ban is keeping new and unregistered users from tweaking highly contested topic

(Newser) - Are we or aren't we headed for (or already in ) a recession? Consensus is still hard to come by, and Wikipedia has decided it's not going to be the place where this is all hashed out. NPR reports that the online encyclopedia has partially frozen edits to...

She Tracked Down the Wikipedia High-Fivers
Meet the Not-So-Famous
Wikipedia High-Fivers
longform
Feb 20, 2022 10:45 AM CST

Meet the Not-So-Famous Wikipedia High-Fivers

13 years later, they're still together

(Newser) - Look up "high five" on Wikipedia , and you'll come across four photos of the same couple demonstrating the "too slow" variation. In a piece at Input magazine, Annie Rauwerda writes that she became a little obsessed with the pair because "the pictures are endearing and capture...

Wikipedia Gets Its Own NFT
Wikipedia Gets Its 
Own NFT
Dec 5, 2021 9:30 AM CST

Wikipedia Gets Its Own NFT

First edit being auctioned

(Newser) - Non-fungible tokens couldn't exist without the internet, and the internet would be a very different place without Wikipedia. No surprise, then, that the ubiquitous free encyclopedia is getting the NFT treatment. Per The Verge , Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is placing his first ever edit to the site up for...

US Kid Accused of Totally Mucking Up Scottish Wikipedia

Reddit user found much of site's content was developed by admin who doesn't speak Scots

(Newser) - The main administrator for Scots Wikipedia —that's the Scots language version of Wikipedia—has held that role for more than seven years and may be responsible for close to half the site's content. Problem is, the administrator doesn't even speak the language. Vice reports that a...

Musk Points Out an Issue With Wikipedia Page

He's no investor, Tesla CEO says

(Newser) - Elon Musk said he looked at his Wikipedia page for the first time in years on Sunday. "It's insane!" Musk tweeted , adding that the page was "a war zone with a zillion edits." Still, the Tesla CEO asked for one more. "Can someone please...

Web Users in Turkey Can No Longer Access Wikipedia

Turkish government blocked the site, claiming 'smear campaign'

(Newser) - Turkish internet users discovered early Saturday their government had banned access to Wikipedia, Reuters reports. The government in Turkey is allowed to ban access to websites if it decides they are obscene or a threat to national security. According to CNN , Turkey's communications ministry says articles on Wikipedia claimed...

Wikipedia Founder Has 'Radical' Solution to Fight Fake News

Jimmy Wales' Wikitribune combines pro journalists with community volunteers

(Newser) - "The news is broken and we can fix it." That's the lofty promise of Wikitribune , a new "living, breathing tool" launched by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales that he hopes will combat "fake news" by teaming ace journalists with citizen volunteers. "I'm not sure...

Jim Davis: Yes, Garfield Is Male, Geez

The internet got into a serious thing about Garfield's gender identity

(Newser) - Last week, the internet nearly tore itself asunder arguing about Garfield's gender identity. Yes, that lasagna-loving, Monday-hating Garfield. The literal cat fight started when writer Virgil Texas pointed to a 2014 interview in which creator Jim Davis said Garfield is "not really male or female" because he's...

Banned at Wikipedia: The 'Unreliable' Daily Mail

British tab's 'poor reputation' and 'flat-out fabrication' cited for unusual ban

(Newser) - The next time you need to brush up on a big celebrity scandal, you won't be perusing a Wikipedia article stuffed with links to the Daily Mail . The online encyclopedia's volunteer editors have ruled that the widely read British tabloid known for splashy celebrity coverage and conservative politics...

12-Year-Old's Prank Made Him Aussie PM*

*According to the Wikipedia page he edited

(Newser) - Serving as Australia's prime minister is an impressive gig for a 12-year-old—even if it's only Wikipedia-official. Orley Fenelon of Brisbane edited a Wikipedia article on Australian prime ministers on Friday to name himself Australia's 30th and youngest PM. It went unnoticed for two days—long enough...

Meet the Most Prolific of All 125K Wikipedia Editors

Justin Anthony Knapp also works 65 hours a week and volunteers

(Newser) - Wikipedia boasts 26 million registered users, though less than 0.5% (125,000) are active editors—and only 12,000 of them have made more than 50 edits in the past six months. Who's the guy at the head of that pack? Justin Anthony Knapp, who in 10 years...

Wikipedia Just Busted Gang of 'Black Hat' Editors

381 shady editor accounts banned in Operation Orangemoody

(Newser) - Expect a little less misinformation while browsing Wikipedia today. The website has deleted 381 sock puppet accounts—those of paid users who edit articles on a subject to which they have some affiliation—in a bust for "black hat editing." Fusion reports that an investigation, dubbed "Orangemoody"...

Wikipedia Being Turned Into a $500K Book Set

By artist Michael Mandiberg, who says it will take 2 weeks just to upload

(Newser) - It's going to take two weeks to upload, and the table of contents will be 91 volumes alone, but Michael Mandiberg is determined to bring the project he tells the New York Times is "half utilitarian data visualization project, half absurdist poetic gesture" to fruition. That project: to...

NYPD Caught Editing Eric Garner Wikipedia Entry

Capital New York traces IP addresses to headquarters

(Newser) - Anyone keeping a close eye on the Death of Eric Garner page at Wikipedia might have noticed a series of edits, some more subtle than others, that cast the NYPD in a positive light. Capital New York reveals the reason: They were made by people at the NYPD. The website...

Guy Who Made 47K Wikipedia Corrections Is Wrong

Crusade against 'comprised of' is unfair: newspaper editor

(Newser) - David Shariatmadari just can't go along with the grammar guy who's correcting everyone on Wikipedia . As a newspaper editor, Shariatmadari admits to having "grammatical bugbears," but the crusade by software engineer Bryan Henderson to eliminate every "comprised of" on Wikipedia is way over the top....

Guy's Mission: Erase Single Error From Wikipedia

Bryan Henderson has made 47K edits, mostly to fix the wrong use of 'comprised of'

(Newser) - Bryan Henderson—or, as he's known on Wikipedia, Giraffedata—has made more than 47,000 edits to the site since 2007, and almost all of them were to fix one error: the incorrect use of "comprised of." Henderson, a 51-year-old software engineer, is one of the most...

Wikipedia Blocks 'Disruptive' Edits From the Capitol

They're onto you, 143.231.249.138—cut it out

(Newser) - Last week, Gizmodo and other tech-obsessed sites reported on significant Wikipedia edits regarding Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 that were apparently made from a Russian government IP address ... and now, it appears someone in the US government is taking that idea and running with it. The online encyclopedia has blocked an...

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