Comments on: Wikiscanner http://freepressblog.org/blog/2007/08/30/wikiscanner/ A collection of my thoughts and other random stuff I found interesting. Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:49:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: JB http://freepressblog.org/blog/2007/08/30/wikiscanner/#comment-9684 JB Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:59:58 +0000 http://freepressblog.org/blog/2007/08/30/wikiscanner/#comment-9684 Most of the cases the article cites involve companies going in and changing and/or removing things that portray them in a negative light. While those may sometimes be legitimate corrections, they also are likely to be biased in such a way that is likely to result in a non-objective (at best) or totally inaccurate (at worst) article. This is why people editing their own entries is generally discouraged in the Wikipedia community, and the same should apply to corporations. Of course, other people can then go in and fix those changes, but corporations will almost always have more interest and more resources at their disposal for keeping on top of their entries, whereas in many cases there are not dedicated community volunteers that can keep up and keep them honest. This is just a tool to help people do that, and to provide some accountability for companies making the edits. BTW, Wikipedia itself is actually strongly supportive of the purpose behind wikiscanner (see the "Wikipedia reaction" section of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiScanner" rel="nofollow">WikiScanner entry in Wikipedia</a>). Most of the cases the article cites involve companies going in and changing and/or removing things that portray them in a negative light.

While those may sometimes be legitimate corrections, they also are likely to be biased in such a way that is likely to result in a non-objective (at best) or totally inaccurate (at worst) article. This is why people editing their own entries is generally discouraged in the Wikipedia community, and the same should apply to corporations.

Of course, other people can then go in and fix those changes, but corporations will almost always have more interest and more resources at their disposal for keeping on top of their entries, whereas in many cases there are not dedicated community volunteers that can keep up and keep them honest.

This is just a tool to help people do that, and to provide some accountability for companies making the edits. BTW, Wikipedia itself is actually strongly supportive of the purpose behind wikiscanner (see the “Wikipedia reaction” section of the WikiScanner entry in Wikipedia).

]]> By: nstryker http://freepressblog.org/blog/2007/08/30/wikiscanner/#comment-9678 nstryker Fri, 31 Aug 2007 13:56:17 +0000 http://freepressblog.org/blog/2007/08/30/wikiscanner/#comment-9678 is someone alleging that corps changing their articles is bad? i mean, if anyone edits an article, it's because they have an interest. anyone that has an interest generally has an opinion and certain types of people are going to try to let that opinion be known. i don't see why it makes a difference if that person has some sort of official capacity and "less noble" edits on wikipedia don't break the wiki model, they make it stronger. is someone alleging that corps changing their articles is bad? i mean, if anyone edits an article, it’s because they have an interest. anyone that has an interest generally has an opinion and certain types of people are going to try to let that opinion be known. i don’t see why it makes a difference if that person has some sort of official capacity and “less noble” edits on wikipedia don’t break the wiki model, they make it stronger.

]]>