MisterWebNet

Wikipedia -the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Thats what their slogan is. At some point in the future they're going to have to change it. I suggest something along the lines of 'WIkipedia - the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit - after admin approval.'

Wikipedia have annouced that they are going to limit changes to pages dealing with live people. Its a significant move away from their traditional stance of allowing all pages to be freely edited. Despite have problems with the truth of the information it holds (after all, anybody can post anything) Wikipedia has grown to be one of the top ten sites with over 60 million views per month. Its appearance in Google results for any common term is just about assured.

But the issue is the less forgiving nature of the readers and users of the site of factually incorrect information. For a site that has become a global resource, users are wanting to know the information they read is accurate. This move is a response to users concerns.

Michael Snow, chairman of the Wikimedia board told The Times

“We are no longer at the point that it is acceptable to throw things at the wall and see what sticks ...There was a time probably when the community was more forgiving of things that were inaccurate or fudged in some fashion — whether simply misunderstood or an author had some ax to grind. There is less tolerance for that sort of problem now.”

Is removing the ability of users to edit every page on the site worth the comfort of knowing what you read is factually accurate? On the basis of this move, the answer has to be yes. The more people rely on wikipedia, the more users will demand factually correct information. Unfortunately the side effect of this is that wikipedia may just become a tenny weeny bit less open-source.