Infinite Path

With any major shifts or alterations to the structure of a large-scale online project, criticism and skepticism are bound to be rife. This has been the case to a certain extent with the news that Wikipedia plans to combat the ever-increasing problem of site vandalism by introducing flagged revisions.

This system of revisions will see editors approving all changes to Wikipedia pages concerning living people before the alterations go live. This may not seem like a major issue but to some, it represents a fundamental change in Wikipedia’s approach and basic philosophical principles of collating and sharing human knowledge online.

Whether or not the move goes down well with online users in the long-term, it expresses Wikipedia’s greater sense of responsibility as it continues to emerge as a dominant source for serious journalism.

False alterations and additions to Wikipedia aren’t only often insensitive; they detract from the very principles behind the project of sharing knowledge that can be relied upon to be true and accurate.

Wikipedia reached an impressive milestone recently when it published an article that took its total number of articles to 3 million. Milestones such as these, however, pale into insignificance alongside controversies (such as Tony Blair’s apparent middle name change to “Whoop-de-doo”) that usually spread like wildfire across the web.

Any system put in place to counteract this must be viewed positively and, whilst a professional editing element to Wikipedia doesn’t immediately sit comfortably with an online community accustomed to instant interaction with published content, it is important that quality is not sacrificed for the sake of immediate gratification. 

Chairman of the Wikimedia board, Michael Snow, seems to have acknowledged the need for Wikipedia to take on an additional sense of responsibility sooner rather than later. His assertion that “we are no longer at the point that it is acceptable to throw things at the wall and see what sticks” reflects the manner in which errors and false alterations will be tolerated less and less as the project continues to grow in popularity.