2011 Earthquake and Tsunami Options

[Cock-up-over-conspiracy]

At 05:46 UTC on March 11 2011, a 8.9 Richter Scale earthquake hit Japan. It was the largest ever recorded and 6th largest ever known happened. It was followed by a devastating tsunami of up to 10 m that has erased entire communities and killed 100s. Just to put it into scale, 80,000 are currently reported missing ... a whole train full of people has disappeared without trace. As night engulfs the nation, the full scale of damage is unknown.

By 06:18 UTC on 11 March 2011 Gnuismail (T-C-L-K-R-D) had erected a 2011_Sendai_earthquake_and_tsunami topic page.

By 12:06 UTC on 11 March 2011 it had to be protected against "persistent vandalism" by such dicks in the USA adding "8.9 Godzilla" to it, or IP editors reporting "over 9000-meter tsunami" hitting Sendai. Our angel Alison being on the case. Oh, and

a naming dispute,
an edit war or two over links,
an image dispute (here).

By 15:15, 11 March on 2011 even the God King Jimbo Wales made a visitation announcing ...

"There are trolls everywhere; we have the tools to defeat them!!!".

I suppose this is emergency "disaster response" Wikipedia style?

Of course, I lose too because ... as people are still trapped under mud and debris of collapsed tower blocks, millions of workers are stuck in cities without transport out or even electricity, individuals have no contact with lost family and loved ones, tsunami alerts remain for aftershocks, complete communities have been entirely erased, and a nuclear power station is at the point of melt down (!!!) ... here I am bitching about crass Wikipedian activity.

Writing as someone indirectly effected by it, with friends or acquaintances and their family beyond any contact and likely lost, I can tell you it feels a little different. Feather in your cap Gnuismail for the win for being first to start the page. Let me nail a barnstar on you personally.

Are there some ethics to be discussed about this?
Shouldn't they really wait until events are actually over until they start documenting them!?!

This post has been edited by Cock-up-over-conspiracy:

[Jon Awbrey]

I was born in Sendai. My parents kept in touch with friends there until their own passing, but I lost track of them over the years.

Jon (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/unhappy.gif)

[Cock-up-over-conspiracy]

More disaster response ...

It seems extremely unlikely (actually, let me go further: impossible) that there is Japanese government censorship of this event in Japanese Wikipedia. (How would that even work? A country with very broad freedom of the press would, at a moment of humanitarian crisis, decide to send police to the homes of Wikipedians? Nonsense.) It is far more likely that the Japanese Wikipedians are having trouble updating Wikipedia because power is cut across at least Tokyo and I think many other parts of Japan as well. It would not surprise me if some major Internet cables are disrupted as well.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 13:43, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

It is mainly because of trolls (荒らし) that the Japanese page can't (couldn't ?) be read. XIIIfromTOKYO (talk) 15:11, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

I have left a note there recommended semi-protection and an insistence on reliable sources. Blanking the page and protecting it does not seem like the best solution. There are trolls everywhere; we have the tools to defeat them.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 15:15, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

(ec)It was not Japanese government censorship. An admin made the article invisible because of vandalism and edit wars. This was the last visible version. Wiki news in ja is here. Oda Mari (talk) 15:19, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

This post has been edited by Cock-up-over-conspiracy:

[Tarc]

A breaking news encyclopedia entry is a contradiction in terms. That is what the true problem is here, 1,000 monkeys on 1,000 keyboards banging away at the same time, all with eyes and ears glued to CNN and twitter feeds.

I'm trying to envision just what type of person sees breaking news about a natural disaster and thinks "to the Wikipedia!" as their first thought, but the image is frightening.

[Kelly Martin]

This is excellent. It truly demonstrates how far the Wikipedia community has degraded. There was not nearly this much trouble with vandalism and counterpurpose editing on previous similar events.

[Somey]

Are there some ethics to be discussed about this?
Shouldn't they really wait until events are actually over until they start documenting them!?!

Yes... but...

An earthquake/tsunami is different from, say, a school shooting or a terrorist attack or even the death of a celebrity under what might be suspicious circumstances. With an earthquake/tsunami, you know what happened, how, when, possibly even why (if it takes place in an earthquake-prone area). The only real issue is actually where - in other words, a person might enter something saying such-and-such a city was devastated or even destroyed, when in fact it hasn't been, and people foolish enough to look to Wikipedia for up-to-date information on the event might see that and think someone they know or a member of their family has just been swallowed up by the earth.

Even so, immediate reports of physical effects wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if they had some sort of pre-publication review procedure in place, like a responsible publication (or even a low-end news site) would. Casualties are a different story, though - that sort of thing should wait a few days, ideally, unless (again) you have a means of filtering out unsubstantiated reports.

The reality for Wikipedia is that they don't have the "tools to defeat trolls," they only have block buttons and, like Jimbo says, semi-protection. They need legitimate pre-publication review, simple as that. They don't have it, and until they do, they have to either lock things down or let the so-called "trolls" rule the day, or at least "set the agenda" - like they mostly have all along.

[Milton Roe]

I have left a note there recommended semi-protection and an insistence on reliable sources. Blanking the page and protecting it does not seem like the best solution. There are trolls everywhere; we have the tools to defeat them.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 15:15, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

"I am well able to defeat you" (Mr. Spock to Roman Gladiator (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/hmmm.gif) )

The problem, Jimbo, is that while you have the tools, your WP policies regarding IP-editors keep most of your administrators from using those tools. Nor do you really care about this whole matter, truth be told, except when the result emparasses WP in public, as here.

Not that you tell the truth very much.

MR

[lilburne]

Shouldn't they getting together to create some tasteful wikiptan images complete with tentacle pr0n with this as a backdrop.

[Milton Roe]

The reality for Wikipedia is that they don't have the "tools to defeat trolls," they only have block buttons and, like Jimbo says, semi-protection.

Even if they used the semi-protection that they have, they'd at least do better. The problem is that they refuse to use it at the beginning, even in situations where it's completely obvious that they'll get a tsunami of stupid IP edits if they don't.

[Jon Awbrey]

This is all just part of the video game for them.

No one is going to change that — it'd be like taking the hookers out of Grand Theft Auto.

Not gonna happen — you all know it's not gonna happen.

Why anyone keeps pretending I have no idea.

Maybe it's just part of the video game.

Jon (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/dry.gif)

[Sxeptomaniac]

The reality for Wikipedia is that they don't have the "tools to defeat trolls," they only have block buttons and, like Jimbo says, semi-protection.

Even if they used the semi-protection that they have, they'd at least do better. The problem is that they refuse to use it at the beginning, even in situations where it's completely obvious that they'll get a tsunami of stupid IP edits if they don't.

No kidding. Even when it's utterly obvious that a major problem is coming, they wait until the editors foolish enough to get in on a page early are absolutely frustrated before doing anything about it. There are a few admins smart enough to head these problems off, but many more are idealists with their heads still in the clouds over "wikilove".

[EricBarbour]

This article isn't even 8 hours old, and it already has almost 2000 edits and 96 references.
Most of the edits were made by a small group---about 15 people.
The talk page is, to put it mildly, embarrassing.

"Wikipedia works!" my ass.

[Cock-up-over-conspiracy]

This is excellent. It truly demonstrates how far the Wikipedia community has degraded.

No, I think this truly demonstrates how far the Wikipedia has degraded. (Taken at random), from here.

In a statement to the press, an official from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said:

“The porn industry in Japan is safe. No worries about tentical porn.[20]”

68.229.249.189 (talk)
(the quote was wrong)

or

The main earthquake was preceded by a number of large foreskins

22:18, 11 March 2011
Zeus011

Shouldn't they getting together to create some tasteful wikiptan images complete with tentacle pr0n with this as a backdrop.

See above, life reflects art ...

It's daily light in Japan now, folks can start heading home and it is only just now becoming apparent how many deaths and damage there is. But, thank God we manage, to ... (here)

"convert incorrect possessive to correct plural"

and ensure no bad grammar added to their sorrow. Remember, despite it being some nation's worst national disaster in all its history, we still need reliable sources chaps!!! (here). And no jacking up the death toll from 600 to 6,000,000. They may yet be pulling out the corpses but Eug.galeotti  (T-C-L-K-R-D) is pulling out the copyvios ... "That was time and efforts wasted".

It goes on and on and on. A quick scan of the talk page has all the makings of a doctorate study on all the idiocy and prejudice that is Wikipedian culture.

Only one possible death has occurred thus far.
According to Newsmax one person was swept away while photographing wave activity on a river in Northern California.

The talk of 400+ Japanese deaths is not relevent compared to an American. (link).

69.112.245.146 (talk) 23:18, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

It's clearly relevant. Poor opinion of the victim is not a suitable reason for omission. Stuthulhu (talk) 22:37, 11 March 2011 (UTC) (... some morons went down to the beach in California to take pictures of the wave coming in, no doubt to stick up on Youtube or Wikipedia probably, then got swept away ...)

as an american i wholeheartedly agree, but then again, the info is still newsworthy.JBDRanger (talk) 22:38, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Correct ... there's no sense bloating the Japanese casualty section with unverified rumor simply to appease 'appearances' 69.61.175.13 (talk) 22:52, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

This post has been edited by Cock-up-over-conspiracy:

[EricBarbour]

Only one possible death has occurred thus far.
According to Newsmax one person was swept away while photographing wave activity on a river in Northern California.

The talk of 400+ Japanese deaths is not relevent compared to an American. (link).

69.112.245.146 (talk) 23:18, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

It's clearly relevant. Poor opinion of the victim is not a suitable reason for omission. Stuthulhu (talk) 22:37, 11 March 2011 (UTC) (... some morons went down to the beach in California to take pictures of the wave coming in, no doubt to stick up on Youtube or Wikipedia probably, then got swept away ...)

as an american i wholeheartedly agree, but then again, the info is still newsworthy.JBDRanger (talk) 22:38, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Correct ... there's no sense bloating the Japanese casualty section with unverified rumor simply to appease 'appearances' 69.61.175.13 (talk) 22:52, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

It's difficult to tell if these people genuinely think American lives are "worth more" than Japanese lives,
or if they're just being sarcastic. (Or making a point about Newsmax, a notorious right-wing-biased
news source.)

Mahanga protected the article, and assorted nerds started complaining.

Anyone remember the Giffords shooting? Where it was protected, and admins/rollbackers cheerfully started editwarring it in place of the rabble?

This post has been edited by EricBarbour:

[Cock-up-over-conspiracy]

Point taken.

It's ironic I came into this whole shebang a few years back pointing out the obvious, that the Wikipedia is rank with anti-Japanese sentiments and whacko Koreans out to grind axes. I missed this crucial edit to the topic ... here.

Does any one not believe me now?

It should also be investigated whether the local Japanese people used this tragic event as a cover to kill innocent Koreans as the Japanese did in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, where thousands of Koreans were killed according to some sources (although the local government admitted the casualty in the "hundreds") by the xenophobic Japanese.

Surprise, surprise ... 14.33.47.38 resolves to Seoul in South Korea. The edit lasted to poison the topic for 3 hours having being replaced by Flodded (T-C-L-K-R-D) under the guise of removing another Godzilla joke, here.

I'd love to have Checkuser access to know which editor that was getting a dig in.

The media is Japan is being extremely sensitive about the whole issue so far. Have you notice that despite the carnage and rising body count, no images of death or bodies have been shown yet? It is being censored (and self-censoring) at present. Respectful and not wishing to cause offense.

The reality are some quite horrific events are unravelling.

[Cla68]

I was born in Sendai. My parents kept in touch with friends there until their own passing, but I lost track of them over the years.

Jon (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/unhappy.gif)

I've been to Sendai many times. It's one of my favorite cities in Japan. We have close family friends living there, who we haven't been in contact yet with to see if they are all right.

Anyway, I think you'll notice with this article that it won't develop as smoothly as say, the Christchurch earthquake article, for various reasons. Japanese media don't use the Internet as much as western media does. So, for several days at least the main sources of information will be Japanese print media and Japanese television. That means that it will be up mainly Japanese editors to keep the article updated, and I doubt they will be as willing and able to do so on the English Wikipedia as the editors living in western countries.

Western media will have difficulty with keeping up with news on the situation, perhaps because of the time difference but also because of the language barrier. I've already seen some misreporting on casualties in British newspapers.

This post has been edited by Cla68:

[Kelly Martin]

I imagine it will only get worse now that there's a nuclear power plant in possible meltdown. This event now has major political ramifications and you can be certain that the pronuke and antinuke forces are rallying to control the presentation of that aspect of the event.

[Cla68]

I imagine it will only get worse now that there's a nuclear power plant in possible meltdown. This event now has major political ramifications and you can be certain that the pronuke and antinuke forces are rallying to control the presentation of that aspect of the event.

It's actually kind of scary in a personal way. Me and my family have already started discussing our plan of action for if the reactor(s) lose containment and spew radiation across northern and central Japan. As you know, nuclear power is one of the most powerful, efficient, non-carbon producing energy sources, so the proponents of the theory of human-caused climate change should be embracing it. The problem is, however, that most of those activists are liberal/left wing, so they feel uncomfortable promoting nuclear power. How ironic.

This post has been edited by Cla68:

[Brutus]

So far 3 Godzilla sightings reverted? (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/biggrin.gif)
(IMG:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/77/Terror_of_MechaGodzilla_1975.jpg)

This post has been edited by Brutus:

[Detective]

a tsunami of stupid IP edits

In the current circumstances, I don't know if that's the best metaphor to use.