The ‘Undue Weight’ of Truth on Wikipedia, Chronicle of Higher Education Options

[Newsfeed]

The ‘Undue Weight’ of Truth on Wikipedia

Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription)

By Timothy Messer-Kruse • For the past 10 years I've immersed myself in the details of one of the most famous events in American labor history, the Haymarket riot and trial of 1886. Along the way I've written two books and a couple of articles about the …

[iii]

I was waiting for some drone to make this argument:

Putting that kind of external pressure on an article, even if he is factually correct and has sources to back up his argument, sounds like a pretty basic case of conflict of interest to me.

Is this an poor attempt at humor? It almost reads like parody.

[dogbiscuit]

I was waiting for some drone to make this argument:

Putting that kind of external pressure on an article, even if he is factually correct and has sources to back up his argument, sounds like a pretty basic case of conflict of interest to me.

Is this an poor attempt at humor? It almost reads like parody.

It's a natural extension of having a belief that any knowledge of a subject disqualifies you from editing and COI is a way of expressing that. One day, we will see the combination of COI, OWN and 3RR and we will find that anyone who has made more than three edits to an article will be banned from Wikipedia for taking undue interest in what they are editing.

[HRIP7]

I was waiting for some drone to make this argument:

Putting that kind of external pressure on an article, even if he is factually correct and has sources to back up his argument, sounds like a pretty basic case of conflict of interest to me.

Is this an poor attempt at humor? It almost reads like parody.

It's a natural extension of having a belief that any knowledge of a subject disqualifies you from editing and COI is a way of expressing that. One day, we will see the combination of COI, OWN and 3RR and we will find that anyone who has made more than three edits to an article will be banned from Wikipedia for taking undue interest in what they are editing.

One argument that has so far been neglected is that the article in the Chronicle was a clear WP:CANVASSING violation. It was clearly a non-neutral message, and it was directed at a select audience – scholars – that might be supportive of the poster's stance, and has led to an influx of new editors who had no prior interest in the article.

Discussion is still rumbling on on the Foundation list. Mike Godwin has involved himself with a few posts.

[iii]

I was waiting for some drone to make this argument:

Putting that kind of external pressure on an article, even if he is factually correct and has sources to back up his argument, sounds like a pretty basic case of conflict of interest to me.

Is this an poor attempt at humor? It almost reads like parody.

It's a natural extension of having a belief that any knowledge of a subject disqualifies you from editing and COI is a way of expressing that. One day, we will see the combination of COI, OWN and 3RR and we will find that anyone who has made more than three edits to an article will be banned from Wikipedia for taking undue interest in what they are editing.

One argument that has so far been neglected is that the article in the Chronicle was a clear WP:CANVASSING violation. It was clearly a non-neutral message, and it was directed at a select audience – scholars – that might be supportive of the poster's stance, and has led to an influx of new editors who had no prior interest in the article.

Discussion is still rumbling on on the Foundation list. Mike Godwin has involved himself with a few posts.

It's getting some airtime on NPR. From Andrew Lih:

(Wednesday) I'll be on NPR's Talk
of the Nation radio show with Timothy Messer-Kruse himself, to talk
about his experiences.

Tune in, and feel free to send questions/comments my way (that are helpful!)

Keep the pressure on and maybe we can get more people to realize that having the unwashed in charge of one of the highest ranking sites on Google is not a good thing.

[mbz1]

Keep the pressure on and maybe we can get more people to realize that having the unwashed in charge of one of the highest ranking sites on Google is not a good thing.

Please forgive my ignorance, but could you please explain to me what does " the unwashed" mean in your statement? I am not familiar with this idiom or expression. Thank you.

[iii]

Keep the pressure on and maybe we can get more people to realize that having the unwashed in charge of one of the highest ranking sites on Google is not a good thing.

Please forgive my ignorance, but could you please explain to me what does " the unwashed" mean in your statement? I am not familiar with this idiom or expression. Thank you.

The others covered it well, but I always felt, accused as I am of being an elitist for saying that experts should be in charge of the production of reliable content, that this old idiom is both in-line with my accusers' claim of my attitude while also literally describing Wikipedians' hygiene.

[HRIP7]

NPR audio and transcript here.