The online user-edited encyclopedia Wikipedia has taken steps to reduce the amount of false information added to its pages.
Though originally founded as a collaboration of volunteers who could edit content without restriction, repeated vandalism to the site has forced the owning non-profit foundation, Wikimedia, to enact progressively tougher guidelines for users trying to modify existing entries.
The latest attempt now being tested involves designating ‘experienced editors’ who will approve changes before they are added to the public pages of the encyclopedia. Already the German Wikipedia site has a similar system in place.
Currently a few thousand pages on the English Wikipedia site have been locked due to an increased amount of false or offensive editing. Wikimedia hopes that this new process will help to keep pages unlocked while still providing dynamic community-generated content..
Critics of the new policy point out that the definition of an ‘experienced editor’ is not stringent enough to prevent the abuses from occurring. Others object to the new guidelines citing the original goals of Wikipedia- to allow for unrestricted editing of topics by a volunteer community. Still others point out that small edits, for grammar or punctuation, will become harder to perform on less-populated pages negating the benefits of the open-editing process.
A difficult balance must be struck between garnering information from anonymous community sources while also protecting the integrity of the entries on the site. Whether the new guidelines will reduce the amount of false information on the site, or simply provide a small additional hurdle for a malicious editor to jump over, remains to be seen.