Wikitruth
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Wikitruth is a website critical of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. The initial date on the site's home page indicates that it first went live on March 20, 2006.
The site posits that there are fundamental problems with the structure of Wikipedia. It highlights the reported actions and statements of prominent Wikimedia Foundation members like Jimmy Wales and probes what its contributors see as the concept of vandalism, censorship of articles on Wikipedia, and other aspects of the Wikipedia culture.
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[edit] Ownership and editors
Wikitruth states that it is run by a group of disenchanted Wikipedia editors, including several administrators, who have spent hundreds of hours editing Wikipedia pages. Wikipedia head Jimmy Wales called the site "a hoax", and its creators "almost certainly trolls who have been banned by Wikipedia".[1] Wikitruth's editors responded that current Wikipedia administrators did indeed contribute to Wikitruth, claiming as evidence the fact that several articles could not have been written without someone having administrator status. [2]
It runs on the MediaWiki software developed for Wikipedia, though it uses a feature to prohibit editing by anonymous users, and the site is not open for new account signups. Readers may contact the editors through e-mail.[3]
[edit] Publicity
The first major media reference to Wikitruth was an article in The Guardian by Andrew Orlowski, the San Francisco bureau chief for The Register, who has also written articles critical of Wikipedia. The Guardian article states, among other things, that Wikipedia is "one example of a glut of hazy information."[4]
[edit] The Slashdot effect
Wikitruth gained wider notice when Slashdot, a technology-related news website, posted an item on April 16, 2006 called "Censored Wikipedia Articles Appear On Protest Site", which referenced the Guardian piece. The item specifically mentioned the deletion or significant modification by Wales or others of the articles about registered Ohio sex offender Brian Peppers, former child pornographer Justin Berry, and adult-film director Paul Barresi. [5] Due in part to being mentioned in a front-page news item on Slashdot, Wikitruth's servers were overrun with a flood of attention; they were slashdotted.[6] Later, Wikitruth was mentioned on Metafilter, Digg, and various other news sites as well. [7]
[edit] The Register article
The next day, Orlowski published another article, this time in The Register, titled "Wales and Sanger on Wikipedia". This article echoed several criticisms about Wikipedia from "Skip", whom Orlowski described as a Wikipedia administrator who is a part of Wikitruth. Some of the criticisms leveled by "Skip" in the article include comments about Wikipedia's lack of a CAPTCHA challenge-response test for securing registration or editing and preference for inclusion of certain kinds of articles such as Pokémon.[8]
[edit] Criticisms of Wikipedia
The website levels several criticisms against Wikipedia. One group of these centers on Wales and WP:OFFICE, a meta page on Wikipedia set up to deal with certain legal and other issues. Wikitruth uses certain deletions carried out by Wales and others under the policy (actions that it characterizes as "Office Does It, Shut Up"[9]) to argue that Wikipedia content is censored. There is also a page describing Wales on the website, which contains several claims, including the assertion that Wales rules by fiat, enticing other "Wikipedians" to perform actions he wants, such as the insertion of certain website links into articles.[10] Some Wikipedia policies support Wales as the "ultimate authority on any matter"[11]; this policy has been upheld by Wikipedia's enforcement body, the Arbitration Committee[12].
Another group of criticisms centers on specific Wikipedia processes. For example, Wikitruth criticizes Wikipedia's recent changes patrol, a group of Wikipedia editors who inspect recent changes in Wikipedia articles, calling them "a Junior Woodchuck Club" that prevents legitimate edits to Wikipedia articles.[13] Wikitruth also states that it is easy for Wikipedia editors to comply maliciously, to "game the system" by outwardly following Wikipedia protocol.[14] The only protocol they have explicitly stated is flawed to enable "gaming" is Wikipedia's limit of three reverts to an article per user per 24-hour window[15] and the use of administration in stepping in to resolve complications in such disputes. Other policies that they comment on include the concept of notability, the problems of NPOV articles, and the use of sockpuppets.
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Gonsalves, Antone (April 17, 2006). Wikipedia Founder Calls Protest Site Wikitruth 'A Hoax'. techweb.com. Retrieved November 13, 2006.
- ^ Jimbo Calls Us A Hoax. Wikitruth. Retrieved on April 17, 2006.
- ^ Wikitruth:Magic Incantation
- ^ Andrew Orlowski. "A thirst for knowledge", The Guardian, 2006-04-13. Retrieved on April 17, 2006.
- ^ Gregory Rider. "Censored Wikipedia Articles Appear On Protest Site", Slashdot, 2006-04-17. Retrieved on April 17, 2006.
- ^ Hammered. Wikitruth. Retrieved on April 17, 2006.
- ^ PeterMcDermott. "Wikitruth, wikidare, wikikiss...", Metafilter, 2006-04-17. Retrieved on April 17, 2006.
- ^ Andrew Orlowski. "Wales and Sanger on Wikipedia", The Register, 2006-04-18. Retrieved on April 18, 2008.
- ^ WP:OFFICE. Wikitruth. Retrieved on April 17, 2006.
- ^ Jimbo Wales. Wikitruth. Retrieved on April 17, 2006.
- ^ Foundation Issues. Wikimedia Meta. Retrieved on October 30, 2006.
- ^ Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Pedophilia userbox wheel war. Wikipedia. Retrieved on October 30, 2006.
- ^ RC patrollers. Wikitruth. Retrieved on April 18, 2006.
- ^ Gaming the system. Wikitruth. Retrieved on April 18, 2006.
- ^ Wikipedia:Three-revert rule. Wikipedia. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
[edit] External links
- WikiTruth.Info Web Site
- "Turf Wars", by Julian Dibbell, Village Voice, May 2, 2006
- "Wikid interpretation", letter to the editor in response, Village Voice, May 9, 2006
- Japanese language Wikitruth
| History of Wikipedia | |
|---|---|
| Main articles | Bomis · Nupedia · Wikipedia · Wikimedia Foundation · Wikimania · MediaWiki |
| People | Jimmy Wales · Larry Sanger · Tim Shell · Wikipedia community |
| Events and individuals | Alan Mcilwraith · Blocking of Wikipedia in mainland China · Congressional staffer edits to Wikipedia · Essjay controversy · Henryk Batuta · Joshua Gardner · Seigenthaler controversy · QuakeAID |
| Related projects and forks | Citizendium · Enciclopedia Libre · Interpedia · WikiZnanie · Wikinfo · Wikitruth · Wikiweise |
