Celestia Forums

It is probably known that I am NOT a fan of Wikipedia. The main reason being not so much (average) quality related, but the fact that no personalized authors take responsability for what is written...

Here is a nice Wikipedia "incident" that went through the German press a few days ago:

A completely unknown polititian (from a noble family background) was surprisingly nominated German Minister of Economy by the conservative party. At this time, a malicious young journalist entered knowingly a WRONG further firstname for this new Minister into Wikipedia, trying to find out this way, how many leading German newspapers would blindly copy it, instead of using more solid resources .

Indeed, next day, three acclaimed German newspapers cited this minister with the additional INCORRECT firstname (note: nobles usually have many firstnames...).

Aha Wikipedia in action!!

Of course, the new minister's secretariat had that incorrect firstname eliminated from Wikipedia without delay... But not enough . An unknown person who had read that incorrect additional firstname in one of these newspapers believed in their high reputation and anonymously reentered the Minister's incorrect firstname into Wikipedia, hi hi...

Fridger

Yep, that the kind of situation not so cool with Wikipedia.
Anyway I believe that once they solved the problem of cross control of entries, it will be a nice source of info. After all it's still a "young" concept needing some polishing...
I heard Britannica is thinking in using (finally)(-> they were against at first) the same concept but no anonymous authors will be accepted...