Spanish TV Channels Vandalize Wikipedia 182
strider2004 writes to tell us that Barrapunto, a Spanish tech news site, has outed two TV stations in Spain, one public and the other private, for engaging in Wikipedia vandalism for the sake of a story. (The link is in Spanish; Google translation here.) The public station introduced falsehoods into the Wikipedia entry for John Lennon; the private one vandalized the Elvis Presley entry. Both stations said they were performing an "experiment" to check the reaction time of Wikipedia. Both articles were promptly corrected by other editors.
Update: 08/19 13:01 GMT by KD : Barrapunto is not affiliated with Slashdot.
Update: 08/19 13:01 GMT by KD : Barrapunto is not affiliated with Slashdot.
Fair's fair (Score:5, Interesting)
Response times depend on the article (Score:3, Interesting)
Response time for vandalizing Sonic Hedgehog [wikipedia.org] - 8 days
Response time for vandalizing Sonic the Hedgehog [wikipedia.org] - 8 seconds
Re:barrapunto - not just for nerds (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Good Ol' Unreliable WikipediaBS (Score:3, Interesting)
Wikipedia is an online dictionary. People aren't generally supposed to edit it to contain outright lies on purpose. They can do so, but then again, they can write on walls.
Really ? I must look into it the next time my house needs repainting. And maybe NASA should just forget heat tiles and coat the Space Shuttle with this indestructible material. Not to mention that if you spraypaint your clothes, they become bulletproof - an essential feature in Iraq and American large cities.
Re:Good Ol' Unreliable WikipediaBS (Score:4, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Stephencol
"BEFORE YOU POST HERE: Please realize that this user was NOT blocked for vandalism, joking, or 'poking fun at Wikipedia'. This user was banned for violation of Wikipedia's Username policies which state that "Names of well-known living or recently deceased people" are inappropriate and should be indefinitely blocked until confirming evidence (in this case, from Stephen Colbert or Comedy Central) shows that this is, in fact, Stephen Colbert. Although Mr. Colbert 'made the edits on national television', he was also joking and it is not at all certain if he was in fact the person who made the edits attributed to this account. Until the blocking administrator (Tawker) receives word from Stephen Colbert or Comedy Central that this is Mr. Colbert, this account will remain blocked."