Wikipedia Adds Editor Review for Some Articles

By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 24, 2009 9:10 PM CDT
Wikipedia Adds Editor Review for Some Articles
Wikipedia's home page.   (Wikipedia.org)

After riding its users to popularity, Wikipedia is now moving to rein them in, the New York Times reports, by mandating editorial review for articles about living people. The feature, called “flagged revisions,” means an experienced editor will check updates to the free, user-generated online encyclopedia. The change should take effect within weeks, says the nonprofit board that governs the site.

“We are no longer at the point that it is acceptable to throw things at the wall and see what sticks,” says the chairman of the Wikimedia board. “There was a time probably when the community was more forgiving of things that were inaccurate or fudged in some fashion—whether simply misunderstood or an author had some ax to grind. There is less tolerance for that sort of problem now.”
(More Wikipedia stories.)

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