Wikipedia vandalism has long been a subject of interest here at Blog P.I. It’s more of a nuisance than a real problem, and it will never go away. No, the better question is, when is it likely to be more common? Do you remember what Tuesday was?
- Article: April 1, 2008
Why: This page is the repository for lists of April Fools Day jokes and pranks, and it goes into the hundreds.
Detail: April Fool’s Day is in no danger of falling into obscurity: the page was only created on March 31 and subequently edited 1023 times, more than double and nearly triple the number of edits on last week’s most-edited page. - Article: Ima Hogg
Why: With a name like that, how could it not be vandalism?
Detail: Well, there’s more to it than that. Wikipedia itself made this the Featured Article on the main page of the English Wikipedia on April 1, with a skewed blurb visible on this user page. Just skewed, not contra-factual. But then the real article itself was indeed beset by April Fool’s jokesters, especially after being mentioned on the Houston Chronicle’s website. - Article: Celine Dion
Why: This was the Featured Article on April 3rd.
Detail: A complaint from the talk page: “A few days ago when the FA was a pro wrestling show, there were many complaints, but no one has complained about this? Interesting.” - Article: April Fools’ Day
Why: This is the article where the greatest hits are collected, under the phrase “Well-Known Pranks.”
Detail:A disproportionate number of recent additions concern themselves with video game companies. - Article: Canada on Strike
Why: Not only is this the latest South Park episode, it even made extensive reference to viral videos and Internet celebrities, from Star Wars Kid to Tay Zonday.
Detail: Unsurprisingly, commentary on Internet phenomena can inspire and inform new ones. From the article: “In the days following the airing of the episode in the U.S., many of the featured videos as linked above hosted on Youtube have received thousands of comments parodying the episode in return, notably the ‘I’m not your…’ sequence, forming a meme of its own.” - Article: Deaths in 2008
Why: As of week three, still the only page to appear on all three lists.
Detail: Kind of a down week for the Grim Reaper. Until Charlton Heston passed away last night, just barely making this roundup, we lost… an American-born mad bomber in Bolivia, the last Turkish veteran of WWI, minor hip hop figure Frosty Freeze, a British race horse, and someone who was, until Saturday, Japan’s oldest living woman. - Article: Earth Hour
Why: A one-hour holiday in which businesses, governments, monuments and websites worldwide turned off the lights to save a bit of energy to demonstrate their nominal concern with the depletion of Earth’s precious resources. A whole hour!
Detail: Obviously I’m cynical, but I’m far from the only one. Someone in Australia is primarily responsible for the “Criticisms” section, which is no less than a fourth of the entry. All from an Australian perspective. Not mentioned, but I’m thinking of adding: Google drew some flak for turning its home screen black for the hour, even though on many common monitors it actually requires more energy. - Article: NATO
Why: The Cold War institution was in the news this week, as Croatia and Albania have been invited to start talking about future membership. Putin can’t be happy about that.
Detail: Many of the edits concern recent developments, but it seems this has also brought attention to other aspects of the article which needed work. - Article: Google’s hoaxes
Why: Nobody does April Fool’s Day like Google does April Fool’s Day.
Detail: Google has been known for pulling one big prank in an announcement for every April 1st going back to 2000, but this year they outdid themselves, pranking visitors on many of their sites and services across the world. It seems like just about every division got a chance to dupe its public users. This year was the first for YouTube, which Rickrolled anyone who clicked on the featured videos. - Article: Bette Davis
Why: Friday was the actress’ 100th birthday, and Wikipedia made her article the Featured Article for the day. Thereby inviting vandals.
Detail: On the talk page, one person complained: “Why are there tanks at the top of the page?” Some time later, another complained: “Where did the tanks go?”
Holdovers this week: Deaths in 2008
Falling off the list: Major Boobage, Fitna (film), 2008 Tibetan unrest, American Idol (season 7), Sea otter, iCarly, 2008 unrest in Tibet, Stephen Curry (basketball), American Idol
Recurring themes: The most recent episode of South Park, a vandalized front page article
Honorable mention: Rickroll came in at #15.
Images courtesy Rakka, Discover Black Heritage and Earth Hour on Flickr.
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