It’s about to get harder to edit a Wikipedia entry. That is unless those who oppose the concept can come up with a better idea.
Who among us hasn’t encountered some false information on the site at one time or another. The goal here is to make Wikipedia, which is one of the most popular sites on the web, a more reliable place for obtaining accurate information. That can’t be a bad thing from the average user’s perspective.
However, out of users, 60% want to see the tightening of controls, while 40% still don’t. After all, Wikipedia was built on a philosophy that allows anyone to add information.
Times change though. Sites evolve. Wikipedia gets ranked high on Google for many, many searches. People looking for information want accuracy. A lot of us know that we can’t always trust everything we read on Wikipedia. But how often does this phase the common searcher? Is this a concept that runs through little Johnny’s mind when he’s researching U.S. Presidents for his social studies paper?
It’s not like users can’t still submit edits. It should just be a little less chaotic this way, and ideally more useful in the long run for the majority of the site’s users.
The process is called Flagged revisions, and has already been in place at the German-Language version of the site according to ITWorld. That seems to be the way it’s going to go, but those opposed can share their ideas with management. If they come up with something better, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales will consider it.
