Wikipedia Politics

Volker recently discussed and then took action to lock down his Wiki as a defense against spammers. Somewhat coincidentally, there's an article in today's New York Times about persistent vandalism of biographical entries for Bush and Kerry in Wikipedia.

On Election Day, a "Kerry for President" banner appeared over one of the photographs of President Bush. And when that was removed, a picture of Hitler appeared where the President's picture had been. And where there was supposed to be a note on the page saying that the page was protected, instead there was a note saying, "This page has been protected by a Republican." Readers were advised that if they wanted to protect their freedom of speech they should vote for Senator Kerry.

...

And on it went. Surfacing from the editorial whirlpool, I wondered what had happened to Senator Kerry's entry in the Wikipedia. Two days after the election his entire entry had been replaced with a single line: "John Kerry is a girl." It has since been fixed.

I really like Wikipedia. I've contributed to a few articles. I think it has great potential, but obviously it's not well suited for dealing with controverial topics.