5 ms·

Edit Wars Reveal The Most Controversial Topics on Wikipedia

71 points by dariusm5 13y ago

acheron 13y ago
Mostly not surprising other than the list of WWE employees...? There was a "famous" flame and revert war in Wikipedia's early days over the city of Gdansk/Danzig. A Wikipedia archive page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2005-03-07/Gdansk_or_Danzig http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/20...
- wiredfool 13y ago
  Yes. One of these things is not like the others.
michael_nielsen 13y ago
Or consider this list of the _lamest_ edit wars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lamest_edit_wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lamest_edit_wars Everything from edit wars over fictional waterfowl to the correct size of the Death Star in Star Wars. Read at your own risk.
- Osmium 13y ago
  I actually find lame edit wars kinda heartening. It suggests that the people running wikipedia have principles regardless of the topic; that it doesn't matter if it's silly; that if you want to talk about it, it should be done right.
  - chongli 13y ago
    people running wikipedia have principles Sure, if you want to call ego a principle. Or whatever you want to call the emotion that leads to tunnel-vision; to thinking about what you're going to say next without even hearing the other side.
  - InclinedPlane 13y ago
    When the strength of a principle is expended in meaningless battles over minutiae the principle is weakened greatly. More importantly, there is no such thing as a perfectly self-consistent set of ethical or moral rules. There will always be gray areas and areas of extreme complexity. It's far more valuable to know when to make exceptions and how to uphold the spirit of a principle independent of absurdly rigid rules.
- acheron 13y ago
  This is a fantastic list. Thank you for the link. I may have seen it before but had long forgotten about it.
- ErrantX 13y ago
  The "best", and one of the longest, rages over capitalisation of the letter T in The Beatles. Seriously.
cleaver 13y ago
I'm disappointed in Scientology.
Cynddl 13y ago
I am not sure that the edit wars reveal correctly the controversial topics. Edit wars also show pages where contributors are more beginners, like perhaps 'List of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. employees'. Lots of new contributors don't understand the rules and try to push their edits by editing a few time a page. The paper takes into account the weight of an editor – "The weight of an editor x is defined as the number of edits N performed by him or her" – without distinction between small and large edits for instance. Is it really a relevant metric?
- devindotcom 13y ago
  If you read the methods, they discount things like senior editors removing changes made by junior editors. The "controversy" they define as when editors repeatedly undo each other's additions.
kriro 13y ago
The German list is a bit odd, particularly #1. I guess there's some edit war over the war since there are quite a few German speaking folks from all over the Balkan living in Germany, Austria etc.... * Croatia * Scientology * 9/11 conspir acy theories * Fraternities * Homeopathy * Adolf Hitler * Jesus * Hugo Chávez * Minimum wage * Rudolf Steiner Interesting that Chile is #1 for es, Opus Dei #3
wf 13y ago
Link to the PDF being referenced: http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1305/1305.5566.pdf http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1305/1305.5566.pdf My favorite is the top result in Hungary: Gypsy Crime.
- dkarl 13y ago
  I thought it was bizarre to even have a page called "Gypsy Crime," but then I checked and discovered that this page exists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_crime http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_crime It's a redirect showing the article "Race and crime in the United States," but "Black_crime" is sitting right there in the address bar.
  - dsuth 13y ago
    Its nice that you're feeling PC, but do you really want to contend that there's no link between skin colour and crime in the US? I thought that was a fairly massive social issue over there, well-deserving of a wikipedia page.
    - dfc 13y ago
      I think the link is socioeconomic status and crime. If there was a connection between skin color and crime in the US why would this genetic predisposition stop at the border?
      - Kudzu_Bob 13y ago
        Does it? http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/01/police-routinely-suppress-racial-data-in-canada-study-says/ http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/01/police-routinely-sup...
        dfc 13y ago
        The way I read that article the whitewashing means that it is not possible for researchers to assess wether the LEOs are engaging in racial profiling. Did you interpret the article to mean that some minorioties are genetically predisposed to crime?
hkmurakami 13y ago
I'd really like to see this kind of analysis in the non-western wikipedia sites. From the little I know, some languages have very different focuses on wikipedia compared to the west. IIRC Japan has massive info and edits into pop culture, celebrities and manga/anime, and comparatively little in areas like politics, history and science. (one of the longest lasting edit wars there is with respect to the lead singer of the band *l'arc en ciel's (hyde) height, which by urban legend is said to be 156cm, which in netslang is now a unit of measurement where 1 hyde = 156cm)
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
belorn 13y ago
I would really like to so a correlation between the quality of a article, and how much edit warring that been done. Looking at the list, some of the corresponding articles have even been marked as GA (like #1 with most edit wars).
pekk 13y ago
This isn't about the most controversial topics, it's about which ones are tactically up for grabs. Many very controversial topics have a well-ensconced dogmatic view on Wikipedia (just not outside).
alxndr 13y ago
1. George W Bush 2. Anarchism 3. Muhammad 4. List of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. employees <record scratch/>
deskglass 13y ago
Here is the list for all the languages: http://i.imgur.com/fMGvxHJ.png http://i.imgur.com/fMGvxHJ.png Source Article: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14472718/wikipedia%20controversial.pdf https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14472718/wikipedia%20con...

71 points by dariusm5 13y ago

Mostly not surprising other than the list of WWE employees...? There was a "famous" flame and revert war in Wikipedia's early days over the city of Gdansk/Danzig. A Wikipedia archive page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2005-03-07/Gdansk_or_Danzig http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/20...

wiredfool 13y ago
Yes. One of these things is not like the others.

michael_nielsen 13y ago

Or consider this list of the _lamest_ edit wars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lamest_edit_wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lamest_edit_wars Everything from edit wars over fictional waterfowl to the correct size of the Death Star in Star Wars. Read at your own risk.

Osmium 13y ago
I actually find lame edit wars kinda heartening. It suggests that the people running wikipedia have principles regardless of the topic; that it doesn't matter if it's silly; that if you want to talk about it, it should be done right.
- chongli 13y ago
  people running wikipedia have principles Sure, if you want to call ego a principle. Or whatever you want to call the emotion that leads to tunnel-vision; to thinking about what you're going to say next without even hearing the other side.
- InclinedPlane 13y ago
  When the strength of a principle is expended in meaningless battles over minutiae the principle is weakened greatly. More importantly, there is no such thing as a perfectly self-consistent set of ethical or moral rules. There will always be gray areas and areas of extreme complexity. It's far more valuable to know when to make exceptions and how to uphold the spirit of a principle independent of absurdly rigid rules.
acheron 13y ago
This is a fantastic list. Thank you for the link. I may have seen it before but had long forgotten about it.
ErrantX 13y ago
The "best", and one of the longest, rages over capitalisation of the letter T in The Beatles. Seriously.

cleaver 13y ago

I'm disappointed in Scientology.

Cynddl 13y ago

I am not sure that the edit wars reveal correctly the controversial topics. Edit wars also show pages where contributors are more beginners, like perhaps 'List of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. employees'. Lots of new contributors don't understand the rules and try to push their edits by editing a few time a page. The paper takes into account the weight of an editor – "The weight of an editor x is defined as the number of edits N performed by him or her" – without distinction between small and large edits for instance. Is it really a relevant metric?

devindotcom 13y ago
If you read the methods, they discount things like senior editors removing changes made by junior editors. The "controversy" they define as when editors repeatedly undo each other's additions.

kriro 13y ago

The German list is a bit odd, particularly #1. I guess there's some edit war over the war since there are quite a few German speaking folks from all over the Balkan living in Germany, Austria etc.... * Croatia * Scientology * 9/11 conspir acy theories * Fraternities * Homeopathy * Adolf Hitler * Jesus * Hugo Chávez * Minimum wage * Rudolf Steiner Interesting that Chile is #1 for es, Opus Dei #3

wf 13y ago

Link to the PDF being referenced: http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1305/1305.5566.pdf http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1305/1305.5566.pdf My favorite is the top result in Hungary: Gypsy Crime.

dkarl 13y ago
I thought it was bizarre to even have a page called "Gypsy Crime," but then I checked and discovered that this page exists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_crime http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_crime It's a redirect showing the article "Race and crime in the United States," but "Black_crime" is sitting right there in the address bar.
- dsuth 13y ago
  Its nice that you're feeling PC, but do you really want to contend that there's no link between skin colour and crime in the US? I thought that was a fairly massive social issue over there, well-deserving of a wikipedia page.
  - dfc 13y ago
    I think the link is socioeconomic status and crime. If there was a connection between skin color and crime in the US why would this genetic predisposition stop at the border?
    - Kudzu_Bob 13y ago
      Does it? http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/01/police-routinely-suppress-racial-data-in-canada-study-says/ http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/01/police-routinely-sup...
      - dfc 13y ago
        The way I read that article the whitewashing means that it is not possible for researchers to assess wether the LEOs are engaging in racial profiling. Did you interpret the article to mean that some minorioties are genetically predisposed to crime?

hkmurakami 13y ago

I'd really like to see this kind of analysis in the non-western wikipedia sites. From the little I know, some languages have very different focuses on wikipedia compared to the west. IIRC Japan has massive info and edits into pop culture, celebrities and manga/anime, and comparatively little in areas like politics, history and science. (one of the longest lasting edit wars there is with respect to the lead singer of the band *l'arc en ciel's (hyde) height, which by urban legend is said to be 156cm, which in netslang is now a unit of measurement where 1 hyde = 156cm)

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

belorn 13y ago

I would really like to so a correlation between the quality of a article, and how much edit warring that been done. Looking at the list, some of the corresponding articles have even been marked as GA (like #1 with most edit wars).

pekk 13y ago

This isn't about the most controversial topics, it's about which ones are tactically up for grabs. Many very controversial topics have a well-ensconced dogmatic view on Wikipedia (just not outside).

alxndr 13y ago

1. George W Bush 2. Anarchism 3. Muhammad 4. List of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. employees <record scratch/>

deskglass 13y ago

Here is the list for all the languages: http://i.imgur.com/fMGvxHJ.png http://i.imgur.com/fMGvxHJ.png Source Article: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14472718/wikipedia%20controversial.pdf https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14472718/wikipedia%20con...