Wikigroaning

[a_dodecahedron]

You know what's fun? Wikigroaning"The premise is quite simple. First, find a useful Wikipedia article that normal people might read. For example, the article called 'Knight.' Then, find a somehow similar article that is longer, but at the same time, useless to a very large fraction of the population. In this case, we'll go with 'Jedi Knight.' Open

Comments

[stolen_tea]

To be fair, there's a certain argument to be made that there's likely to be a lot more controversy about some truly important topic, and more ambiguity about some historical topic, than about some relatively constrained piece of data from recent years.

For instance, there's little historical ambiguity about the role of Jedi Knights, and no need to avoid making sweeping statements about their roles in society, and there's a real possibility of having *all the available data* at our fingertips.

[a_dodecahedron]

You think so? It seems to me controversy has never stopped Wikipedians from adding stuff. (Insert obvious examples here.) If anything, controversial articles are better researched because they attract hordes of ideologues with axes to grind from various sides of the debate...which necessitates even more editors to keep order. And ambiguity...it seems to me there's more that can be written about an ambiguous topic than an unambiguous topic. "This school of thought says they were A, B, and C. So-and-so, by contrast, portrays them as D, E, and F...." And so on. I think the reason the History of the UN page is sparse is not because people are afraid to make questionable statements, but because it's harder and less fun to research than the history of video games.

On the other hand, if editors are hesitant to make statements on controversial or ambiguous topics, that's a problematic source of bias in itself.

I fully admit that I'm being unfair. :-) There are plenty of valid reasons for systemic bias, but it's still problematic. "The

[silver_fishing]

Hee: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikigroaning#Systemic_bias_in_coverage

[a_dodecahedron]

Hee indeed. :-)

They're kind of missing the point, aren't they? Whoever wrote that seems to think the people making Wikigroans are saying "Quit talking about Jedi Knights! You're using up the electrons!" That's not the point at all.