Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-07-16/In the news
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the news
Wikipedian with most edits interviewed
Smith magazine interviewed the Wikipedian with the largest number of edits, Rich Farmbrough (who as of press time, has over 165,000 edits to his account). Despite his large number of edits, Farmbrough says that he is not obsessed with Wikipedia, instead saying that his involvement, which largely involves minor edits, is instead a manifestation of his desire for continuous improvement. In fact, he mentions editcountitis, and states that he believes others have made more valuable contributions to Wikipedia. Farmbrough also weighs in on the issue of the value of using Wikipedia as a resource, and comments that it depends on what you are looking for and what other resources you have available. Farmbrough, who also runs the bot SmackBot, says that he is interested in keeping Wikipedia from "stultification", following a childhood interest in building a repository of all knowledge.
Errors in Congressman article
The Plain Dealer reported that there were substantial errors with the article about Steve LaTourette, a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives. For example, the article claimed that he disrupted a visit by Prince Charles to the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, a claim which was removed by an anonymous user. It appears that the inaccuracies were the result of vandalism, and in an interesting move, LaTourette's office would not correct the entries lest it appear as political interference.
Wikipedia cited in Microsoft Xbox case
Jorge Brouwer is suing Microsoft for damage caused by the Xbox 360, claiming that the game consoles scratch discs, a problem that the company denies is "widespread". His lawyer said that he found reports of scratching found by a Dutch television program as reported on Wikipedia: this appears to be this section.
Also this week: From the editor — Board elections — F1 trademark — New bureaucrats — Rescue squad — Book review — WikiWorld — In the news — Features and admins — Technology — Arbitration
