Wikipedia Scanner: Now See Who Is Editing Wikipedia
Filed under: News | By: Roy
Posted on: August 15, 2007 | 2 Comments
A new computer tool has been built that can trace who is editing wikipedia.
The wikipedia scanner works by tracking the editors IP address and this could really help with stopping the people who are ruining wikipedia.
I am sure you all know what I am talking about. The wikipedia scanner can stop those people who post spam or delete entire sections on articles on wikipedia.
I would think wikipedia has its own wikipedia scanner but this tool could be used by other people such as if someone edited a biography of a famous person, the wikipedia scanner could be used to track them or if some messed with a company profile then wikipedia scanner could trace that person’s IP address.
What do you think of the wikipedia scanner?
Would you use the wikipedia scanner?
Source
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Wikipedia reminds me of that joke about encyclopedias in the Soviet Union with the loose leaf pages.
Actually the scanner doesn’t stop people editing Wikipedia - it just makes it quick and easy to find the IP addresses of the computer that was used to edit a given Wikipedia page and links that IP address to the company that owns it. Wikipedia has always been able to log and ban IP addresses, the interesting thing the Scanner does is link the IP address to the entity that owns it thus removing some of the anonymity.
Of course if Wikipedia required registration the way we do at Bizwiki.co.uk then there would be more transparency and accountability. Granted this is primarily a problem on the corporate pages of Wikipedia (precisely why we decided to require registration given that Bizwiki is a user editable business wiki). Of course registration of wikis is a subject that is hugely debatable and I can understand Wikipedia’s stance on it given that they are an all-subject site and have the advantage of many, many dedicated editors who are not self serving. For wikis predominently or solely covering subjects that are potentially controversial however required registration may be the way to go.