Debate in the 'Wiki World': Edit Wars

The controversies that surround the different opinions of online participants in Wikis has given rise to a number of 'edit wars', when individuals or groups of editors of a particular Wiki become embroiled in an online argument based on whose slant on editing is deemed 'correct'. These battles can sometimes escalate into fierce exchanges, however "most participants in these arguments recognise that it is (mostly) tongue-in-cheek" (Wikipedia).

Bruns (120, 2008) refers to these occurrences as 'revert wars', emerging "between opposing factions which in turn remove one another's page edits" noting that "the deliberate defacement of oppositional pages, do[es] occur".

Below is a short list of edit wars as identified by Computerworld (2008).

• Labelling of 'petrol' or 'gasoline'.


• Where Nicolas Tesla, Freddie Mercury, Copernicus and Jennifer Aniston were really born.


• Whether the symbol for C# programming language should be written with a hash or with the musical sharp symbol.


• Whether the planet Pluto should be referred to as 134340 Pluto, or just plain Pluto.


• Whether a Queen dead for over a century should still be referred to as 'Her Majesty'


• Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure: Was it released in 1988, or 1989?


• The real height of Andre the Giant.


• The Death Star. Is it 120km or 160km in diameter? Even 900km? Is the hyper drive class 3 or 4?


• Are potato chips flavored or flavoured - as a compromise they become seasoned.


• Periods vs full stops, and


• What really goes into an Irish breakfast?

For further reading see the full list of 'lamest edit wars ever'.

As demonstrated by this list, the trivialities of social and culturally relevant terms become open debate in the 'Wiki World', often with humorous results.



References

Bruns, A. 2008. Wikipedia: Representations of knowledge. In Blogs, wikipedia, second life, and beyond: From production to produsage. 101-146. New York: Peter Lang. https://cmd.qut.edu.au/cmd/KCB201/KCB201_BK_163521.pdf (accessed May 15, 2008).


Computerworld. 2008. Who’s behind Wikipedia?
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1866322157;fp;4;fpid;1968336438;pf;1 (accessed 15 May, 2008).