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| Dokdo: One of Wikipedia's 'Lamest Edit Wars' |
| Which is it? Liancourt Rocks? Takeshima? Dokdo? |
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Todd Thacker (todd)  |
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Published 2007-02-18 14:04 (KST) |
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Liancourt Rocks? Takeshima? Dokdo?
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TODAY'S TOP STORIES |
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FROM THE SECTION |
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| The origins of the tiny islands in the sea separating the two Koreas and Japan (this being yet another disputed title: is it "East Sea," as the Koreans would have it, or "Sea of Japan"?) have raised the ire of nationalists and scholars for decades. More recently, the battle has gone online, with sites dedicated to "proving" which nation discovered them, and when.
Wikipedia, too, has by its very nature -- an user-edited encyclopedia -- been in the firing line.
Open to all for article creation and editing, the Wikipedia entry describing the tiny islands has had its contents vandalized and restored over 4,000 times, with waves of what Wikipedians call "edit wars" -- when two or more parties continually edit the piece to support a particular interpretation of an issue while removing the opposing view from the text of the article.
Sometimes the battle is in real time, with edits made seconds apart.
As seen in the page's "history," the fight ebbs and flows, often with the news of the day. An off-the-cuff statement by a politician, for instance, can stir up a hornet's nest of trouble in cyberspace.
Scanning the list of edits and their timestamps, there are clear and sudden increases in comments appended to the edited entry like "RV" (shorthand for "revert"(1) to a previous version of the article that had been vandalized) or "RV POV" (for "point of view," another big "no no" in Wikipedia.)
| | | Wikipedia Etiquette | | | |
A selection of points from the article:
Assume good faith. Wikipedia has worked remarkably well so far based on a policy of nearly complete freedom to edit. People come here to collaborate and write good articles.
Treat others as you would have them treat you - even if they are new. We were all new once...
Be polite, please!
Please register yourself and Sign and date your posts to talk pages (not articles!), unless you have some excellent reasons not to do so.
Work toward agreement.
Argue facts, not personalities.
Concede a point, when you have no response to it; or admit when you disagree based on intuition or taste.
Be prepared to apologize. In animated discussions, we often say things we later wish we hadn't. Say so.
Forgive and forget. | | | | |
Many of the wiki edits are made by anonymous users, listed in the page "history" only by an IP address. Other, more brave souls use their registered accounts, complete with "handles" and identifiable user pages. One pro-Japan user, for example, goes by the name "F**kKorean." Another is "Ronin" (a masterless samurai warrior). Pro-Korean users include "Korea history" and "General Tiger" (the Korean Peninsula is said to be shaped like a curled up tiger.)
Together, they can make subtle and not-so-subtle changes to the page. Or at least they could.
Wikipedia administrators, the virtual referees of the site, have recently stepped in and allowed only registered users with a track record on Wikipedia to make edits. A prominent message with a small icon of a padlock is placed at the top of the page.
Interestingly, if a netizen comes looking for the Japanese term "Takeshima," they will be redirected to the "Dokdo" page, the Korean name. This somewhat contradictory editorial decision to take a de facto "point of view" on the term was made early on in the article's creation. In the Lamest Edit Wars entry, the following says a lot:Dokdo
This group of islands is disputed between Japan and Korea, and the dispute inevitably spilled over into Wikipedia. Given the overtly racist agendas at work on both sides, Wikipedians can't even agree on what the article should be named, much less who really owns the islands. Since the semi-lock down of the article, such problems as inappropriate points of view being injected into the text have decreased. The article is relatively rich in information and balances both sides of the issue.
The "talk" page for the article (and all Wikipedia articles) is a place where disputes can be hashed out by users. In it, a comprehensive list of issues, points of contention and the rationale for editors and administrators to go one way or the other are discussed. It is one of the most democratic features of the Wiki world.
But, as with most Korea-Japan issues and articles, the Dokdo entry has yet to see the last of its "edit wars."
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| (1) A previous version of this article mistakenly identified the abbreviation "RV" as "revision". It stands for "revert". OhmyNews regrets the error. |
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©2007 OhmyNews
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