# How to Wiki-Edit **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 6, 2008, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-wiki-edit/440293 "2008-03-06T04:38:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Crocodiles\_And\_Boulevards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Crocodiles\_And\_Boulevards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crocodiles_And_Boulevards)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-wiki-edit/440293/1 "2008-03-06T04:38:30Z")
Ok, I was perusing Bill Clinton’s wikipedia page > **[Bill Clinton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_clinton)** > > William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979 and as the governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1992. His centrist "Third Way" political philosophy became known as Clintonism, which dominated his presidency and the succeeding decades... when I noticed under “Early Life” it says the following: > [@](#): > > It was not until Billy (as he was known then) turned fourteen that he formally adopted his stepfather’s surname of Clinton **and raped a dog** , although he had assumed use of it before then. Clinton has said that he remembers his stepfather as a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused his mother and, at times, his half-brother, Roger, Jr.[13][14] Now, I’m not an expert on the Clinton family, but somehow I don’t think this is accurate. If it is indeed not an accurate statement, I was wondering how you go about changing that tidbit? I don’t see any option to edit the page anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-wiki-edit/440293/2 "2008-03-06T04:52:20Z")
Bill Clinton’s page (along with other pages that are vandalized frequently) is protected. That means you have to have a Wikipedia login to edit it (and it may be that you have to have had the account for a while). Once you do, there’s an “edit this page” tab on top of the article and “edit” alongside each section. Most of the pages of notable people are pretty closely watched though, and vandalism there usually gets reverted pretty quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Crocodiles\_And\_Boulevards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Crocodiles\_And\_Boulevards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crocodiles_And_Boulevards)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-wiki-edit/440293/3 "2008-03-06T04:54:21Z")
Ah, I see. Thanks for the quick answer. Is there a way to report something like that if it isn’t caught? ---
**Author:** ![atomicbadgerrace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@atomicbadgerrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atomicbadgerrace)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-wiki-edit/440293/4 "2008-03-06T04:55:49Z")
[QUOTE=Crocodiles And Boulevards] Ah, I see. Thanks for the quick answer. Is there a way to report something like that if it isn’t caught? [/QUOTE] Not really, but as you’ll see now, it’s already been fixed. Wikipedia is notorious for both vandalism, and for quick fixes. Bots sweep through and revert much of the vandalism; that which isn’t caught by a bot is fixed by one of the thousands of people online browsing at any given time. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-wiki-edit/440293/5 "2008-03-06T04:57:33Z")
[QUOTE=atomicbadgerrace] Not really, but as you’ll see now, it’s already been fixed. Wikipedia is notorious for both vandalism, and for quick fixes. Bots sweep through and revert much of the vandalism; that which isn’t caught by a bot is fixed by one of the thousands of people online browsing at any given time. [/QUOTE] Actually, it wouldn’t be a formal report or anything, but you could post about it on the article’s talk page (I don’t think those are usually protected). That’s the link at the top that says “Discuss this page”. ---
**Author:** ![atomicbadgerrace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@atomicbadgerrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atomicbadgerrace)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-wiki-edit/440293/6 "2008-03-06T05:04:41Z")
[QUOTE=Garfield226] Actually, it wouldn’t be a formal report or anything, but you could post about it on the article’s talk page (I don’t think those are usually protected). That’s the link at the top that says “Discuss this page”. [/QUOTE] You could, but it wouldn’t really be anymore beneficial than waiting for someone to fix it. For example, this particular vandalism bit has a history of: 14:41, 5 March 2008 Orangemarlin (Reverted 1 edit by Dames games identified as vandalism to last revision by Mangwanani.using TW) 14:40, 5 March 2008 Dames games (→Early life) With no reporting, this bit of vandalism (on a Wednesday evening close to midnight) was fixed in less than a minute. Wikipedia is pretty much self-sustaining at this point. Although vandalism is still rampant, it’s usually cleaned up before anyone bats an eye. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-wiki-edit/440293/7 "2008-03-06T05:08:47Z")
[QUOTE=Garfield226] Bill Clinton’s page (along with other pages that are vandalized frequently) is protected. That means you have to have a Wikipedia login to edit it (and it may be that you have to have had the account for a while). Once you do, there’s an “edit this page” tab on top of the article and “edit” alongside each section. Most of the pages of notable people are pretty closely watched though, and vandalism there usually gets reverted pretty quickly. [/QUOTE] Yes, it’s semi-protected rather than fully protected. Here’s the difference, from [Wikipedia Protection Policy:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Protection_policy) > [@](#): > > Full protection disables editing for everyone except administrators. Fully protected media files cannot be overwritten by new uploads. > > Semi-protection disables editing for anonymous users and registered accounts less than four days old. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-wiki-edit/440293/8 "2008-03-06T13:14:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Semi-protection disables editing for anonymous users and registered accounts less than four days old. Therefore, my suggestion to you is to register on Wikipedia NOW, and then, four days from now, you can simply make these corrections as you see them. No need to report them – YOU will be among the many Wikipedians who continually upgrade and improve it.