# I HATE Wikipedia editors who... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 24, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643 "2009-03-24T21:08:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Commander\_Keen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@Commander\_Keen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Keen)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/21 "2009-03-25T01:03:04Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > I love everything about Wikipedia, and would not change even one tiny aspect of it. Wikipedia is the greatest human achievement of all time. I don’t know if I’m ready to go that far (and maybe you’re being sarcastic), but I would agree that Wikipedia is the greatest achievement of the collective users of the World Wide Web. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/22 "2009-03-25T01:21:44Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > :: lighting cigarette, taking long, slow drag :: > > :: loading shotgun :: > > So I see. Well, like I said–to the mattresses. If I’m not back in three days, **DrDeth** gets my remaining super-villain stuff. > > :: prances off whistling :: “No Capes!!!”😃 ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/23 "2009-03-25T01:23:50Z")
> [@Commander\_Keen](#): > > I don’t know if I’m ready to go that far (and maybe you’re being sarcastic), but I would agree that Wikipedia is the greatest achievement of the collective users of the World Wide Web. Long knives and all? Anyone, IMO, has to acknowledge that it gives free rein to a certain pernicious personality type who gets off cracking down on people who violate petty rules. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/24 "2009-03-25T01:26:35Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > “No Capes!!!”😃 People who tote shotguns and go to the mattresses don’t wear capes. Of course, the usually don’t prance either, but that’s not the point. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/25 "2009-03-25T01:40:33Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to The BBQ Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/26 "2009-03-25T02:39:09Z")
To the OP, isn’t pronunciation and etymology de rigueur following the topic word? I’ll admit that the etymology is overly lengthy in the original text. It should be something more like: Tragedy (Ancient Greek: τραγῳδία, tragōidia, “goat-song”) I.e. where there is just a list, rather than a sentence. Personally I’d recommend changing it to this format rather than trying to make it work as prose. It’s an encyclopedic entry, not literature, so it really should follow the proper format–something that neither you nor the original achieved. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/27 "2009-03-25T02:40:17Z")
[I](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I) [pit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_%28game%29) [the](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definite_article) [editors](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editor-in-chief) [that](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That) [include](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusion_%28disability_rights%29) [irrelevant](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relevance) [links](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain) [in](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana) [every](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity) [sentence](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_%28linguistics%29)[,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma) [making](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing) [the](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definite_article) [articles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper_article) [harder](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardness) [to](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_particle) [read](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy). EDIT: another pitting, to those that include the “this article is America-centric” template message in articles that are related to American history, law, places and so on ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/28 "2009-03-25T04:18:08Z")
I’m pitting the people who want a cite for everything. Okay, fine - give a cite if it’s a fact likely to be disputed. But I once wrote an article about somebody and said that she was born in Galveston, Texas - and somebody insisted I needed a cite for that. Why? What purpose would it serve? If you have any evidence she wasn’t born in Galveston, please share it. Otherwise I’m assuming you just have a fetish for little bracketed numbers. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/29 "2009-03-25T04:37:05Z")
Okay, found it. There might be an article about the Declaration of Independence, a suburb of Boston, or a president, or other concepts and subjects that are uniquely American, and it will include this template … “The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.” Seriously, editors, WTF? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/30 "2009-03-25T06:00:08Z")
My current Wikipedia annoyance is people who REFUSE to be editors. A friend posted this long screed to his Facebook “Share Links” page pointing to an image on Wikipedia that was marked for deletion because it didn’t have a copyright designation. He was going on and on about how Wikipedia was trying to suppress information that made the government look bad by threatening to delete an image (a graph) that was created in Word using publicly available (non-coprighted) stats. I followed his link and added the correct Wiki code to the copyright and removed the “this image will be deleted!” warning. I then explained how Wikipedia worked and that if he had just done the edits himself it would have taken less time than it would have to rant about it. Apparently, I struck a nerve because (paraphrased) I don’t understand that people are still hiding the truth and that even though it wasn’t deliberate, there are those in the government (or in corporations) daring to edit Wikipedia to make themselves look good. And rather than use the tools to edit it and remove bias, it’s better to scream in 14 point CAPS LOCKED font. I love Wikipedia and Facebook, but they are just huge forums for crazy people who have decided they know everything about everything. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/31 "2009-03-25T11:36:41Z")
> [@Dan\_Norder](#): > > Iit hurts\*\* the credibility of the site\*\* Where’s the “laughing hysterically” smiley? ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/32 "2009-03-25T12:05:12Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The talk page isn’t enabled? Are you sure about that? I think a talk page exists for all pages on Wikipedia. My guess is that no one has ever added anything to the talk page. Here’s the [link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Character_education)… I can’t see where you are able to start a discussion on this page. Anyway, I got my wife to recommend to her management to begin discussion/arbitration/whatever, but to avoid edit war by going over this person’s head. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/33 "2009-03-25T12:09:10Z")
Simply click on the “edit this page” link. And remember to sign your posts with four tildes ( ~~~~ ). ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/34 "2009-03-25T12:28:48Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > And it got shitcanned by a so-called administrator with a rather poor grasp of the subject matter and some sort of agenda. I think they think that any sort of “character education” is some sort of right-wing concept. Which is completely at odds with reality and indeed, the makeup of the majority of my wife’s organization. What, exactly, got shitcanned? I’m seeing a lot of edits by two people (click on the “History” tab to see a list of all the edits; click on the date to see the page revision at that time), and almost none of them were reversed. There’s only one edit about “Sudbury Schools” (from and IP) that got axed; is that it? If so, your characterization of the deletion is flawed. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/35 "2009-03-25T12:55:38Z")
Actually, what I believe happened is that the weirdos stuff was there for a while, my wife’s coworker made some changes, then another editor (not weirdo) came through and restored the old stuff, but changed some of the weirdoness. The weirdo in question also said some pretty unprofessional stuff to my wife’s coworker…I’m not involved in the particulars of this article and I’m not into the editing side of Wikipedia, so I really don’t feel comfortable getting into details. And, no, I won’t be editing the page myself. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/36 "2009-03-25T13:12:16Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Why? What purpose would it serve? If you have any evidence she wasn’t born in Galveston, please share it It’s just a request for clarification, why not? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/37 "2009-03-25T13:34:05Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > I love Wikipedia and Facebook, but they are just huge forums for crazy people who have decided they know everything about everything. Thank god that doesn’t happen here. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/38 "2009-03-25T14:29:55Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > To the OP, isn’t pronunciation and etymology de rigueur following the topic word? Why on Earth would you want to interrupt the flow of the very first sentence of the article with a long parenthetical aside that does nothing to add to the casual reader’s understanding? I don’t have a problem with including a **brief** note on punctuation (though I think using the IPA alphabet is also stupid, as most people don’t know how to read it, and it is far from intuitive). But introductory sentences to articles should be brief: subject + linking verb + predicate nominative. Someone reading the former opening to the crucifixion article is going to get drowned in information, not enlightened by it. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/39 "2009-03-25T14:43:36Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > … I think using the IPA alphabet is also stupid, as most people don’t know how to read it, and it is far from intuitive … The IPA is unambiguous, and language-neutral, so it’s the best choice. If people can’t read it, it’s not that hard to learn. (And the Wikipedia has the resources to help you learn it.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643/40 "2009-03-25T14:50:33Z")
The quote in the OP could have choked a horse. The edit is much better for the task of explaining crucifixion better. If someone wants a more extensive explanation of the word’s etymology they could put it elsewhere, or maybe consult a wikitionary, or another dictionary. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-wikipedia-editors-who/490643.md?page=3)