# It's fascinating that no matter how obscure the wiki \*someone\* has been editing it recently **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 13, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-fascinating-that-no-matter-how-obscure-the-wiki-someone-has-been-editing-it-recently/686037 "2014-04-13T21:03:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-fascinating-that-no-matter-how-obscure-the-wiki-someone-has-been-editing-it-recently/686037/1 "2014-04-13T21:03:10Z")
It’s fascinating to me that no matter how obscure or mundane the item like those below if you look at the very bottom at the last edit date it’s almost guaranteed _someone, somewhere,_ has been editing in the last 30 days. “Lisa Marie Presley” “Platypus” “Graboids” “Millard Filmore” “Tardigrade” “Chlorine” 4/6/2014 - Is there really more to say about chlorine? The longest in the tooth I could find was the “blobfish”. Last edit 2/25/2014 Blobfish ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-fascinating-that-no-matter-how-obscure-the-wiki-someone-has-been-editing-it-recently/686037/2 "2014-04-13T21:20:01Z")
Never underestimate the longevity of edit wars, regardless of the topic. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-fascinating-that-no-matter-how-obscure-the-wiki-someone-has-been-editing-it-recently/686037/3 "2014-04-13T21:52:35Z")
No matter how obscure the topic is, someone (probably multiple someones) has an extreme interest in it at any given moment. If you want to see a fast update, try introducing a small and obscure error in any article of your choice. The chances are excellent that it will be corrected in minutes to days. Blatant errors in less obscure topics will almost always be edited within minutes. Lots of people are skeptical of the open-source nature of Wikipedia as opposed to peer reviewed and carefully published sources but the overall accuracy for both is very similar and Wikipedia almost almost gets very fast updates to its errors whereas more traditional publishing can take a very long time if it ever gets corrected at all. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-fascinating-that-no-matter-how-obscure-the-wiki-someone-has-been-editing-it-recently/686037/4 "2014-04-13T22:22:43Z")
There are individual wikis about those subjects? Or do you mean articles about those subjects in Wikipedia? Because individual articles in Wikipedia are articles, not wikis. Wikis are websites. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-fascinating-that-no-matter-how-obscure-the-wiki-someone-has-been-editing-it-recently/686037/5 "2014-04-13T23:35:27Z")
People interested in “preserving” Wikipedia pages are frequently unconcerned about errors. You see an obvious spelling, punctuation, or grammar mistake and fix it. It will be reverted back to a mistake in no time. Keeping pages error free is not the goal of a lot of these people. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2014, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-fascinating-that-no-matter-how-obscure-the-wiki-someone-has-been-editing-it-recently/686037/6 "2014-04-14T00:48:06Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > No matter how obscure the topic is, someone (probably multiple someones) has an extreme interest in it at any given moment. If you want to see a fast update, try introducing a small and obscure error in any article of your choice. The chances are excellent that it will be corrected in minutes to days. Blatant errors in less obscure topics will almost always be edited within minutes. Please _don’t_ do that. You might think that a deliberate error will be corrected immediately, but it might not. I’ve corrected obvious errors or obvious vandalism that’s stood for _years_, ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-fascinating-that-no-matter-how-obscure-the-wiki-someone-has-been-editing-it-recently/686037/7 "2014-04-14T00:59:57Z")
I’ve often wondered, and there’s enough editors here that can tell me if this is the case, if people can an email when an article they’ve worked on is changed. That would explain some of this. I remember reading a wiki article on Step By Step (the TV show). It had clearly by vandalized, claiming that all (or maybe just some) of the kids were gay. In fact, I think a good chunk of the article had been rewritten to support this. The next day I went back to look at it again and it was re-written. I’d guess, other than editors, the Step By Step page doesn’t get more then a few visits a month. I was surprised at how fast it was fixed. Assuming it hadn’t been like that for weeks and I just happened to see it right before it was changed back. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-fascinating-that-no-matter-how-obscure-the-wiki-someone-has-been-editing-it-recently/686037/8 "2014-04-14T04:48:24Z")
I don’t know about an e-mail option, but you can put any article you’re interested in on your watch list. Then any time you log into wiki and go to your watch list, you’ll see a list of articles that have been edited in the past seven days. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-fascinating-that-no-matter-how-obscure-the-wiki-someone-has-been-editing-it-recently/686037/9 "2014-04-14T08:29:49Z")
Wikipedia does have a robotic “edit watch” system. Edits may be passed through spell checker and grammar checker, Also then a human checks the edit, and the content. There can be the issue that an edit can be deemed to be biased, when the edit is an addition intended to balance the existing bias. Say an article is currently strongly against X, then you add arguments for X. the Wiki-goon then says “edit is merely for X, this is biased.” Its an issue with news services too … they get in trouble for balancing the news of the day with history/editorial/opinion piece stuff, … but the news of day may be biased, and they are attempting to keep the news sensible ? ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-fascinating-that-no-matter-how-obscure-the-wiki-someone-has-been-editing-it-recently/686037/10 "2014-04-14T16:37:17Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > There are individual wikis about those subjects? Or do you mean articles about those subjects in Wikipedia? Because individual articles in Wikipedia are articles, not wikis. Wikis are websites. Agree with this terminological nitpick. That said, I’ve found the OP holds true at least occasionally for obscure Wiki sites. Some time back, I went to the actual Wiki for the ancient, defunct computer game _Master of Magic_. This is a game released in 1994 – _twenty years ago_. I had installed the game from [GOG.com](http://GOG.com) and was playing late…it was after 2:00 in the morning when it occurred to me there might be a Wiki for the game. I blearily went to look for it, and behold! Not only was there a Wiki and associated community for this game, but at that moment, _it had last been edited seven minutes ago_. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-fascinating-that-no-matter-how-obscure-the-wiki-someone-has-been-editing-it-recently/686037/11 "2014-04-16T07:42:58Z")
> **[Flight Surgeon Badge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_Surgeon_Badge)** > > The Flight Surgeon Badge is a military insignia which is issued to personnel who are qualified as military flight surgeons from various countries. > Badges include: July 2005. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-fascinating-that-no-matter-how-obscure-the-wiki-someone-has-been-editing-it-recently/686037/12 "2014-04-16T11:53:08Z")
I do frequent edits as I wander from one obscure wiki rabbit hole to another. Nothing substantial, mostly Grammar Nazi stuff.