# Some wise guy has been editing my hometown's Wikipedia entry **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 7, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173 "2009-01-07T01:12:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/1 "2009-01-07T01:12:25Z")
I was showing a friend at work the [Wikipedia entry for my hometown](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneseo,_Illinois) when something caught her eye. As I started to look closer, I noticed more interesting facts I was previously unaware of … > [@](#): > > As of the census of 2000, there were 6,483 people, 2,709 homosexuals, and 1,813 families residing in the city. The awesome density was 1,607.0 people per square mile (623.8/km²). There were 2,854 housing units at an average density of 707.8/sq mi (273.4/km²). The radical makeup of the city was 100.76% White, -0.19% African American, -0.09% Native American, -0.35% Asian, -0.02% Pacific Islander, -0.28% from other races, and -0.51% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were -0.94% of the population. > There were 2,709 households out of which 33.3% had children under the age of 70 living with them, 56.3% were married couples not living together, $7.60USD had a female householder with no husband ruler, and 33.1% were non-human. Not only that, but … > [@](#): > > Males had a median income of $3,800,990 versus $2,794 for females. Well, I’ll be damned. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/2 "2009-01-07T01:13:52Z")
I’m marrying a male. ---
**Author:** ![fifty-six](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/3 "2009-01-07T01:35:20Z")
What a radical make up. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/4 "2009-01-07T01:44:43Z")
This happens on my own town’s webpage here and there… not all that often, but here and there… Someone doesn’t like the mayor so they change his name to one of several that involve a mocking or vulgar word… Its a stretch almost every time. Either a computer picks up on it and reverts it or someone checking recent edits almost always gets to it quick. I only check it once or twice a month to see if anyone does some edits that would concern any of the parts I’ve contributed majorly (what I thought was cool is that one or two sentences I wrote about something historic was researched heavily by other people and expanded on greatly into something far better written than I could’ve ever done… And with more information about it than I knew). Another problem is that Sundance just loved a movie filmed in my town. Its a small town. _Frozen River_ is the name of it. Mostly its filmed in a super super small town thats next to mine, really. Its about the mohawk reservation and cultural identity and all that stuff. Someone decided to put something like a 6 paragraph summary of the film under a “Film Shooting” section on the hometowns page. Groan. I cut it down to a couple sentences. Also, that whole native american culture thing that the movie is about? My small town has _no_ interaction with it besides people going there to purchase cartons of cigarettes cheaper. That whole several paragraphs was worse than vandalism, IMHO, it was blatant advertising for the movie by someone who loved it and was from this town. ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/5 "2009-01-07T02:09:40Z")
**clayton\_e** , I share your pain. I am not sure what kind of cruft it falls under, not that devoted of a 'kipedian to know or care, but I really hate when something like \ dominates an article. I know you’re really excited and proud that something neat happened in your hometown, I would be, too, but that doesn’t mean you copy the 3 screen article of that something neat and paste it into your town’s article. A little blurb and a link to the main article will suffice. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/6 "2009-01-07T02:47:03Z")
Argh! The Portage one is so full of shit and grammatical errors i can’t stand to read the whole thing. It seems to have been written by a drunken employee of the Chamber of Commerce. This type of article is why I hate Wiki articles. Maybe the page was a product of the first grade class having a writing assignment, because it can’t be the product of an adult with a High School education. They praise the beautiful canal. It’s not an eyesore only during the winter when it’s frozen over and the garbage festering in it is covered by snow. The smell during most of the year is horrible from the stagnant green water with the floating trash. > [@](#): > > Portage is named for the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway, a portage between the Fox River and the Wisconsin River which was recognized by Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet during their discovery of a route to the Mississippi River in 1673. ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/7 "2009-01-07T03:11:14Z")
Sweet mercy, **Harmonious Discord** , I’ve never seen so much glurge written about a town I’ve never heard of before! It reads like some kind of semi-apologetic sales pitch. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/8 "2009-01-07T03:24:45Z")
They went on to blame the businesses on the north side of town by the interstate for their lack of customers at the downtown retailers. The downtown has never taken responsibility for their practices first driving everybody to Madison and later to the newly developed north end. In what way does that glurg belong on the Wiki page? It really reads like our Chamber of Commerce edits that page. ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/9 "2009-01-07T03:32:06Z")
If you think it stinks, change it! It’s Wikipedia! You’re totally allowed! ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/10 "2009-01-07T03:50:56Z")
I like mine the way it is! ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/11 "2009-01-07T17:16:00Z")
> [@seodoa](#): > > I know you’re really excited and proud that something neat happened in your hometown, I would be, too, but that doesn’t mean you copy the 3 screen article of that something neat and paste it into your town’s article. A little blurb and a link to the main article will suffice. Actually I’m considering deleting the two sentences left… It really has nothing to do with the town whatsoever. And someone put up a photo of the cemetery gate because its been around since 1910 or something like that and had “local cemetery” or somesuch written in French.. Because we had more people that lived here back then that spoke French than now. Um. Ok. It just wasn’t notable. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/12 "2009-01-07T17:31:34Z")
> [@WF\_Tomba](#): > > If you think it stinks, change it! It’s Wikipedia! You’re totally allowed! Glurg as it is I don’t care what Wiki says as I consider it a unreliable source that changes with the sigh of a wind. Were it actually a permanent page I might bother to ask for a correction. Wiki isn’t worth the trouble. I just brought up what i saw on it as a good example of Wiki articles. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/13 "2009-01-07T17:33:50Z")
I had to look up a town near me once for some purpose and somebody had put that 40% of the residents were dwarves. I corrected it to 38%. OK, no I didn’t. I just took it out. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/14 "2009-01-07T17:47:34Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > It really reads like our Chamber of Commerce edits that page. That’s quite possible. At least [the page for my city](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto) seems a bit more scholarly. ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/15 "2009-01-07T17:58:53Z")
I also thought the pages for my hometown and especially that of the small city next door sounded very boosterish. It’s probably a common Chamber of Commerce practice. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/16 "2009-01-07T18:31:39Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Glurg as it is I don’t care what Wiki says as I consider it a unreliable source that changes with the sigh of a wind. Were it actually a permanent page I might bother to ask for a correction. Wiki isn’t worth the trouble. I just brought up what i saw on it as a good example of Wiki articles. I’ll no doubt get shat upon for this as I have in the past around these parts, but you do understand that “Wiki” is not Wikipedia, right? That’s like calling the SDMB “web.” There are thousands of other wikis out there with both greater and lesser levels of glurge, some of which work very well. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/17 "2009-01-07T18:39:49Z")
> [@Cerowyn](#): > > I’ll no doubt get shat upon for this as I have in the past around these parts, but you do understand that “Wiki” is not Wikipedia, right? That’s like calling the SDMB “web.” There are thousands of other wikis out there with both greater and lesser levels of glurge, some of which work very well. Just to nitpick, it’s more like calling the SDMB “the Dope,” which in fact a lot of people do. If someone says “I found it on Wiki,” I think it’s widely understood that they’re shortening “Wikipedia.” If they say, “I found it on a wiki,” then that refers to some generic other wiki. Not that this is a particularly hot-button issue for me. ---
**Author:** ![Ichini\_Sanshigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d9b06d/32.png) [@Ichini\_Sanshigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichini_Sanshigo)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/18 "2009-01-07T18:45:41Z")
Actually, it’s more like calling the SDMB “the board”. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/19 "2009-01-07T18:47:12Z")
I do not trust anything on the intwarnet, not even what I post there. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173/20 "2009-01-07T18:48:09Z")
> [@Ichini\_Sanshigo](#): > > Actually, it’s more like calling the SDMB “the board”. Hm. Point taken. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-wise-guy-has-been-editing-my-hometowns-wikipedia-entry/480173.md?page=2)