Wikopedia exposed

[_Q_]

Originally posted by hoosier
Big negative story about Wikopedia in the USAToday editorial section today (11/30). Somebody posted a fictional biography of some RFKennedy aid. Although Wikopedia eventually deleted it, they offered no help in tracking down the author, and ISP won't help either.

Interesting story. Wikipedia has a lot of useful information, but also some risks. Something like this was addressed in one of their FAQs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped..._this_service.
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiAndIllegalMaterial
Basically, they'd been saying, "Well, something like this could happen, but our community would fix it Real Fast." This usually works, but it's not foolproof. And problems are often caught through the "recent changes" page, which means that if garbage isn't caught right after being posted, it's more likely to stay there.