

Edit Wars Reveal The Most Controversial Topics on Wikipedia - dariusm5
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/517101/edit-wars-reveal-the-10-most-controversial-topics-on-wikipedia/

======
michael_nielsen
Or consider this list of the _lamest_ edit wars:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lamest_edit_wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lamest_edit_wars)

Everything from edit wars over fictional waterfowl to the correct size of the
Death Star in Star Wars. Read at your own risk.

~~~
Osmium
I actually find lame edit wars kinda heartening. It suggests that the people
running wikipedia have _principles_ regardless of the topic; that it doesn't
matter if it's silly; that if you want to talk about it, it should be done
right.

~~~
chongli
_people running wikipedia have principles_

Sure, if you want to call _ego_ a principle. Or whatever you want to call the
emotion that leads to tunnel-vision; to thinking about what you're going to
say next without even hearing the other side.

------
acheron
Mostly not surprising other than the list of WWE employees...?

There was a "famous" flame and revert war in Wikipedia's early days over the
city of Gdansk/Danzig. A Wikipedia archive page:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/20...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2005-03-07/Gdansk_or_Danzig)

~~~
wiredfool
Yes. One of these things is not like the others.

------
hkmurakami
I'd really like to see this kind of analysis in the non-western wikipedia
sites. From the little I know, some languages have very different focuses on
wikipedia compared to the west.

IIRC Japan has massive info and edits into pop culture, celebrities and
manga/anime, and comparatively little in areas like politics, history and
science.

(one of the longest lasting edit wars there is with respect to the lead singer
of the band *l'arc en ciel's (hyde) height, which by urban legend is said to
be 156cm, which in netslang is now a unit of measurement where 1 hyde = 156cm)

------
wf
Link to the PDF being referenced:
[http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1305/1305.5566.pdf](http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1305/1305.5566.pdf)

My favorite is the top result in Hungary: _Gypsy Crime_.

~~~
dkarl
I thought it was bizarre to even have a page called "Gypsy Crime," but then I
checked and discovered that this page exists:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_crime](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_crime)

It's a redirect showing the article "Race and crime in the United States," but
"Black_crime" is sitting right there in the address bar.

~~~
dsuth
Its nice that you're feeling PC, but do you really want to contend that
there's no link between skin colour and crime in the US? I thought that was a
fairly massive social issue over there, well-deserving of a wikipedia page.

~~~
dfc
I think the link is socioeconomic status and crime. If there was a connection
between skin color and crime in the US why would this genetic predisposition
stop at the border?

~~~
Kudzu_Bob
Does it?

[http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/01/police-routinely-
sup...](http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/01/police-routinely-suppress-
racial-data-in-canada-study-says/)

~~~
dfc
The way I read that article the whitewashing means that it is not possible for
researchers to assess wether the LEOs are engaging in racial profiling. Did
you interpret the article to mean that some minorioties are genetically
predisposed to crime?

~~~
Kudzu_Bob
The article did not discuss genetics. Your question makes no sense.

~~~
dfc
Just to make sure we are on the same page: You don't think that increased
levels of melanin means that an individual is more likely to be a criminal?

With that out of the way. The conversation went like this:

dsuth: _" I thought that [the link between skin colour and crime in the US]
was a fairly massive social issue over there, well-deserving of a wikipedia
page."_

me: _" If there was a connection between skin color and crime in the US why
would this genetic predisposition stop at the border?"_

you: _" Does it? [http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/01/police-routinely-
sup...](http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/01/police-routinely-suppress-
racial-data-in-canada-study-says/) "_

I am not sure where we got our signals crossed.

* What were you questioning when you asked "does it?"

* What did you expect I was going to get out of the article you linked to?

* You do not think that a person's race is a matter of genetics?

~~~
Kudzu_Bob
Didn't you mean to imply that blacks in countries bordering the US had
substantially lower crime rates than blacks in the US? If you didn't, then I
have no idea what you were getting at.

------
kriro
The German list is a bit odd, particularly #1. I guess there's some edit war
over the war since there are quite a few German speaking folks from all over
the Balkan living in Germany, Austria etc....

* Croatia

* Scientology

* 9/11 conspir acy theories

* Fraternities

* Homeopathy

* Adolf Hitler

* Jesus

* Hugo Chávez

* Minimum wage

* Rudolf Steiner

Interesting that Chile is #1 for es, Opus Dei #3

------
pekk
This isn't about the most controversial topics, it's about which ones are
tactically up for grabs. Many very controversial topics have a well-ensconced
dogmatic view on Wikipedia (just not outside).

------
Cynddl
I am not sure that the edit wars reveal correctly the controversial topics.
Edit wars also show pages where contributors are more beginners, like perhaps
'List of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. employees'. Lots of new
contributors don't understand the rules and try to push their edits by editing
a few time a page.

The paper takes into account the weight of an editor – "The weight of an
editor x is defined as the number of edits N performed by him or her" –
without distinction between small and large edits for instance. Is it really a
relevant metric?

~~~
devindotcom
If you read the methods, they discount things like senior editors removing
changes made by junior editors. The "controversy" they define as when editors
repeatedly undo _each other 's_ additions.

------
deskglass
Here is the list for all the languages:
[http://i.imgur.com/fMGvxHJ.png](http://i.imgur.com/fMGvxHJ.png)

Source Article:
[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14472718/wikipedia%20con...](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14472718/wikipedia%20controversial.pdf)

------
belorn
I would really like to so a correlation between the quality of a article, and
how much edit warring that been done. Looking at the list, some of the
corresponding articles have even been marked as GA (like #1 with most edit
wars).

------
alxndr
1\. George W Bush

2\. Anarchism

3\. Muhammad

4\. List of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. employees

<record scratch/>

------
cleaver
I'm disappointed in Scientology.

