Can Anyone Easily Destroy Wikipedia Articles?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the mechanisms that prevent the destruction of Wikipedia articles, particularly focusing on the ability to revert changes and the role of community oversight in maintaining article integrity.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Technical explanation, Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant suggests that Wikipedia likely employs a version control system that allows changes to be tracked and reverted if necessary.
  • Another participant confirms the existence of such a system and references an external article for further clarification on wikis.
  • A different participant shares their experience with another wiki that has similar rollback features, emphasizing community involvement in maintaining content quality.
  • It is noted that anyone can revert a Wikipedia page to a previous version, but this action does not delete content; it creates a new version that reflects an earlier state.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the existence of rollback features in Wikipedia, but there is some uncertainty regarding the specifics of who can perform these actions and the implications of such changes.

Contextual Notes

There may be limitations in understanding the full scope of administrative controls versus user capabilities, as well as the potential for vandalism and community response.

Who May Find This Useful

Individuals interested in the mechanics of collaborative editing, online content management, and the structure of wikis may find this discussion relevant.

aychamo
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Hey guys

I just discovered (lol) Wikipedia the other day.. What stops anyone from going in and just destroying all the articles?
 
Computer science news on Phys.org
They probable have a CVS type system implemented. That means that all changes are noted and the admins can roll back to good version if things go bad.
 
dduardo said: They probable have a CVS type system implemented. That means that all changes are noted and the admins can roll back to good version if things go bad.
That's exactly right.

aychamo, you should look at the latest issue of Pop. Science. It has an article: What is a wiki? It explains your question.

Paden Roder
 
http://hprog.org is also a pretty good wiki. It was actually the first wiki I ever used and one of the first I've ever encountered.

They simply have a button that reverts the page to it's old version if someone has vandalized the page.

From what I've read, most administrators believe that the larger number of users that care will revert the page back if it is ever vandalized. Since the amount of users that care will outweigh the ones there to cause trouble.

That means that all changes are noted and the admins can roll back to good version if things go bad.

Can't anyone roll back to the good version @ wikipedia? Or is that an admin-only feature?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Anyone can roll back a page to a previous version on wikipedia. You're not actually deleting anything, however -- you're just creating a new version whose text is the same as some previous version.

- Warren
 

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