[Foundation-l] Answers.com and Wikimedia Foundation to Form New Partnership

Mon Oct 24 04:57:11 UTC 2005

Chris Jenkinson wrote:
> Jimmy Wales wrote:
> 
>> It strikes me as absolutely impossible for *anyone* to exert influence
>> over our content.  Our very development model ensurees that.
> 
> Could you clarify this point please?

I'm not sure how to clarify it but I'll try.  :-)

We use wiki software for the editing of the site.  This means that
anyone can change any article at any time.  There are some rare
exceptions, of course, for example the main page of the site, and at
various times, articles which are protected for the purpose of dealing
with vandalism.

Because anyone can edit any article at any time, there is an in-built
mechanism for dealing with inappropriate influence over articles.  Of
course, for a limited period of time, an organized group or a really
persistent editor can push an article to a position of bias for a time,
but we have constantly developing processes (3RR, Arbcom, NPOV rules,
etc.) to deal with that.

--Jimbo