Wikipedia may tighten editing rules

Under a proposal forwarded by none other than co-founder Jimmy Wales, revisions to Wikipedia will need explicit approval by a group of editors before the changes can be committed to the system. Called "Flagged Revisions," the proposal will require that first-time or anonymous users be approved first by trusted users before they are allowed to make instant edits.

This entire issue emerged when vandals changed the entries of two U.S. senators to falsely report that they had died. Wales wrote, "This nonsense would have been 100% prevented by flagged revisions."

Jake Wartenberg, Wikipedia user and member of RC patrol chimed in, "The big issue is that while we have majority support, we don't have consensus, and that's the way we have always made our decisions. A lot of editors are becoming disenchanted with the project; we are losing them all the time."

Unfortunately, the proposal did not sit well with some, and it has sparked a lively debate in the forums. One concern is that granting new powers to editors will bring Wikipedia even closer to the sites of traditional encyclopedias like Britannica.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at The Guardian

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