In the media

Solving crime; editing out violence allegations

On the use of images

This donated image of a 2009 Toyota Camry helped to solve a crime.

A bicyclist was hit. The driver fled the scene. Left in critical condition, a Reddit user by the name of YoungSalt desperately posted on several forums with a picture of the bumper. "Help identify this piece of a bumper from a hit and run with a cyclist now in critical condition." Using, among other sources, an image from Wikipedia (File:2009 Toyota Camry (ACV40R) Ateva sedan (2015-05-29) 01 (cropped).jpg) other users from Reddit were able to determine that the bumper fragment came from a 2009 Toyota Camry, and the previously unknown attacker was caught. Free culture is valuable for its own sake but even mundane pictures of cars can make a tangible difference in the world.

NFL coach's wife is editing out violence allegations on Wikipedia

Ccable62, at a glance would appear to be a very obsessive fan of Tom Cable, removing allegations of violence against the football coach repeatedly. However, it turns out that, as The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post reported, Ccable62 is in fact Carol Cable, Tom's wife. Clearly, they felt that the allegations were unfounded, writing "ALL ACCUSATIONS AGAINST COACH CABLE WERE ORICRN VIA NFL. DA. AND POKICE TO BR ABSOLUTELY FALSE. THEY SHOULD NOT LIST LIES AND FALSR ACCUSATIONS IN THIS WIKIPEDIA AS IT IS SLANDER" in an edit summary. For now the allegations remain up, and Ccable62 has not edited since January 5.

Did UCF really win?

Sports Illustrated noted fierce editing at 2017 UCF Knights football team and related pages

When the University of Central Florida football team went undefeated for 13 games, everyone knew that controversy would ensue. As College football national championships in NCAA Division I FBS do not have a championship, there is no defined winner other than who has the best record. Many, however were and are of the opinion that Alabama truly won the division, and those people edited as such. Edit wars broke out across the spectrum, with an edit every 97 seconds on the 2017 UCF Knights football team page. Discussions broke out as to the color of the 2017 season at pages including coach Scott Frost, UCF Knights football, and the 2017 Alabama Crimson Tide football team (That page underwent 252 edits from mid-November to mid-January; of those, 124 came on January 8 and 9). (Originally reported in Sports Illustrated.)

In brief

"Wikipedia Rabbit Hole" discussed at Engadget

Jalopnik covered the efforts of User:McChizzle in updating the article Honda Ridgeline.
Engadget and others reported on the "Wikipedia Rabbit Hole" phenomenon. See this issue's blog.
New Hampshire Public Radio in New Hampshire, United States shares its research and reflections on who made the Wikipedia article for their capitol and how editors have developed it.
Hürriyet Daily News, an English language news source in Turkey, relays that Wikimedia Foundation executive director Katherine Maher has told the Turkish language Habertürk that the Turkish government has not provided any reason about why the Turkish government has blocked access to Wikipedia throughout the country continually since April 2017.
The Daily Mail, a tabloid newspaper known in the wiki community as being an unreliable source for Wikipedia articles (previous coverage), recently presented evidence on the dangers of Wikipedia's information about suicide methods. Citing a report by British politician Grant Shapps, previously known for editing the article about himself (previous coverage 1, 2), both the tabloid and the government report complain of the dangers of providing encyclopedic information in the way that Wikipedia does. The Signpost invites users who feel that content in Wikipedia should be different to edit articles and comment on discussion pages, including at Talk:Suicide methods, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Death, and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine. Grant Shapps denies wiki mischief (previous coverage) but even if that were not the case, we are ever welcoming to critics and encourages everyone to check out the report.
A vendor of chips (French fries) describes his experience of being the subject of a Wikipedia article for two weeks, at which time the wiki's review process deleted the article
An editor from Slate considers the extent to which Wikipedia is a good place to start solving mysteries involving missing persons
SPORTbible and FK Panevėžys noted that FK Panevėžys, a Lithuanian football club from the second-level I Lyga, is allegedly duped into signing Barkley Miguel Panzo based on fabricated data from a Wikipedia page. However, the club apologized on 3 February for "the appearance of incorrect information" on its website.

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In this issue

5 February 2018

Op-ed

Discuss this story

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Am I the only one struggling to understand the UCF section? Lepricavark (talk) 21:34, 5 February 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Nutshell: (un)remarkable edit war about unverifiable original research relating to US university sports teams. This uninvolved editor would like to know, was there a Presidential tweet on the topic? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.205.251.56 (talk) 00:20, 6 February 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]

I got the basic idea. The problem is that the section is confusingly worded and seemingly inaccurate. Lepricavark (talk) 02:51, 6 February 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]

What's "seemingly inaccurate" about it. Let us know, so we can fix it. Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 13:49, 6 February 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]

As College football national championships in NCAA Division I FBS do not have a championship, there is no defined winner other than who has the best record. That sentence is confusingly worded and also inaccurate, as the FBS does have a championship: College Football Playoff. Therefore, the following sentence about Alabama is also incorrect. Officially, Alabama did win the championship; it is not a matter of opinion. Lepricavark (talk) 15:43, 6 February 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]

The College Football Playoff is a [[M "A mythical national championship (sometimes abbreviated MNC) is national championship recognition that is not explicitly competitive. This phrase has often been invoked in reference to American college football, because the NCAA does not sponsor a playoff-style tournament or recognize official national champions for the Football Bowl Subdivision." Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 16:36, 6 February 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]

(Minor point: the "[[M" fragment in the 16:36, 6 February (UTC) post above may have been intended to link Mythical national championship.) – Athaenara ✉ 20:02, 6 February 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Yup. Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 20:18, 6 February 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Technically speaking, you may be correct, but, the vast majority of the sports world regards the CFP winner as the national champion. At any rate, the sentence is still worded very poorly, and I'm not sure how the 'best record' part is relevant if you're really going to make the argument that there is no official champion. Any sports fan reading that paragraph will gain a lower opinion of Wikipedia's credibility. Lepricavark (talk) 17:58, 6 February 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]

I understand your point, and there is certainly validity in it, but what I did was based on a Sports Illustrated piece, which regardless of what many people think says "Outside of Orlando, people largely consider Alabama the national champion and UCF a delightful or exasperating footnote." So yes, it may have been poorly worded, but on the other hand, I based it solely on the article in Sports Illustrated, which hardly mentions CFP. Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 20:18, 6 February 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]

I mean no offense, and it certainly was poorly worded, But I do not feel it was incorrect completely. Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 20:21, 6 February 2018 (UTC)Reply[reply]

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