Edit wars

By R.L.W., G.D. and L.P.

The most controversial Wikipedia articles worldwide

WHEN disputes arise on Wikipedia, contributors are encouraged to go to a “talk page.” But often an “edit war” ensues: a change is repeatedly done by one person and undone by another—known as a “revert.” These reverts represent the most controversial articles. Taha Yasseri of the Oxford Internet Institute and colleagues looked at Wikipedia’s different language editions from their inception (January 2001 for English) to March 2010 and ranked the most contested articles, based on the number of reverts and the number of edits the contributors have made (dubbed their “maturity score”). The results in some ways confirm cultural stereotypes. Americans bicker over politics and professional wrestling; among the top French squabbles is Freud. When the Wikipedia community meets for Wikimania, an annual gathering held this year between August 7th and 11th in Hong Kong, they presumably will be nicer.