TheStar.com: Wikipedia handles Colbert
The wisdom of the crowd is definitely a powerful force.
TheStar.com - Wikipedia handles Colbert:
…Colbert stated, if enough people alter the page on Wikipedia, it’s fact.
It should have been the biggest threat to the institution of Wikipedia to date. It was a condemnation of the site’s credibility. And it didn’t come from the Times, or from some retired political refugee from the Kennedy era.
It came from someone cool. Colbert, after all, has some serious credibility among the crowd who use and contribute to Wikipedia.
Within a day, Colbert’s report had hit some of the Net’s geek nerve centres, Slashdot.org and Fark.com. Wikipedia’s protection log was recording ongoing attempts at vandalism.
There was just one problem with the prank: Colbert was ultimately proven wrong.
Although the servers were tested, soon after Colbert began ranting about wikiality on his show, the encyclopedia had locked down the page on elephants and Colbert’s biography.