Wikipedia tests methods to block online vandalism

NEW YORK – Wikipedia, trying to balance desires for credibility and openness, is looking to impose more discipline with new restrictions on the editing of its online articles.

While anyone can still edit entries, the site is testing pages that require changes to be approved by an experienced Wikipedia editor before they show up.

If the site’s users respond well to the test run, the new restrictions will apply to all entries for living people in the next few weeks.

The idea is to block the kind of high-profile vandalism that has marred some pages. In one of the most recent embarrassments, Democratic Sens. Robert Byrd and Edward Kennedy were prematurely declared dead by rogue editors.

But Wikipedia risks discouraging legitimate editing if restrictions on changes or additions become too burdensome, such that articles won’t get better or keep up with events. That may be especially true on more obscure pages with fewer active volunteers to approve edits in a timely way.

Aware of the risks, Wikipedia has set the criteria for “experienced editor” status relatively low. Users who are registered for a few days can give changes the OK, said Jay Walsh, a spokesman for the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the site.

A more uniform system for filtering changes on Wikipedia represents a step back from the site’s original philosophy, which called for harnessing the collective knowledge of volunteer editors without any major restrictions.

It is not the first time Wikipedia has attached some strings.

The same flagging process, for example, has been imposed on all entries in the German-language Wikipedia for more than a year.

On the English site, too, high-profile pages that are likely to be defaced, such as Michael Jackson’s, have been tightly restricted.

Some believe Wikipedia must continue tightening editing policies if it wants to gain credibility.

Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at the Santa Clara University School of Law, envisions a Wikipedia curated by a relatively small group of dedicated editors. Under the current model, he said, there simply aren’t enough volunteers to catch all errors.

“My hope is that Wikipedia still exists and is still considered a useful site,” Goldman said. “But it will be at that point a very tightly controlled site. It won’t have that veneer of a site that anyone can contribute to. They haven’t closed the drawbridge. People can still get in. But it keeps going up and up and up.”