Do you find yourself scared to trust anything you read on Wikipedia? If so, good for you! “Trust, but verify” has been one of my favorite sayings since I heard it from my grandfather when I was a kid.
The concept of “trust” and “reliability” are recurring themes in the wiki world. After all, if anybody can edit an article, how can users be assured that everything (or anything) they are reading is accurate, sourced, credible, trustworthy, unbiased and neutral? Inaccurate data on a wiki can come from anywhere: spammers, incorrect third party sources, out-of-date information, unsourced information or simple carelessness.
Enter WikiTrust
Enter WikiTrust, a MediaWiki extension developed at the University of California at Santa Cruz. When enabled by a user, it literally highlights newer and less credible content in a wiki article. According to a recent article in WIRED magazine,
An optional feature called “WikiTrust” will color code every word of the encyclopedia based on the reliability of its author and the length of time it has persisted on the page.
This is useful for a variety of reasons, but primarily to identify particular words, sentences or sections of Wikipedia articles that are deemed less “credible” than others. This doesn’t mean that they are inaccurate or biased. It simply means that the content either comes from a less trusted editor or hasn’t been around as long as the surrounding content.
Here’s how it looks in practice:
WikiTrust in Action
Look for this feature to appear in Wikipedia in the coming months.
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