On my way to work, 680 News reported that disgruntled Sopranos fans had “hacked” into Wikipedia and changed a line in the creator of the show’s biography page to read that he had destroyed the show. According to 680 News, after these brave individuals “hacked” into the page, Wikipedia “disabled” the profile.

I understand that this was a fluff piece, about 30 seconds of news time that will probably only ever get repeated a couple of times. But seriously; how hard is it to get even the most simple of facts right? How hard is it to be precisely right instead of vaguely wrong? I know what they were trying to say, of course, because I know Wikipedia, but imagine what sort of impression that might make on those who don’t.

For instance, you don’t “hack” Wikipedia. You edit it. Anyone can do it, and vandalism is a pretty frequent occurrence, especially in Political, Religious, and Pop Culture pages.

Second, Wikipedia didn’t “disable” the “profile”, they simply locked the biography page down so unregistered and newly registered can’t edit it.

Third, fans? Plural? You think a group of people conspired to do this? I’m pretty sure it was just one guy. Unless they have multi-user keyboard and Wikivandal parties now.

Tags: news