Wikipedia maybe in danger
By My Facebook
Wikipedia may vanish very soon. It is under threat after researchers found that thousands of contributors had deserted the Internet encyclopedia.
The English language version of the site suffered a loss of nearly 50000 volunteer editors in the first quarter of this year, compared to only 5000 the same period a year earlier according to a university study.
Wikipedia was founded in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and has now become the fifth most popular website in the world with about 325 million visits a month.
Wikipedia allows registered users to modify entries, but has always been feared to leave it open for abuse.
It also relied on experienced editors to correct mistakes made by more junior editors. An example of one is when the death of Senator Edward Kennedy was announced prematurely.
The research by Felipe Ortega at Universidad Rey Juan Carlso in Madrid, found that thousands of Wikipedia editors were no longer contributing and were not being replaced
The strict rules for editors is being said to be one of the reasons for the loss of editors. It could find it self in trouble if the trend carries on. Although it is in danger, it still has many volunteers to keep it alive.
One of the reasons said to have angered many volunteers is the fact that, they realised the work they do can be re-written, edited leaving their hard work to go waste.
The question I am asking myself right now is, if there is a new plan to make it work differently or is it seriously in trouble. Not replacing editors isn't something a big website like Wikipedia would do.
Maybe they have some new plans. Who knows, they could possibly be looking at using adverts on their site to generate income. Maybe they are planning to let editors make some money from their articles. If they do will they actually be very strict in selecting who they accept to write article for their site?
I guess we have to wait and see.
tim-tim 2 years ago
Interesting hub! I didn't know that. Thanks for sharing.