Wednesday, August 09, 2006

I don't get why others don't get it...

Wikipedia has been bashed by just about everybody now. It's been called everything from inacurate to a public toilet. And yet it works so well.

I came across this article that discussed the recent prank attempted by Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert.

From the article:

"In an attempt to prove that Wikipedia's version of truth is flexible, Colbert recently told viewers to alter the Wikipedia page on "elephant" to state that the population of African elephants had tripled in the last decade.

"This is, of course, untrue. But as 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...

"There was just one problem with the prank: Colbert was ultimately proven wrong."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, Stephen Colbert's current TV persona is a faux hardcore conservative blowhard who purposefully says things that are untrue or illogical, at least in part, for comic effect.

I doubt he really believed the prank would lead anywhere...