John Kerry and Wikipedia

[murdoch]

If you go to Google, the most popular search engine, the 9th entry (and the 7th non-sub-entry) is at Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is a collaborative web page meaning anyone can edit it. You can edit it, easily.

Lots of Republicans have been going on the page and have been posting negative information about John Kerry. They are overwhelming the people trying to provide balance.

Wikipedia has rules about edits. They are supposed to be "neutral". They are also supposed to be factual. It doesn't always work out that way though. I also suspect an endemic bias by the site owner, but it is sort of hidden so some progress can be made. But I prefer wiki's like Disinfopedia and InfoshopOpenWiki which are run by Democratic Party friendly people.

Anyhow, even if the Republicans don't follow the rules, if you want to edit the page (which gets a lot of hits and is prominent on Google), try to follow the rules of neutrality and facts as opposed to ad hominem and opinions and so forth. I've actually learned things from the page. Some of the more contentious issues have been moved from the John Kerry page to subpages, such as "John Kerry military service controversy". But sticking to facts has taught me things even I didn't know, one of the Democrats noted that O'Neill of the SBVT guys admitted to being in Cambodia in a tape of him and Nixon talking, something he ridicules Kerry for claiming.

Anyhow to edit the article you create an account here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Userlogin&returnto=Main_Page

Enter a username to use (I would use a name like HistoryGirl or PhysicsStudent instead of a real name, but its up to you) and a password. Write down your username and password for yourself. I would also skip giving your e-mail address, something you can always do later if need be. Click the "rememebr password" button, then hit "Create New account". Now you have an account!

If you search Google for John Kerry

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=john+kerry

You will see the 9th (7th non-sub) entry is Wikipedia, you can start editting the page here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kerry

Don't click "edit this page" on the top or left hand side, click "edit" at the top of each section on Kerry to add information, qualify things, or remove false information. Put in the summary any information you want to add about the change made. Click "save page" and thats it (show preview lets you see how the edit will look).

As I said, lots of Republicans are there and might make unfair changes, that's why this is like a poll back-and-forth between DU and something like FreeRepublic. I also suspect Wikipedia's owner is a Republican which is why I like wikis like InfoshopOpenWiki and Disinfopedia better. Disinfopedia has a great (and popular) SBVT page. But Wikipedia has more money behind it, is more popular, and will tolerate some criticism. Although ultimately I hope an alternative to it comes about, larger than specialized wikis like Disinfopedia.

And as for Bush - George W. Bush is 12th on Google (second page) without quotes around the name, 9th with quotes around the name (e.g. "George W. Bush"). His Wikipedia page is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush