User:井上麻雀喵/沙盒

关于高热度时事的新条目更有可能是恶作剧

一篇名为《网络热度在维基百科上的虚假信息中扮演的角色》(The role of online attention in the supply of disinformation in Wikipedia)[1] 的研究发现:

[...]相较于同一时间创立的合规条目,[在英语维基百科上的]恶作剧条目往往和被创立之前的流量高峰有关。这与认为虚假信息或是误导性内容的创立是由话题所收获的关注度所驱动的这一想法是吻合的。[... 作者们希望这项发现]可以帮助提高维基百科上的知识的可信度。

 
图为历年来创建后被发现的恶作剧新条目。作者顺便提到:“大多数恶作剧出现在2005年至2007年期间,之后开始下降。观察到这种的行为一部分上可以通过维基百科社群于2007年11月开始巡查新页面这件事来解释[...],并且其与英语维基百科社群活动的广为人知的高峰期是一致的。”

作者指出,研究文献中对于维基百科恶作剧的研究甚少——在此篇论文之前只有一篇以此为主题的论文(一篇由Kumar等人著于2016年的论文报告说:“虽然大多数恶作剧会很快被发现并对维基百科产生很少的影响,但仍有少数恶作剧长期存在并在网络上广泛引用。”)。与之前的研究相比(那篇研究获取了更多更广的删除条目的新页面巡查数据),本篇的作者们则是基于(英文维基百科)社群整理出的恶作剧列表进行了分析。

在探讨关于网络关注度与虚假信息之间的关系的主要研究问题(以维基百科页面访问量为操作指标)之前,作者(在其初始修订版中)对这些已确认的恶作剧条目与一组于同日创建的非恶作剧条目在各种内容特征上的差异进行了分析并得出了结论:

[...]恶作剧条目一般比正常条目含有更多纯文本,并且维基百科含有较少的外部链接。这意味着非恶作剧条目更常引用维基百科外的来源。这种行为是可预见的,因为恶作剧的作者需要花费大量精力才能来制作恶作剧能够指向的外部资源。

也就是说,成功的恶作剧者可能表现出了一种反全文偏误

为了量化一篇条目所涉及的主题相关领域的关注度(即使是在条目创建之前),作者们使用了对“维基链接邻居”的观察:

如果两个维基百科条目之间存在着链接,就说明它们在语义上有着关联。因此,这些相邻条目的流量便给我们提供了一个用于大致地衡量在新的[维基百科条目]被创建之前某个主题的在线关注度的指标。

为了了解恶作剧的创建与其相关主题所受到的关注之间的关系的性质,我们首先要量化创建那天前后相对的关注量变化。于此,一个主题被定义为条目内容中所链接到的所有(非恶作剧)“邻居”,也就是它的(非恶作剧)对外链接。

这个“关注量变化”是通过计算相邻条目的页面访问量的中位数变化来得出的。其使用的时间跨度为条目创建的七天前到七天后,以将“关注度的短期激增和每周流量的变化”纳入考量(相对于之前的一些关于维基百科上的流量的研究而言,这是一种相对简单的进行时间序列分析的方法)。作者们被局限于一个较旧的、仅覆盖了2007年至2016年的页面访问量数据集,并导致了分析的样本被限制在了83个恶作剧上。其中,有75个恶作剧的相关主题的关注度变化比和它们同一天创立的非恶作剧条目的主题的关注度变化更大。尽管样本规模相对较小,但这一研究仍是被认为具有统计学意义的。总而言之,这表明了“维基百科中的恶作剧的产生与先前以在线关注度的形式体现的信息消费有关”。





第230条款岿然不动,维基百科vs.英国法案,信息有误再遭指责

维基百科的可信度转变

在一篇有趣的于APSR(American Political Science Review)上发布并被总结于Political Science Now上的文章中,作者Sverrir Steinsson对英文维基百科在可信度上不断进步的历程进行了探索——维基百科,一个原本容许伪科学和阴谋论的平台,已然转变为了揭穿迷信的强大力量。经过内部斗争、政策诠释的变化和编者的离去,维基百科已经成为了事实信息的可信来源。这是一段引人入胜的旅程:这证明了即使是最为放荡不羁的机构也能为了更好的明天做出改变。


通过对涵盖气候、健康、性别和性取向等各种内容的维基百科条目进行广泛分析,Steinsson展示了条目内容和用语随着时间的推移发生的显著变化。英文维基百科从容纳边缘学说到积极拆穿迷信的转变是一个渐进但重要的过程。例如,英文维基百科的顺势疗法的条目中对其的描述便从“有争议的替代医学体系”逐渐演变成了明确的“伪科学”。


Steinsson审视了维基百科的治理结构,称这些底层编辑上的权力斗争和辩论塑造了平台的发展轨迹。随着持反边缘观点的编辑获得影响力,支持边缘观点的贡献者逐渐离开了维基百科,而维基百科的中立观点准则出现了新的解释。如今,事实准确性的重要性超过了广泛观点的多样性,并最终增强了维基百科的可信度。对于Steinsson来说,这种变化是通过内部过程逐渐发生的,包括早期争议的解决、某些编辑人员的离职和规则诠释的演变。制裁持边缘异议者的强制力和削弱了某些规则诠释的正当性的生产力的双重作用产生了维基百科可信度上升的这种模式。这种模式的变化可能有着更广泛的运用,例如帮助解释其他机构和背景中类似的转变(例如政治运动和政党)。


该文章挑战了外部事件或外部来源的变化是这一转变的主要推动力的观点。相反,它指出内部对制度规范的重新解释是维基百科演变的推动力。在社交媒体和在线参与占主导地位的时代,维基百科的案例证明了动态数字平台适应和改进的潜力。这篇叙述揭示了内部冲突、政策解释的演变和编辑环境的重塑之间的相互作用,提供了对机构可塑性的发人深省的探索。


概要

  • Punting: 美国法律中的第230条款保护了网站所有者不因第三方发表的内容而承担法律责任,并构成了维基百科和其他很多科技公司维持网站不被关闭的法律基石。美国的两大政党都认为该法律需要被修改,但一如既往地在具体内容上有着分歧。而最近,美国最高法院的两桩案件更是把这些问题搬上了台面:美国最高法院判决认为企业的网站被用于发布内容并不足以代表他们有义务防止恐怖主义行为。 The SCOTUS ruling said that the companies could not be expected to have prevented terrorist acts merely based on their websites having been used to make posts, reaffirming precedent for the protections of Section 230. The Hill reported the story in ‘’Supreme Court punts Section 230 debate back to Congress’’ .
  • OpenAI:被维基百科所启发: Reuters reports how OpenAI, the company behind the Generative Pre-trained Transformer family of large language models, is exploring the concept of collective decision-making similar to Wikipedia's model, where diverse views come together to agree on content. This comes as one of several proposals by the company to increase regulatory barriers to the development of neural networks, including licensure requirements.
  • Wikipedia's Wacky Footballer Fails: An article on Planet Football highlights the creation of a Twitter account dedicated to sharing side-splittingly awkward footballer photos sourced from Wikipedia articles.
  • Notable Notability Fail?: Billy Penn brings up the existence of a Wikipedia page for Philadelphia's "French Quarter," highlighting its lack of detailed information and potential failure to meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines for geographic features. "The designation has been around 24 years, but nobody calls it that anymore — if they ever did." Sources in the article make it clear the designation was a late 90s publicity campaign by the city: Arguably notable as an attempt to advertise Philadelphia, but given it was "based on the establishment of three French restaurants and a creperie in the area in the 1990s", one can't help but feel that we're not the ones that should be mocked here.
  • Feud Continues – Wikipedia Page Update Pending: The Wikipedia page about the musical group Oasis may need another update as Noel and Liam Gallagher's ongoing feud takes a bitter turn. After a tabloid report fueled hopes of a reunion, Noel called Liam a "coward" for not reaching out to discuss it. In response, Liam fired back, referencing past controversies and accusing Noel of insensitivity. According to an article on 1057ThePoint.com, it seems the Oasis Wikipedia page is destined for further revisions – as it stands right now the article states 2025 as a year the band will be active. Whatever.
  • In Defense of Comprehensive Reading: Arts writer Dion Everett, in a thought-provoking piece for Varsity, sheds light on the pitfalls of clickbait-driven book criticism and the reliance on summaries and Wikipedia entries. Everett aptly emphasizes that these sources fall short in capturing the nuanced essence and depth of a book, although an image sourced from Wikimedia Commons accompanies the article.
  • Green is the New Black: Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and the host of the COP28 climate conference in the United Arab Emirates, is facing criticism as his team is accused of paid editing of Wikipedia pages. The edits were made to Al Jaber's own Wikipedia page and COP28. The Centre for Climate Reporting and The Guardian conducted an investigation that uncovered these edits. The appointment of an oil executive as the conference chair has raised concerns, with figures like Caroline Lucas from the Green Party criticizing the influence of oil companies and their CEOs on global climate conferences.
  • Wikipedia Rejects UK Age Verification Bill: In TechCity this week we can read that Wikimedia Foundation has announced its refusal to comply with the age verification requirements outlined in the UK's Online Safety Bill, citing incompatibility with its content moderation and user verification model. This decision raises concerns about the possible shutdown of Wikipedia in the UK, as the bill mandates robust age checks for sites featuring "pornography". It will not be the first country, nor the last.
  • Webcomic xkcd did it again: Please see Meryl Streep seagull incident (disambiguation).
  • Jimmy Wales Interview: In a podcast interview, Jimmy Wales and Stewart Baker discuss the sustainability of Wikipedia's model, address claims of bias, and explore the opportunities and risks presented by AI models like ChatGPT for the online encyclopedia.
  • Music Company Goes Off-Key: TorrentFreak writes that a small music company targets a Wikipedia article in its effort to combat YouTube ripping sites, by requesting Google to delist the Comparison of YouTube downloaders page. The delisting battle between music industry groups and YouTube downloaders continues, even raising questions about the presence of explanatory content on Wikipedia.
  • Wikipedia's Spanish Version Gets a Makeover: Despite not being the only version of Wikipedia to get a makeover, the Spanish edition has gained attention in an article by La Diaria, which highlights the recent aesthetic changes from Vector 2022 aimed at enhancing the user experience and streamlining navigation and search functionality. The redesign features a cleaner appearance, an improved search bar, and seamless switching between different language versions of articles. These updates were implemented based on extensive feedback and discussions. In case you missed the opportunity to provide feedback, do not fret — 2010 Vector is still an option for you.
  • Russian fork: ixbt.com and many others report on Рувики ("Ruwiki"), a new Russian Wikipedia fork. For more information on planned replacements for the Russian Wikipedia see previous coverage. For even more information see this issue's News and notes.
  1. ^ Anis Elebiary and Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia: "The role of online attention in the supply of disinformation in Wikipedia". Proc. of Truth and Trust Online 2022. Also as Elebiary, Anis; Ciampaglia, Giovanni Luca, The role of online attention in the supply of disinformation in Wikipedia, arXiv, 2023-02-16 . Code and figures