5 ms·

At the risk of stating the obvious, this is mainly interesting as a study in what interns do when they're bored.

by eli 9y ago

e40 9y ago
I seriously doubt it has to do with boredom. I'd bet it's part of their job description.
- michael_h 9y ago
  "Intern! Get on wikipedia and edit the article for Boba Fett. The world needs to know that he's not as cool as they think he is."
  - asciimo 9y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=800796341&oldid=798362337 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=800796341&oldid=79...
  - davidkuhta 9y ago
    Haha Sept 15, I should go comment on that. starts typing thinks about how many other people enjoy Star Wars Ctrl+F 'Boba Fett' D'oh.
- eli 9y ago
  Couldn't disagree more.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
godelski 9y ago
I wouldn't say it is interns when there are edits that are made that are clearly politically motivated.[1][1.5][2][3] And personally I believe they know about this twitter bot and edit random articles on purpose. There's a lot in there that have just added a space at the end of a sentence. That's obscurification. Then there are just weird ones[4] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804694134&oldid=804694104 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804694134&oldid=80... [1.5] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804694104&oldid=804534506 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804694104&oldid=80... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=794544004&oldid=789155816 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=794544004&oldid=78... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804108161&oldid=804097887 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804108161&oldid=80... [4] https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?diff=256336084&oldid=256336031&rcid=867871649 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?diff=256336084&old...
- hamitron 9y ago
  The bot should filter out these kind of changes
  - d0lph 9y ago
    All of these are weird, but could be politically motivated.
  - godelski 9y ago
    I don't know if you really could filter all the obscurification. But definitely the ones that just add a space. Because even a one word change (removing 'debunked' as in the examples given) can significantly change the context.
- eli 9y ago
  You think there's a conspiracy to maliciously alter Wikipedia and to obscure those public edits under a mountain of seemingly innocent changes? But also that the conspirators are so naive they make the changes from their work computers without a VPN? People who intern on the Hill tend to have strong feelings about politics. Makes sense that some of the pages the edit are political.
  - godelski 9y ago
    >You think there's a conspiracy to maliciously alter Wikipedia > People who intern on the Hill tend to have strong feelings about politics. Probably. I think there is enough evidence to question it. It would take a lot of analysis that I'm not bored enough to perform to prove it. But the few times that I have checked this over the years I see a lot of junk and then edits on hot topics where things keep getting added and removed. I remember one on the Dakota pipelines that completely removed the mention of protestors. 1) They are clearly editing things that are politically motivating. See my examples and scroll through more. This can be attributed to embarrassment or trying the sling mud at opponents. Can you honestly tell me that you wouldn't put these types of editing above politicians? And this is really all I'm suggesting that is happening in terms of "maliciously alter Wikipedia." (I don't think it is really malicious) 2) Most probably don't realize this twitter account exists let alone that their IPs can be tracked. 2.1) Their name isn't attached anyway. 2.2) How often do people actually check this Twitter or Wiki logs? 2.3) Why are they making extremely dumb edits like adding a space at the end of a paragraph? I'm sure that some edits are bored interns/politicians, but there are definitely weird edits that look more like obscurification than worthwhile edits. There is no incentive for them to mask their IP, because it still can't be traced back to them. And people knowing "someone" changed a wiki entry in a misleading way just gets people to think "politicians are corrupt". Which is nothing new. So why would they even bother?

At the risk of stating the obvious, this is mainly interesting as a study in what interns do when they're bored.

by eli 9y ago

At the risk of stating the obvious, this is mainly interesting as a study in what interns do when they're bored.

e40 9y ago

I seriously doubt it has to do with boredom. I'd bet it's part of their job description.

michael_h 9y ago
"Intern! Get on wikipedia and edit the article for Boba Fett. The world needs to know that he's not as cool as they think he is."
- asciimo 9y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=800796341&oldid=798362337 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=800796341&oldid=79...
- davidkuhta 9y ago
  Haha Sept 15, I should go comment on that. starts typing thinks about how many other people enjoy Star Wars Ctrl+F 'Boba Fett' D'oh.
eli 9y ago
Couldn't disagree more.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

godelski 9y ago

I wouldn't say it is interns when there are edits that are made that are clearly politically motivated.[1][1.5][2][3] And personally I believe they know about this twitter bot and edit random articles on purpose. There's a lot in there that have just added a space at the end of a sentence. That's obscurification. Then there are just weird ones[4] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804694134&oldid=804694104 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804694134&oldid=80... [1.5] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804694104&oldid=804534506 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804694104&oldid=80... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=794544004&oldid=789155816 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=794544004&oldid=78... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804108161&oldid=804097887 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=804108161&oldid=80... [4] https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?diff=256336084&oldid=256336031&rcid=867871649 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?diff=256336084&old...

hamitron 9y ago
The bot should filter out these kind of changes
- d0lph 9y ago
  All of these are weird, but could be politically motivated.
- godelski 9y ago
  I don't know if you really could filter all the obscurification. But definitely the ones that just add a space. Because even a one word change (removing 'debunked' as in the examples given) can significantly change the context.
eli 9y ago
You think there's a conspiracy to maliciously alter Wikipedia and to obscure those public edits under a mountain of seemingly innocent changes? But also that the conspirators are so naive they make the changes from their work computers without a VPN? People who intern on the Hill tend to have strong feelings about politics. Makes sense that some of the pages the edit are political.
- godelski 9y ago
  >You think there's a conspiracy to maliciously alter Wikipedia > People who intern on the Hill tend to have strong feelings about politics. Probably. I think there is enough evidence to question it. It would take a lot of analysis that I'm not bored enough to perform to prove it. But the few times that I have checked this over the years I see a lot of junk and then edits on hot topics where things keep getting added and removed. I remember one on the Dakota pipelines that completely removed the mention of protestors. 1) They are clearly editing things that are politically motivating. See my examples and scroll through more. This can be attributed to embarrassment or trying the sling mud at opponents. Can you honestly tell me that you wouldn't put these types of editing above politicians? And this is really all I'm suggesting that is happening in terms of "maliciously alter Wikipedia." (I don't think it is really malicious) 2) Most probably don't realize this twitter account exists let alone that their IPs can be tracked. 2.1) Their name isn't attached anyway. 2.2) How often do people actually check this Twitter or Wiki logs? 2.3) Why are they making extremely dumb edits like adding a space at the end of a paragraph? I'm sure that some edits are bored interns/politicians, but there are definitely weird edits that look more like obscurification than worthwhile edits. There is no incentive for them to mask their IP, because it still can't be traced back to them. And people knowing "someone" changed a wiki entry in a misleading way just gets people to think "politicians are corrupt". Which is nothing new. So why would they even bother?