4 ms·

It makes me wonder what goes through someone's head when one sees a mass casualty event like this, and your first instinct is to rush to Wikipedia to change the

It makes me wonder what goes through someone's head when one sees a mass casualty event like this, and your first instinct is to rush to Wikipedia to change the article to past tense ('was' a bridge).

LinAGKar 3y ago
How do you know it was their first instinct?
hiddencost 3y ago
There is a lot of misinformation in the world, and Wikipedia can often be one of the places people go to for reliable knowledge. They probably will be getting more traffic than any single major news paper. A lot of people, potentially scared and confused, and going to be reading that article and making decisions based on it. Keeping the information good and complete sounds to me like a deep kindness.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
nubinetwork 3y ago
Free Internet points.
- fransje26 3y ago
  But who is counting?
  - nubinetwork 3y ago
    Other Wikipedia edit warriors.
    - fransje26 3y ago
      https://imgur.com/a/g15dyXX https://imgur.com/a/g15dyXX
- bloak 3y ago
  Do you think that someone at the FBI, inspired by https://xkcd.com/2910/ https://xkcd.com/2910/, will be checking the IP addresses of the Wikipedia editors who got there before the ambulances did?
corobo 3y ago
"I can't do much else, may as well keep folks up to date" I guess. If they're sitting on the shore with a fully stocked rescue boat delaying help to post their edits, aye I'd be peeved too. Otherwise, might as well keep info updated as it becomes known. One of the beauties of the internet is that there's enough people willing to do the work to keep the rest of the world up to date with real-time information. Chances are changing tenses was just a single command anyway, `./pastTensify.sh "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key_Bridge_(Baltimore) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key_Bridge_(Balt..."` or whatever the Wikipedia bot command equivalent would be. Adding actual information about the event will naturally take a little longer as it needs writing first - they probably fired off the pastTensify automation while writing the meat and potatoes of their edit.
- card_zero 3y ago
  It was somebody on their phone, not signed in, and all they did was change "is" to "was" in two places, leaving the single word edit summary "was". But thank you for imagining Wikipedians are so professional.
  - corobo 3y ago
    Thank you for the clarification. Not sure I understand the snarky turn at the end there but I imagine I'm just lacking whatever context you have! No problem :)
    - card_zero 3y ago
      Two days later, I come back to find this downvoted a lot, even though I meant it literally. I've been a Wikipedia editor for some 10+ years, only a few of us use bots, we're not generally very sophisticated, so the assumptions amused me.
      - corobo 3y ago
        Ah. I think the wording plus the existing downvote when I read your reply made me not even consider it might be literal and not at all snarky.. I'd like to blame my British sarcasm-as-a-first-language upbringing, but really that one's on me. For what it's worth I've popped an upvote on your comment and will go out of my way to double check snark is actually snark before replying to things in future. Sorry for the misfiring assumption!
boomboomsubban 3y ago
"I know nothing about this bridge, let's check Wikipedia. Oh, I guess 'is a bridge' is now incorrect, I'm already here so let's change it."
ssl-3 3y ago
What was your first instinct when you learned of the event, and how did you respond to that instinct of yours? What was going through your head at that time?
ulfw 3y ago
And what are they supposed to do? Pray? Rush there to help? (from thousands of miles away potentially) They've done what they can.
mc32 3y ago
Some people are clinical -just an item to update. For others it’s the old “first post” mentality. It’s basically personal mores whether something is too recent and tragic to update.
nkrisc 3y ago
What should their first instinct be? Hop on an 8-hour flight to Baltimore, rent a car, drive to the scene and cross the cordon to help out?

LinAGKar 3y ago

How do you know it was their first instinct?

hiddencost 3y ago

There is a lot of misinformation in the world, and Wikipedia can often be one of the places people go to for reliable knowledge. They probably will be getting more traffic than any single major news paper. A lot of people, potentially scared and confused, and going to be reading that article and making decisions based on it. Keeping the information good and complete sounds to me like a deep kindness.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

nubinetwork 3y ago

Free Internet points.

fransje26 3y ago
But who is counting?
- nubinetwork 3y ago
  Other Wikipedia edit warriors.
  - fransje26 3y ago
    https://imgur.com/a/g15dyXX https://imgur.com/a/g15dyXX
bloak 3y ago
Do you think that someone at the FBI, inspired by https://xkcd.com/2910/ https://xkcd.com/2910/, will be checking the IP addresses of the Wikipedia editors who got there before the ambulances did?

corobo 3y ago

"I can't do much else, may as well keep folks up to date" I guess. If they're sitting on the shore with a fully stocked rescue boat delaying help to post their edits, aye I'd be peeved too. Otherwise, might as well keep info updated as it becomes known. One of the beauties of the internet is that there's enough people willing to do the work to keep the rest of the world up to date with real-time information. Chances are changing tenses was just a single command anyway, `./pastTensify.sh "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key_Bridge_(Baltimore) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key_Bridge_(Balt..."` or whatever the Wikipedia bot command equivalent would be. Adding actual information about the event will naturally take a little longer as it needs writing first - they probably fired off the pastTensify automation while writing the meat and potatoes of their edit.

card_zero 3y ago
It was somebody on their phone, not signed in, and all they did was change "is" to "was" in two places, leaving the single word edit summary "was". But thank you for imagining Wikipedians are so professional.
- corobo 3y ago
  Thank you for the clarification. Not sure I understand the snarky turn at the end there but I imagine I'm just lacking whatever context you have! No problem :)
  - card_zero 3y ago
    Two days later, I come back to find this downvoted a lot, even though I meant it literally. I've been a Wikipedia editor for some 10+ years, only a few of us use bots, we're not generally very sophisticated, so the assumptions amused me.
    - corobo 3y ago
      Ah. I think the wording plus the existing downvote when I read your reply made me not even consider it might be literal and not at all snarky.. I'd like to blame my British sarcasm-as-a-first-language upbringing, but really that one's on me. For what it's worth I've popped an upvote on your comment and will go out of my way to double check snark is actually snark before replying to things in future. Sorry for the misfiring assumption!

boomboomsubban 3y ago

"I know nothing about this bridge, let's check Wikipedia. Oh, I guess 'is a bridge' is now incorrect, I'm already here so let's change it."

ssl-3 3y ago

What was your first instinct when you learned of the event, and how did you respond to that instinct of yours? What was going through your head at that time?

ulfw 3y ago

And what are they supposed to do? Pray? Rush there to help? (from thousands of miles away potentially) They've done what they can.

mc32 3y ago

Some people are clinical -just an item to update. For others it’s the old “first post” mentality. It’s basically personal mores whether something is too recent and tragic to update.

nkrisc 3y ago

What should their first instinct be? Hop on an 8-hour flight to Baltimore, rent a car, drive to the scene and cross the cordon to help out?