Encyclopedia Dramatica: Difference between revisions
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==Conflicts== |
==Conflicts== |
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* Many of the articles on Encyclopædia Dramatica are directly related to users of the world's largest blogging community, [[LiveJournal]]. Articles that [[caricature]] people exaggerate the facts for the purpose of [[humor]] may border on personal attack at times and many LiveJournal users become offended when they are parodied on Encyclopædia Dramatica. The flare-up when |
* Many of the articles on Encyclopædia Dramatica are directly related to users of the world's largest blogging community, [[LiveJournal]]. Articles that [[caricature]] people exaggerate the facts for the purpose of [[humor]] may border on personal attack at times and many LiveJournal users become offended when they are parodied on Encyclopædia Dramatica. The flare-up when users such as [http://encyclopediadramatica.com/index.php/Feltcho Dennis Fetcho] come to Encyclopædia Dramatica to edit their own articles and threaten to employ [[vexatious litigation]] to remove the content provides [http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/index.php/Feltcho_voicemails additional humor] to those who visit the site. |
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* In [[August 2005]], Encyclopaedia Dramatica issued [[DMCA takedown]] notices against [[Uncyclopedia]] and Wikipedia to force them to remove a picture of Jack N Stock and, for Uncyclopedia, the Encyclopaedia Dramatica logo, from the sites. The question of whether this is also a vexatious litigation tactic (in this instance, to cause information on the site's ownership to be removed from the articles) remains open. |
* In [[August 2005]], Encyclopaedia Dramatica issued [[DMCA takedown]] notices against [[Uncyclopedia]] and Wikipedia to force them to remove a picture of Jack N Stock and, for Uncyclopedia, the Encyclopaedia Dramatica logo, from the sites. The question of whether this is also a vexatious litigation tactic (in this instance, to cause information on the site's ownership to be removed from the articles) remains open. |
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Revision as of 04:54, 27 September 2005
Encyclopædia Dramatica (ED) is a MediaWiki-based wiki launched on December 9, 2004, by Jack N Stock. Entries of ED primarily focus on parodies of Internet jargon and hyperbolic stories from users of the blogging Web site LiveJournal.
History
Encyclopædia Dramatica's history began when a LiveJournal blogger from Seattle, Washington, nicknamed Jameth, started using Wikipedia, an on-line, user-modifiable wiki, and created an article about another LiveJournal blogger dubbed mediacrat. The article was subsequently deleted, despite heavy participation by LiveJournal users to keep the article.
Another LiveJournal user from Atlanta, Georgia, Jack N Stock, who was a computer security expert for U.S. company Raytheon and for the U.S. Department of Energy, heard of the deletion of the LiveJournal-related article, and, as a response, came up with the idea of creating Encyclopædia Dramatica so LiveJournal users could write about LiveJournal drama and their Internet slang. Stock stated in a Wikipedia discussion that "[avoiding] vanity pages and personal flame wars on wikipedia is the reason Encyclopedia Dramatica exists." Encyclopædia Dramatica has an unofficial policy that contributors not use Wikipedia as a reference or copy text from Wikipedia in articles or on talk pages, and those who do are usually warned or banned. Since this policy is not actually mentioned anywhere in the help or policy pages, the site is often claimed to be run by cliquey "internet survivalists" who do not like people who are not "local".
Since its creation, the Encyclopædia Dramatica has grown to over 2000 articles. By September of 2005, Encyclopædia Dramatica had surpassed five million page views. Ironically, google's page rank for Encyclopædia Dramatica is higher than the page rank for wikipedia.
Types of content
Many ED articles have ironic, sarcastic, profane, and black-humor tendencies. For example, the entry on Terri Schiavo states that she died as a result of dehydration because Jesse Jackson preferred to take advantage of the media attention rather than providing a Slurpee from his limousine.
Other common themes include:
- "Internet Law", with a crash course on libel, slander and copyright as applied to web forums;
- Articles about the world's countries that identify the number of 7-11 stores (and thus, Slurpee availability) as an important marker of world status;
- Mocking the self-important;
- Presenting an article as encyclopedic, yet breaking its established tone by reverting to a satirical commentary or criticism.
Although the community of Encyclopædia Dramatica makes sporadic attempts to weed out wiki pages that are "unfunny", a term for which the encyclopedia has its own definition, the site contains numerous articles that are unfunny. Furthermore, most of the site's jokes are repetitions of identical joke-telling formulas. The administrators may even temporarily ban users who create numerous "unfunny" articles. Because the MediaWiki software blocks IP addresses rather than user accounts, those who share an IP address with a banned user will also be blocked. The site's policy does not protect users from being banned by the administrators.
Categories
Encyclopædia Dramatica has a number of categories, which users can use as navigational aids. These categories cover topics such as LiveJournal, furries, sex, psychology, fan fiction and Internet trolls. The categories are rarely changed. While most of the encyclopedia is open content, the administrators forbid creation of new categories by non-admin editors.
Conflicts
- Many of the articles on Encyclopædia Dramatica are directly related to users of the world's largest blogging community, LiveJournal. Articles that caricature people exaggerate the facts for the purpose of humor may border on personal attack at times and many LiveJournal users become offended when they are parodied on Encyclopædia Dramatica. The flare-up when users such as Dennis Fetcho come to Encyclopædia Dramatica to edit their own articles and threaten to employ vexatious litigation to remove the content provides additional humor to those who visit the site.
- In August 2005, Encyclopaedia Dramatica issued DMCA takedown notices against Uncyclopedia and Wikipedia to force them to remove a picture of Jack N Stock and, for Uncyclopedia, the Encyclopaedia Dramatica logo, from the sites. The question of whether this is also a vexatious litigation tactic (in this instance, to cause information on the site's ownership to be removed from the articles) remains open.
- Encylopædia Dramatica itself is not immune to complaints stemming from copyright issues or image use due to content such as this and from the use of individual LiveJournal users' content directly or through archive sites, [1] [2].