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List of edit wars on Wikipedia

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This article is about rounds of conflicting editing on Wikipedia. Not to be confused with Wikiracing.

Illustration depicting two people with Wikipedia puzzle logos instead of heads in an arm wrestling match. Both are lying on the floor.
Representation of edit wars on Wikipedia by Czech illustrator Pavel Reisenauer [cs]

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that allows its users to write and edit articles via wiki software, which also allows users to revert each other's edits. Disputes on Wikipedia between editors, concerning content within articles, may give rise to edit wars, in which a repeated exchange of opposing edits is published on a contested article. Some edit wars have received media and academic coverage.

Background

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Wikipedia is a free, collaborative, online encyclopedia which allows its users to write and edit articles via wiki software.[1][2] The website provides a user-friendly interface for both editing on articles and reversing other users' edits.[3]: 189  Conflicts over content within articles often arise among editors, which may result in edit wars.[4]: 62  An edit war is a persistent exchange of edits representing conflicting views on a contested article,[4]: 62 [5][6] or as defined by the website's policy: "when editors who disagree about the content of a page repeatedly override each other's edits."[7] Edit wars are prohibited on Wikipedia[8]: 146  and editors are encouraged to seek consensus through discussion, however administrative intervention may be applied if discussion is unfruitful in resolving the conflict.[9] Generally, edit wars are provoked by the presence of highly controversial content,[5] such as abortion or the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, but can also occur due to other disputed matters, such as the nationality of artist Francis Bacon.[6]

Edit wars

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Various edit wars have been received coverage outside the website, and media articles noting several such wars have been published.[10][11][12][13][14]

Article Edition Start date End date Description Outcome Refs.
Gdańsk English Wikipedia December 24, 2003 March 4, 2005 Whether to use the German name, Danzig, or the current official name of the Polish city, Gdańsk, was a subject of dispute and edit warring. A vote was held to determine the choice of name, with 80 editors casting 657 votes in two weeks. A clear majority of votes decided on the Polish-language name on the modern city, while references to the city in the period from 1793 to 1945 would use the German name. [15][16]
Yogurt English Wikipedia December 25, 2003 c. 2012 Editors conflicted over the spelling used in the title of the article, with some promoting the American English yogurt and others the British English spelling yoghurt. Consensus was established in 2012 to title the article yogurt, and to note variant spellings in the article's lead sentence. [17][18]
Nanjing Massacre English Wikipedia May 13, 2004 July 25, 2004 A Japanese-language translation label in the article's introducing sentence was repeatedly replaced and rewritten. A temporary consensus decided on the inclusion of 南京大虐殺 (transl. Nanjing Massacre). A second label, Nanjing Incident, was also added. [19]
Ganges English Wikipedia c. 2006 Unclear The name used for the river, whether Ganges (familiar to English speakers in Western countries) or Ganga (familiar to English speakers in India) has been contested. — [20][21]
Star Trek Into Darkness[a] English Wikipedia c. December 2012[b] February 21, 2013 The capitalization of into in Star Trek Into Darkness was a matter of debate as some wished to have it capitalized and others preferred "Star Trek into Darkness." Consensus was reached that the article be titled Star Trek Into Darkness, with a capitalized into. [22][23][24]
Gamergate (harassment campaign) English Wikipedia c. August 2014 c. 2015 Various editors accused the article covering the harassment campaign of having bias towards a feminist viewpoint. Following a decision by the Arbitration Committee of the English Wikipedia, several editors were banned from editing on articles relating to sex and gender. Although this decision did not end the edit war, the harassment campaign lost momentum during 2015. [25][26][27][28][29][30]
Heights of presidents and presidential candidates of the United States English Wikipedia 2016 August 1, 2024 Various users made conflicting edits about the height of Donald Trump and about whether or not he is taller than Lyndon B. Johnson and Abraham Lincoln. All edits that have put Donald Trump as taller than Lyndon B. Johnson or Abraham Lincoln, or have made Donald Trump's height taller or shorter than 6 ft 3 in (190 cm) have been reverted. [31]
Garfield (character) English Wikipedia February 24, 2017 February 27, 2017[c] The infobox of the cartoon cat Garfield, protagonist of the Garfield comic strip, was changed multiple times to indicate an indeterminate gender, after podcaster Virgil Texas claimed in a tweet that an interview of strip creator Jim Davis indicated so and subsequently updated the infobox to reflect this. The argument ended in the consensus that Garfield was male, citing four strips. Jim Davis later clarified to The Washington Post that he was indeed male. [32][33]
Donald Trump English Wikipedia July 16, 2018 July 26, 2018 Various editors wished to emphasize criticism of Trump's comments during the 2018 Russia–United States summit. After a vote "which clarified little," Wikipedia admin Awilley concluded the discussion with the article noting bipartisan criticism of Trump's comments. [34][35]
History of the Jews in Poland English Wikipedia May 15, 2019 June 4, 2019 A group of nationalist-aligned editors attempted to exaggerate the phenomenon of Poles returning looted Jewish property in the postwar period. After two weeks of edit warring, the nationalist group abandoned editing the article, which led to the article being corrected to show a much lower extent of property return than previously described. [36]
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood English Wikipedia July 23, 2019 July 26, 2019 Several editors expressed backlash over the inclusion of movie spoilers in the article's plot summary prior to a more public release. The article was also repeatedly vandalized with erroneous plot summaries. As public access to the film increased, editors swiftly resolved to include the entire plot. [37][38][39]
Recession English Wikipedia July 14, 2022 July 30, 2022 A dispute broke out among Wikipedia editors over the definition of an economic recession given in the article on that subject. Right-wing commentators accused editors on the platform of being influenced by the Biden administration's interpretation of the term, inciting further edit warring. After the page was placed under protection from edits by new users, a consensus arose to explain the varied definition of the word among scholars and in common usage. [40][41][42]
Yasuke English Wikipedia
Japanese Wikipedia 		May 15, 2024 Unclear Following the announcement of Yasuke as a playable character in the video game Assassin's Creed Shadows, editors conflicted on if the historical Yasuke was ever granted samurai status. — [43][44]
2024 Nuseirat rescue operation English Wikipedia June 8, 2024 Unclear An edit war erupted concerning whether an Israeli military raid during the Israel–Hamas war should be titled a "massacre" or a "rescue operation." — [45][46]
Leon Schreiber English Wikipedia June 30, 2024 July 3, 2024 South African politician Leon Schreiber's article was edited multiple times over his birthplace and nationality. Schreiber was born in South Africa, however several users changed the article to indicate he was born in Zimbabwe. On July 3, the article was protected from arbitrary editing and his birthplace was stated as South Africa. [47][48]
Imane Khelif English Wikipedia July 28, 2024 Unclear The Algerian boxer's article was repeatedly edited to include the disproven claim that she had undergone a gender transition. — [49]


See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Main article: Wikipedia Star Trek Into Darkness debate
  2. ^ In January 2013, the Daily Dot stated that the war had raged for "nearly two months."
  3. ^ The Washington Post states that edit warring on Garfield's gender occurred for "2½ days" before administrative intervention.
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References

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  1. ^ Butterfield, Andrew; Ngondi, Gerard Ekembe; Kerr, Anne (January 21, 2016), Butterfield, Andrew; Ngondi, Gerard Ekembe; Kerr, Anne (eds.), "Wikipedia", A Dictionary of Computer Science, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-968897-5, retrieved July 21, 2024
  2. ^ McArthur, Tom; Lam-McArthur, Jacqueline; Fontaine, Lise (May 24, 2018), McArthur, Tom; Lam-McArthur, Jacqueline; Fontaine, Lise (eds.), "Wikipedia", The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-966128-2, retrieved July 21, 2024
  3. ^ He, Zeyi (January 12, 2015). Digital By-Product Data in Web 2.0: Exploring Mass Collaboration of Wikipedia. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-7358-1.
  4. ^ a b Jemielniak, Dariusz (May 14, 2014). Common Knowledge?: An Ethnography of Wikipedia. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-9120-5.
  5. ^ a b Ayers, Phoebe; Matthews, Charles; Yates, Ben (2008). How Wikipedia Works: And how You Can be a Part of it. No Starch Press. p. 384. ISBN 978-1-59327-176-3.
  6. ^ a b O'Sullivan, Dan (February 11, 2016). Wikipedia: A New Community of Practice?. Routledge. p. 124. ISBN 978-1-134-76624-6.
  7. ^ Rutten, Ellen; Fedor, Julie; Zvereva, Vera, eds. (April 12, 2013). Memory, Conflict and New Media: Web Wars in Post-Socialist States (0 ed.). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203083635-11. ISBN 978-0-203-08363-5.
  8. ^ Thomas, Paul A. (September 15, 2022). Inside Wikipedia: How It Works and How You Can Be an Editor. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-6322-1.
  9. ^ Levene, Mark (January 14, 2011). An Introduction to Search Engines and Web Navigation. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-06034-6.
  10. ^ Edwards, Phil (September 17, 2015). "Wikipedia's lamest edit wars show why the site is amazing and infuriating". Vox.com. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  11. ^ Dvorak, John C. (July 18, 2013). "Wikipedia's Edit Wars". PCMag. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  12. ^ Gross, Doug (July 14, 2013). "Wiki wars: The 10 most controversial Wikipedia pages". CNN. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  13. ^ "Wiki wars: Do Wikipedia's internal tiffs deter newcomers?". BBC News. August 5, 2014. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  14. ^ Daw, David (July 25, 2011). "Wikipedia Wars: 10 Biggest Edit Battles". PC World. ISSN 0737-8939. OCLC 1117065657. Retrieved August 1, 2024.
  15. ^ Lih, Andrew (March 17, 2009). The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia. Hachette Books. pp. 122–130. ISBN 978-1-4013-9585-8.
  16. ^ Fuchs, Christian (February 25, 2017). Social Media: A Critical Introduction. SAGE. Wikipedia Edit Wars and Vandalism. ISBN 978-1-4739-8824-8.
  17. ^ Dale, Brady (August 18, 2015). "Wikipedia's Culture War: A Decade-Long Fight Over How to Spell 'Yogurt'". Observer.com. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  18. ^ Yau, Nathan (June 26, 2024). "Decade-Long Battle for "Yogurt" vs. "Yoghurt" on Wikipedia". FlowingData. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  19. ^ Li, Hongtao; Huang, Shunming (August 24, 2021). The Nanjing Massacre and the Making of Mediated Trauma. Routledge. 6.4.2 Confrontation over the “Introduction”: the writing politics of a Wikipedia entry. ISBN 978-1-000-42786-8.
  20. ^ Kumar, Sangeet (May 25, 2021). The Digital Frontier: Infrastructures of Control on the Global Web. Indiana University Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-253-05650-4.
  21. ^ Kumar, Sangeet (June 3, 2017). "A river by any other name: Ganga/Ganges and the postcolonial politics of knowledge on Wikipedia". Information, Communication & Society. 20 (6): 809–824. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2017.1293709. ISSN 1369-118X.
  22. ^ Morris, Kevin (February 12, 2013). "That epic Wikipedia "Star Trek" edit is still screwing up Google". Daily Dot. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  23. ^ Morris, Kevin (January 30, 2013). "Wikipedians wage war over a capital "I" in a "Star Trek" film". Daily Dot. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  24. ^ Lindbergh, Ben (January 15, 2021). "The Fight to Win the Pettiest Edit Wars on Wikipedia". The Ringer. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  25. ^ Hern, Alex (January 23, 2015). "Wikipedia votes to ban some editors from gender-related articles". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved August 1, 2024.
  26. ^ Hube, Christoph (2017). "Bias in Wikipedia". Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on World Wide Web Companion - WWW '17 Companion. ACM Press. pp. 717–721. doi:10.1145/3041021.3053375. ISBN 978-1-4503-4914-7.
  27. ^ Salor, Enrinc (March 13, 2016). "Neutrality in the Face of Reckless Hate : Wikipedia and GamerGate". Nordisk Tidsskrift for Informationsvidenskab og Kulturformidling (in Danish). 5 (1): 23–29. doi:10.7146/ntik.v5i1.25880. ISSN 2245-294X.
  28. ^ Flöck, Fabian; Laniado, David; Stadthaus, Felix; Acosta, Maribel (2015). "Towards Better Visual Tools for Exploring Wikipedia Article Development — the Use Case of "Gamergate Controversy"". Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media. 9 (5): 48–55. doi:10.1609/icwsm.v9i5.14701. ISSN 2334-0770.
  29. ^ Robertson, Adi (January 28, 2015). "Wikipedia denies 'purging' feminist editors over Gamergate debate". The Verge. Retrieved August 1, 2024.
  30. ^ Mortensen, Torill Elvira; Sihvonen, Tanja (2020). "Negative Emotions Set in Motion: The Continued Relevance of #GamerGate". The Palgrave Handbook of International Cybercrime and Cyberdeviance. Cham: Springer International Publishing: 1–23. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-90307-1_75-1. ISBN 978-3-319-90307-1. Retrieved August 1, 2024.
  31. ^ Kimball, Whitney (December 26, 2019). "The Dumbest Wikipedia Edit War of the Dumbest Decade". Gizmodo. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
  32. ^ Schmall, Tyler (March 17, 2017). "The great Garfield gender debate ends after Wikipedia edit war". Mashable. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  33. ^ Cavna, Michael; Selk, Avi (March 1, 2017). "Garfield's a boy … right? How a cartoon cat's gender identity launched a Wikipedia war". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  34. ^ Mak, Aaron (May 28, 2019). "Donald Trump's Wikipedia Entry Is a War Zone". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  35. ^ Ford, Heather (October 13, 2020), Reagle, Joseph; Koerner, Jackie (eds.), "Rise of the Underdog", Wikipedia @ 20, The MIT Press, pp. 189–202, doi:10.7551/mitpress/12366.003.0017, ISBN 978-0-262-36059-3, retrieved July 22, 2024
  36. ^ Grabowski, Jan; Klein, Shira (April 3, 2023). "Wikipedia's Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust". The Journal of Holocaust Research. 37 (2): 133–190. doi:10.1080/25785648.2023.2168939. ISSN 2578-5648.
  37. ^ Robertson, Adi (July 30, 2019). "A Wikipedia spoiler war created a ridiculous fake ending for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood". The Verge. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  38. ^ Tyler, Adrienne (March 14, 2020). "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood's Fake Ending Controversy Explained". ScreenRant. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  39. ^ Nicholson, Tom (July 31, 2019). "There's Been A Huge Fight Over The 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' Wiki Page". Esquire.com. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  40. ^ Bowman, Emma (July 30, 2022). "What is a recession? Wikipedia can't decide". NPR. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  41. ^ Breslow, Samuel (August 11, 2022). "How a False Claim About Wikipedia Sparked a Right-Wing Media Frenzy". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  42. ^ Dress, Brad (August 2, 2022). "Wikipedia launching new restrictions for users editing 'recession' page". Thehill.com. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  43. ^ Easby, Ryan (May 17, 2024). "Assassin's Creed Shadows 'critics' have started vandalising IRL protagonist Yasuke's Wiki page". GAMINGBible. Archived from the original on May 24, 2024. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  44. ^ Moore, Alexander (May 16, 2024). "People Are Vandalizing the Wikipedia Page for Assassin's Creed Shadows Protagonist Yasuke". Game Rant. Archived from the original on May 17, 2024. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  45. ^ Oxford, Dwayne; Shamim, Sarah (June 14, 2024). "Wikipedia war: Fierce row erupts over Israel's deadly Nuseirat assault". Al Jazeera. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  46. ^ "Wikipedia article on Israeli army's Nuseirat massacre in Gaza sparks edit war, restrictions". The New Arab. June 15, 2024. Retrieved August 1, 2024.
  47. ^ Alexander, Mary (July 4, 2024). "Wikipedia edit war not proof that South Africa's new home affairs minister Leon Schreiber is 'a Zimbabwean foreigner'". Africa Check. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  48. ^ Davis, Rebecca (July 3, 2024). "Fact Check: Is SA's new Home Affairs minister Zimbabwean?". Daily Maverick. Archived from the original on July 3, 2024. Retrieved August 16, 2024.
  49. ^ Berra, Valerio (August 2, 2024). "Perché la pagina Wikipedia della pugile Imane Khelif ha subito oltre 200 "modifiche" in questi giorni". Fanpage.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on August 21, 2024. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
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