German Wikipedia plans to stop vandals

An experimental feature planned for the German version of Wikipedia could eventually improve the quality of editing for the online encyclopedia and open its front page to public edits for the first time in years.

In an interview with CNET.co.uk's sister site, News.com, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said the feature, which was conceived of and is likely to be instituted by members of the German Wikipedia community by the end of August, is designed as a way to protect articles from being vandalised.

Because nearly anyone can edit just about any more than 2 million Wikipedia articles in 229 national versions and have those edits instantly appear, malicious edits of an article so that it contains obscenity or fiction have been one of the more serious problems Wikipedia has faced.

As a result, some of the more controversial articles, such as that on President Bush, are sometimes locked.

Last autumn, concerns over the veracity of Wikipedia articles came to a head after it was discovered that the entry on former Robert F. Kennedy aide John Seigenthaler suggested he had been involved in the presidential candidate's assassination. And earlier this month, comedian Stephen Colbert was banned from Wikipedia after he encouraged his television viewers to make meaningless edits to the site's articles.

But now, Wales said, administrators of the German Wikipedia -- the second-largest version after English -- have come up with a system that could protect live articles, especially obscure ones that escape regular scrutiny from hawkeyed community members intent on maintaining accuracy.

As always, anyone will be able to make article edits. But it would take someone who has been around Wikipedia for some yet-to-be-determined period of time -- and who, therefore, has passed a threshold of trustworthiness -- to make the edits live on the public site. If someone vandalises an article, the edits would not be approved.

"We want to let anybody edit," Wales said, "but we don't want to show vandalised versions".

On the surface, it may not sound like a major step forward, but to Wales and others in the community, the feature, if it proves successful on the German site, could mean a significant reduction in the number of defaced public articles.

Open front door?
And if that's the case, Wales said, it could give Wikipedia the means to finally open its front page to public editing for the first time since one vandal repeatedly posted obscene images on it years ago.

"It would be fun for me to announce to the press that the front page of Wikipedia is open for public editing for the first time in five years," Wales said.