Wikitorial is a term coined by the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' to describe a traditional editorial that can be edited in the fashion of a

wiki A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pub ...

(computer software that allows users to edit text and make changes to one document). On June 17, 2005, the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote the first Wikitorial, entitled ''War and Consequences'', on the subject of the

War in Iraq This is a list of wars involving the Republic of Iraq and its predecessor states. Other armed conflicts involving Iraq * Wars during Mandatory Iraq ** Ikhwan raid on South Iraq 1921 * Smaller conflicts, revolutions, coups and periphery confli ...

. Below that editorial the paper wrote an invitation to its readers to rewrite the editorial in the wiki fashion. They called the experiment a "public beta" and suggested that it might be either a failure or a new form of

opinion journalism Opinion journalism is journalism that makes no claim of objectivity. Although distinguished from advocacy journalism in several ways, both forms feature a subjective viewpoint, usually with some social or political purpose. Common examples inclu ...

. Jimmy Wales, head of the

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best know ...

, which governs Wikipedia, was one of the early contributors to the new Wikitorial which inspired a counterpoint editorial, redirections and much discussion.

Closing

The ''L.A. Times'' Wikitorial was closed on June 19, 2005. This was due to a

vandal The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The Vandals migrated to the area betw ...

inserting multiple pictures of

goatse goatse.cx ( , ; "goat sex"), often spelled without the .cx top-level domain as Goatse, was originally an Internet shock site. Its front page featured a picture entitled hello.jpg, showing a close-up of a hunched-over naked man using both hands ...

.Glaister, Dan.
LA Times 'wikitorial' gives editors red faces
" ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. Wednesday JUNE 22, 2005. Retrieved on December 4, 2009. Around 4:30 AM local time the vandal was changing the site to

pornographic Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

photos and just as quickly, within seconds, a guardian was reverting it to the earlier editorial. Shortly after 5:00 AM the connection was broken and the Wikitorial ceased to be available. Readers who access the site find this message:

''Where is the wikitorial?'' ''Unfortunately, we have had to remove this feature, at least temporarily, because a few readers were flooding the site with inappropriate material.'' ''Thanks and apologies to the thousands of people who logged on in the right spirit.''

During the two days the Wikitorial was available it had changed from the original length (just under eleven hundred words) to just over twenty-seven hundred words. Several experienced Wikipedians offered suggestions for the organization of the Wikitorial.

References

External links

WikitorialWikitorial ForkArchives of the Wikitorial entry "Dreams About War and Retribution"
Los Angeles Times Opinion journalism Wiki concepts {{criticism-stub