Wikitorial is a term coined by the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' to describe a traditional
editorial that can be edited in the fashion of a
wiki
A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...
(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. 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
Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; or ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represe ...
" and suggested that it might be either a failure or a new form of
opinion journalism.
Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known as Jimbo Wales, is an American List of Internet entrepreneurs, Internet entrepreneur and former Trader (finance), financial trader. He is a Founders of Wikipedia, co-founder of the non-profi ...
, head of the
Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered there as foundation (United States law), a charitable foundation. It is the host of Wikipedia, th ...
, 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 inserting multiple pictures of
goatse.
[Glaister, Dan.]
LA Times 'wikitorial' gives editors red faces
" ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''. Wednesday JUNE 22, 2005. Retrieved on December 4, 2009. Around 4:30 AM local time the vandal was changing the site to
pornographic 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
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