Famous Edit Wars

The Davis Wiki has had and overcome its share of edit wars. This page is an attempt to catalog these edit wars so that we may learn from them and avoid them in the future. This is a bit of wiki history.

Sigma Chi

The original version of the Sigma Chi fraternity page said that "Sigma Chi is locally known as the date rape frat." While the fact that the rumor existed was true, the rumors themselves were not. Members of the fraternity repeatedly removed this information from the page, while other people reverted the page. A talk page was made, and after a few days of sitting at the top of Recent Changes the Sigma Chi page was one of the top hits google for "date rape." At this point, fraternity members decided to talk out their differences rather than repeatedly vandalize the page about their fraternity. The fraternity members added a lot of content that was relevant to the Davis chapter of the fraternity, and addressed the rumors in a mature and responsible fashion.

Primary Causes:

• Mistaken belief that a public entry about a person is "owned" by that person.
• Inflexibility on the part of one or more editors.
• Lack of discussion by editors performing reverts (on one side).

Shelly Bailes and Ellen Pontac

Primary Causes:

• Mistaken belief that a public entry about a person is "owned" by that person.

Cost Plus World Market and Ikea

Primary Causes:

• Inflexibility on the part of one or more editors.
• Godwin's Law triggered incredibly early on the IKEA page.- (Note: Godwin's Law cannot be invoked if the discussion topic involves actual Nazis, only if it involves comparisons).
• Except that being a member of the Hitler Youth does not make you an actual nazi. Because if you didn't have your kids join, an actual law would send you to an actual prison camp. Meaning that SaulSugerman is still an actual moron.
• Attempts to enforce NPOV on Davis Wiki

Kirk Cowgill

Kirk ran for ASUCD, and after failing to be elected, repeatedly deleted the public entry about him. He cited concerns regarding employers finding his campaign profile.

Primary Cause:

• Lack of discussion by editors performing reverts (on both sides).

Senate Scandal

A long page which aired a bunch of dirty laundry among the ASUCD government, many people sought to take it down immediately.

Primary Cause:

• Most of the page was unsourced rumors put on the page by SenateScandal, dealing with interpersonal relationships or drug use. Some sought to save the page for political expediency or "open government" reasons, but it was eventually deleted for high truthiness and not enough facts.

Other Conflicts

• Natural Food Works

2006-11-30 21:36:50   Would it be worthwhile to try to summarize the lessons learned from each event, or would that just cause more debate? —JasonAller

2006-12-01 01:02:44   Summerizing the lessons would likely be more benefitial to newer users, who I assume could stand the most to gain from being taught these things pre-emptively. —JosephBleckman

I'm trying to locate common causes and themes in wiki conflicts, especially with an eye toward creating tools to quickly resolve similar situations in the future. —JabberWokky

2007-04-05 08:43:17   I like the idea of identifing common themes and problems in these events, but the ones identified so far seem to be "noncommunicaiton" related and those are hard to fix, since people won't look at this page until the incident no longer boils their blood. —RocksandDirt

2007-04-05 08:58:45   I've had mixed success phoning people. It actually might be a good idea to suggest face to face meetings between opposed editors at neutral locations. Identifying the themes is more useful for wiki regulars to figure out how best to bring new editors who get upset to a less antagonistic stance without alienating them. —JabberWokky

2010-01-23 07:44:06   I wasn't around for any of these epics... how does the recent BW/Drom's thing stack up? —TomGarberson

No irl threats, smallish talk page, drama factor low, only 2 real back and forth primary invested people, some legal saber rattling, etc... I would peg it as low end—StevenDaubert

2010-01-23 15:38:11   We should add Steve Ostrowski to this list, although I think the page is a bit tacky and not really kept up to date. Good idea originally, but I think it's fallen out of use and forgotten. —EdWins

I wondered why he wasn't mentioned —Daubert

• Steven was more a series of battles than a war. Others didn't get added because no one was thinking about this page at the time, or because adding them here would have been a reward for them. —JasonAller
• So you'd think that would make it the biggest war to date then :P

2010-01-23 23:14:30   I guess the crepe house uni debacle really wasn't an edit war... —StevenDaubert

• More of a real world conflict with the wiki only involved as part of the communication medium. There was no problem with the entry, just some people who had a problem with the actual place itself. Might be worth placing something like that on the list to distinguish it from actual editing problems. -jw

2010-01-24 10:02:14   I'm surprised that the M*dg*t C*p conflict doesn't rate. —JimStewart

We don't talk about mget debacle, it makes all of DPD h8 the wiki —StevenDaubert

Ah yes, mget c*p is how I download all of my crap files, too. —BrentLaabs

• In Soviet Russia, mget c*p downloads the entire country and all the urine, tovarich! -ЈаввзяШожу