Finally caught up with the July 31 issue of The New Yorker, where Stacy Schiff's engaging article on Wikipedia appears. Until I read the piece, I hadn't known that Wikipedia was responsible for so many neologisms and new definitions. Schiff mentions:
Revert: "to reinstate, as in 'I reverted the edit, but the user has simply re-reverted it'"
WikiGnome: "a user who keeps a low profile, fixing typos, poor grammar, and broken links"
WikiTroll: the antithesis of a WikiGnome--"a user who persistently violates the site's guidelines or otherwise engages in disruptive behavior"
Admin: Any of nearly 1,000 Wikipedians authorized to police the site for abuse.
Checkuser: Any of 14 Wikipedians "authorized to trace I.P. addresses in case of suspected abuse."
N.P.O.V.: "Neutral point of view," the desired tone of Wikipedia articles.
Barnstar: A five-pointed star "which the community has adopted as a symbol of praise."
Inspired by this list, I did a little investigating of my own and discovered WikiLove (defined on Wikipedia as "a general spirit of collegiality"), Wikiquette (the site's code of behavior), and Wiktionary.
("Wikipedia" itself was coined from "wiki"--a collaborative software tool that takes its name for the Hawaiian word for "quick"--and "encyclopedia.")
And now Stephen Colbert, of "The Colbert Report," has added his own neologism to the list: Wikiality ("the reality that exists if you make something up and enough people agree with you"). Not only that: On the July 31 show, Colbert demonstrated wikiality by logging on and changing two articles to include some zany assertions (e.g., "Oregon is Idaho's Portugal"--a statement that is, by the way, a pretty good example of a snowclone). He urged viewers to do the same; enough of them did to cause temporary chaos on the site.
I go to bed way too early to have caught T.C.R. myself; thanks to Freakonomics blog for bringing me up to speed.
I like it, I like it!
Posted by: mz. em | August 07, 2006 at 11:59 AM