Editing Wikipedia (section)

=== Vandalism ===
{{main|Vandalism on Wikipedia}}
Any change or edit that manipulates content in a way that deliberately compromises Wikipedia's integrity is considered vandalism. The most common and obvious types of vandalism include additions of obscenities and crude humor; it can also include advertising and other types of spam.<ref name="upenn link spamming 1">{{cite conference |last1 = West |first1 = Andrew G. |last2 = Chang |first2 = Jian |last3 = Venkatasubramanian |first3 = Krishna |last4 = Sokolsky |first4 = Oleg |last5 = Lee |first5 = Insup |title = Proceedings of the 8th Annual Collaboration, Electronic messaging, Anti-Abuse and Spam Conference on - CEAS '11 |chapter = Link Spamming Wikipedia for Profit |conference = 8th Annual Collaboration, Electronic Messaging, Anti-Abuse, and Spam Conference |pages = 152–161 |date = 2011 |chapter-url=https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1508&context=cis_papers |doi = 10.1145/2030376.2030394|isbn = 9781450307888 }}</ref> Sometimes editors commit vandalism by removing content or entirely blanking a given page. Less common types of vandalism, such as the deliberate addition of plausible but false information, can be more difficult to detect. Vandals can introduce irrelevant formatting, modify page semantics such as the page's title or categorization, manipulate the article's underlying code, or use images disruptively.<ref name="WP vandalism manipulation 1" />

[[File:John Seigenthaler Sr. speaking.jpg|thumb|alt=White-haired elderly gentleman in suit and tie speaks at a podium.|American journalist [[John Seigenthaler]] (1927–2014), subject of the [[Seigenthaler incident]]]]
Obvious vandalism is generally easy to remove from Wikipedia articles; the median time to detect and fix it is a few minutes.<ref name="MIT_IBM_study" /><ref name="CreatingDestroyingAndRestoringValue" /> However, some vandalism takes much longer to detect and repair.<ref name="Seigenthaler" />

In the [[Seigenthaler biography incident]], an anonymous editor introduced false information into the biography of American political figure [[John Seigenthaler]] in May 2005, falsely presenting him as a suspect in the [[assassination of John F. Kennedy]].<ref name="Seigenthaler" /> It remained uncorrected for four months.<ref name="Seigenthaler" /> Seigenthaler, the founding editorial director of ''[[USA Today]]'' and founder of the [[Freedom Forum]] [[First Amendment Center]] at [[Vanderbilt University]], called Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales and asked whether he had any way of knowing who contributed the misinformation. Wales said he did not, although the perpetrator was eventually traced.<ref name="book The World is Flat 1">{{cite book |last = Friedman |first = Thomas L. |title = The World is Flat |year = 2007 |publisher = [[Farrar, Straus & Giroux]] |isbn = 978-0374292782 |page = 124}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=17798 |title = Founder shares cautionary tale of libel in cyberspace |last = Buchanan |first = Brian |date = November 17, 2006 |publisher = archive.firstamendmentcenter.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121221140311/https://archive.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=17798 |archive-date = December 21, 2012 |url-status=dead |access-date = November 17, 2012}}</ref> After the incident, Seigenthaler described Wikipedia as "a flawed and irresponsible research tool".<ref name="Seigenthaler" /> The incident led to policy changes at Wikipedia for tightening up the verifiability of biographical articles of living people.<ref>{{cite news |last = Helm |first = Burt |title = Wikipedia: "A Work in Progress" |url=https://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-12-13/wikipedia-a-work-in-progress |newspaper = [[BusinessWeek]] |date = December 13, 2005 |access-date = July 26, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120708062333/https://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-12-13/wikipedia-a-work-in-progress |archive-date = July 8, 2012}}</ref>

In 2010, Daniel Tosh encouraged viewers of his show, ''[[Tosh.0]]'', to visit the show's Wikipedia article and edit it at will. On a later episode, he commented on the edits to the article, most of them offensive, which had been made by the audience and had prompted the article to be locked from editing.<ref name="tosh CC WP funny 1">{{cite web |url=https://tosh.comedycentral.com/blog/2010/02/03/your-wikipedia-entries |title = Your Wikipedia Entries |date = February 3, 2010 |website = Tosh.0 |access-date = September 9, 2014}}</ref><ref name="tosh CC WP funny 2">{{cite web |url=https://tosh.comedycentral.com/video-clips/wikipedia-updates |title = Wikipedia Updates |date = February 3, 2010 |website = Tosh.0 |access-date = September 9, 2014}}</ref>