Wikipedia Review was an independent Internet forum and

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for the discussion of

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 ...

projects, in particular the content and conflicts of

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...

. Wikipedia Review sought to act as a watchdog website, scrutinizing Wikipedia and reporting on its flaws. It provided an independent forum to discuss Wikipedia editors and their influence on Wikipedia content. At its peak, participants included current Wikipedia editors, former Wikipedia editors, users banned from Wikipedia, and people who had never edited. The last post was on 31 May 2012.

Background

The site was founded in November 2005 by "Igor Alexander", and hosted by ProBoards. On 19 February 2006 it moved to its own

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using Invision Power Board software. The site required registration using a valid e-mail address to post and blacklisted email providers that allowed anonymity so as to discourage the operation of multiple accounts by a single user. Wikipedia Review was cited for its discussion of

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-editing concepts and its participation in the evaluation of the Palo Alto Research Company's WikiDashboard.

Commentary

Seth Finkelstein wrote in ''

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 ...

'' that Wikipedia Review has provided a focal point for investigation into Wikipedia-related matters such as the " Essjay controversy". , writing for ''

The Register ''The Register'' (often also called El Reg) is a British Technology journalism, technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee (journalist), Mike Magee and John Lettice. The online newspaper's Nameplate_(publishing), masthead Logo, s ...

'', credited Wikipedia Review with the discovery of a private

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that led to the resignation of a Wikipedia administrator; he also wrote that a Wikipedia proposal called "BADSITES" intended to ban the mention of Wikipedia Review and similar sites on Wikipedia. ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' noted that "allegations against certain administrators came to a head on a site called Wikipedia Review, where people debate the administrators' actions." The Irish technology website Silicon Republic suggested visiting Wikipedia Review in order to "follow disputes, discussions, editors and general bureaucracy on Wikipedia". Philip Coppens used posts made on Wikipedia Review to help construct a report, published in '' Nexus'', on WikiScanner and allegations that intelligence agencies had been using Wikipedia to spread

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Content and structure

Wikipedia Review's publicly accessible forums are broken up into four general topic areas: # Forum information; # Wikimedia-oriented discussion, which contains subforums focusing on editors, the Wikipedia bureaucracy, meta discussion, articles and general Wikimedia-focused topics not fitting elsewhere; # Media forums containing a news feed and discussion about news and blogs featuring Wikipedia/Wikimedia; and # Off topic, non-Wikimedia related discussion.

References

External links

* * {{Wikipediahistory Critics of Wikipedia History of Wikipedia Internet forums Internet properties established in 2005