Comments on: Michael Jackson's death roils Wikipedia

Scores of users insert reports of Michael Jackson's death into entries about him in the online encyclopedia, which are deleted, re-inserted, and deleted again.

[dudesmiles]

RIP Michael! He was too young for this BSOD!

[wojx]

"BSOD." LOL.

[epross]

He was an amazing performer who led a troubled life. RIP Michael.

[Havoc70]

Yawn...must be a slow news day

[Police_States_of_America]

^this

[TimMyers]

Haha

[xenophod]

So who owns the Beatles collection now? Heartless? Maybe. But I really could care less about this guy, he had talent that he wasted on his various perversions.

[Rants&Raves]

Whatever; what have you done in your life that makes you so much grander than him ?

[SJ2571]

@jaguar717: Molested children, did he? You know you can sued for saying that if you have no proof... we can only hope someone in his legal team does.

[Rants&Raves]

jaguar717: that's the classic case of pathetic responses these days. People who are so steeped in a sense of inadequacy that they think they can raise themselves above the crowds by lowering a figure higher than self. Like the losers who were criticizing Mother Teresa when she died, so-and-so because he enjoys his well-earned success (Guy Laliberte comes to mind), or journos who will not consider a biography complete until a good half of it is turned into a mud-racking session (not talking about this article, but we've seen our fair share of bios this week and the recipe never fails to sicken).

[rickhigginshtbr]

Didn't Sony take control of 75% of it a few years ago?

[skrubol]

Rants&Raves: Isn't comparing Jackson to Mother Teresa a wee bit of a stretch?
While he was never convicted of anything major, he was at very least, a wierdo and had troubling tendencies.
His death was no more a tragedy as any of the other hundreds of thousands of people who probably died yesterday.

[Rants&Raves]

@skrubol: Basic reading comprehension pal. I'm comparing the kinds of reactions, not the people being reacted to.

[ajac009]

someone dying makes it a slow news day? get a heart

[nazzer1991]

RIP the king of pop, the music will live on

[cvaldes1831]

This is why I gave up editing Wikipedia a couple of years ago. The community there is totally broken.

[battlefella]

I'd say this is an example of wikipedia working as it should - when the initial flurry of edits results in disputes, the page is locked for a short while, information becomes clearer, and things progress. I don't see the admin action being over the top, and yes, when you allow the general public to edit, you will get a rush of action when facts (and rumours) change. But it all sorts itself out after a very short while.

[fletchb]

But the blockers were wrong and delayed the truth so not sure I would say it worked as it should.

[JCPayne]

Short memory??? This was a perfectly good policy... You might remember TMZ threw the news community for a loop a few months back with the **faked** Rihanna pictures. They are a hit and miss new source.


Google "Rihanna fake photo TMZ"
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=Rihanna+fake+photo+TMZ&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&fp=OzgK0dwM7rU

[Mr. Dee]

Rip MJ - Let Sadness see what Happy does, Let Happy be where Sadness was.

[BtmnHatesRbn]

Like Elvis, Jackson isn't dead, he just wanted to go home.

Ironically, his death is similar to the death of Elvis, involving drugs to stay alive and poor health, and dying at home in his middle age.

LOL....the Wiki-Gestapo at their finest. Even one of the adminish people over there saying, "Be sure to discuss it with ME" before you add any type of content.

Does the "Encylopedia that anyone can edit" now have specific editors assigned to specific pages...sounds like it.

[viper396]

Get over yourself. Your juvenile response to the matter is why Wikipedia must now monitor and edit articles about famous personalities. After all the prior instances of some moron claiming someone was dead when they weren't Wikipedia has no choice but to restricting these kind of edits until the information can be 100% verified.

Free speech is a priveledge but it doesn't entitle you to be irresponsible. One day you might grow up and understand that.

[jcomputm]

Hey, listen:

My grandma is a huge fan of this guy. After hearing that he had a cardiac arrest, she just wanted real-time info. To me going to wikipedia was like getting the true encyclopedic info that I always depend on. But to find a lot of wikipedians (yes I have an account with wikipedia) just constantly updating the Michael Jackson article just means that they just overload the network traffic. I am an eye-witness here. When I went to the Michael Jackson article, I saw a template above saying that "this article is constantly beign edited", and if you try to edit the article, you "may get an edit conflict message". So basically, I say: I really need to keep an eye on these big events.

[hissingturtle2]

really,

Get a life

[sahilk]

rip... :(

[andraprakoso]

RIP MICHAEL JACKSON
we always miss you

http://sibangor.blogspot.com/2009/06/michael-jackson-died.html

[Issaland]

Rest in peace, Michael! You'll be always in my heart as an great artist and sensitive, good human being who wanted better wold "for you and for me" [*][*][*]

[inachu1]

Big babies who control the content who have the say so over the words on Wikipedia....

Should have known this would happen and wikipedia should have a grafitti page of loyal followers who usually more knowlegable than the person preventing the massive wikipedia spamming.

If it is trutful and news worthy keep it in but to outright within seconds or minutes deleting right way should mean the person deleting the content himself/herself turn off their computer and walk away.

[codynews]

I think the cnet story is about the 100000 "me first!" tools that have to be the one to actually type the words into wikipedia for the update.

Not sure why so many internet idiots just HAD to update his site that he died -- epically after the first reports were just from TMZ (might as well been reported via a Perez Hilton tweet).

I mean geeze, how "real time" does an ENCYCLOPAEDIA need to be? Let the man be officially pronounced dead for crying out loud, then simply update the page with the info. If these wikidots were not so narcissistic, there would not have been this story.

Cody

[mwacky]

Wikipedia is not Twitter folks, it is meant as a reference encyclopedia not a real time opinion feed.

[bluemist9999]

I believe the Wikipedia admins did the right thing. Until MJ's death was confirmed by reliable sources, his Wikipedia entry shouldn't say that.

RIP Michael Jackson.

[Raabscuttle]

Once again Wiki-NAZIS at their finest. Just TRY to edit a page that sone Wiki-Nazi is campped on (David Copperfield comes to mind).

[cheerleader9998212]

i dont really care he hurts kids now people who live on his street can walk up and down the side of there streets and noy be afraid to get attacked my mj hiding in da bushes

[viper396]

He hurts people? Really? Do you have proof of this? Because two separate proceedings and 14 individual jury members with actual evidence say otherwise. Does it make you feel better to demonize the man even after his death?



[CNET editors' note: Personal attack deleted.]