Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that allows anyone to contribute articles, is tightening its rules for submitting entries following the disclosure that it ran a piece falsely implicating a man in the Kennedy assassinations. Wikipedia will now require users to register before they can create articles, Jimmy Wales, founder of the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Web site, said Monday.
The change comes less than a week after John Seigenthaler Sr., who was Robert Kennedy’s administrative assistant in the early 1960s, wrote an op-ed article revealing that Wikipedia had run a biography claiming Seigenthaler had been suspected in the assassinations of the former Attorney General and his brother, President John F. Kennedy. —Dan Goodin —Online Encyclopedia Tightens Rules (Breitbart | AP)
This is an important change in the techno-idealistic principle that formerly animated Wikipedia. Reality has come crashing through the door.
Non-registered users will still be able to edit existing articles, and the registration process does not sound difficult.