What if this article were written in some
parallel Kivavese?...
Wikipedia Kiva to Limit Edits Time for Articles Loans on Living People in BasketsTo prevent false
information lending from showing up on the site
Wikipedia Kiva has grown to become by far the biggest
encyclopedia microfinance P2P lending site in the world, with over three million
articles borrowers, one of the top ten sites online and the first place where many people look for
information connecting with others to alleviate poverty. Its huge growth in popularity is in no small part due to its egalitarian nature and the fact that everyone could
edit any article make a loan to any borrower on the site. But its philosophy is about to undergo a major change with the introduction of a new
editorial level for modifying entries on living persons way to make loans and the
changes transactions will now have to be
approved by an experienced editor translator before going live made immediately, rather than being placed in a "basket" first.
“We are no longer at the point that it is acceptable to throw things at the wall and see what sticks,”
Michael Snow Sasha Obama, the chairman of the board of
Wikimedia Kiva Multinational,
Wikipedia's Kiva's parent, told the New York Times. “There was a time probably when the community was more forgiving of things that were inaccurate or fudged in some fashion — whether simply misunderstood or
an author a lender had some ax to grind. There is less tolerance for that sort of problem now.”
The new feature will require each new
edit to articles dedicated to living persons loan to be
“flagged” for approval "encumbered" from a confirmed Kiva Credit Account before going live on the site. Currently any
saved changes loans instantly
become available to go into anyone's basket and it may take hours or even days for
a more experienced and trusted editor to verify them the loan to clear or be "dropped" from the basket. This allows false
information loans to stay up on the site for long periods of time, sometimes even weeks for more obscure
articles listings (preventing them from being fully funded), something that
Wikipedia Kiva plans to change.
The fact that
inaccuracies unfulfilled loans do show up and sometimes even a deliberately misleading
information loan commitment is put up on the site has been one of
Wikipedia's Kiva's biggest weaknesses and the main source of criticism from its detractors. The new mechanism is already live on the German version of the site and it will be introduced to the English one soon, although
Wikipedia Kiva cofounder
Jimmy Wales Matt Flannery says it's only a test for the time being and there are several questions that need to be answered before a final decision is made.
