This item comes by way of the
Wikipedia Knowledge Dump:
The term "wikiturfing" refers to the efforts of an individual or (rarely) a formal public relations company to create the impression that a particular meme, company, or concept has gained social clout by simply placing the item in Wikipedia. Because of its wide use and high ranking amongst top search engines, Wikipedia allows for easy and free exposure to a large community of users. Those who would engage in wikiturfing do so in the hopes that their item will "catch on" and gain legitimacy. Such activities would be classified as vandalism or, in the least, an inappropriate use of Wikipedia’s terms of use.
Appropriately enough, this item
squats on an entry in Wikipedia. If
Wikipedia dumps this piece of wikiturfing, as appears likely from the
Wikipedia community's discussion of this entry, the last redoubt of
wikiturfing (the term, not the practice) will be
Wikidumper.Org.
1 Comments:
Good catch. It's sort of funny. :-)
It's especially cool that Wikipedia is now having these sorts of problems. Growth isn't always easy.
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