What is Digg?103 Comments
- The_Decryptor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16"Also, what kind of school shares a single IP address for their entire school???"
One that proxies all HTTP traffic. - Flankk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14What a stupid excuse to sabotage the wiki. If you want to research how long it takes to correct errors, check the history.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+17Perhaps schools should focus on teaching students the basics rather than wasting time on internet surfing skills and then problems like this wouldn't occur to begin with.
- cheesy_1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12And that's why Wikipedia should be used as a starting point for research, not as a source that you can cite. Any good Wikipedia article about anything academic usually has links to real research papers and books and whatnot.
But it is great as a starting point, and for less formal things than research papers. If I start reading Wikipedia I can quickly end up with tons of tabs in a variety of different subjects that I'd like to read.
The problem is since there's multiple links to more articles on any given page the number of paths you can take grows exponentially, and if you hit an interesting topic and you want to read all about it you'll end up opening dozens of tabs and continue the vicious Wikicycle (I just made that word up...but hey it's better than "blogosphere" and some of these other blog and Web 2.0 related terms...) - Dummies102, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10'And that's why Wikipedia should be used as a starting point for research, not as a source that you can cite.'
exactly. And nor should wikipedia be used as a citation. By definition the knowledge contained within an encyclopedia is common knowledge, and therefor needs no citation. Wikipedia should be a launching pad to more in depth studies of topics. - kelyn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Damn, that's ridiculous. It's a good thing that the school's editing privileges were banned and I'm actually surprised that they weren't banned sooner since the vandalism went all the way back to 2002. Perhaps schools should provide more education about Wikipedia and how you can make it beneficial for you as well others...perhaps in a tech class? This is just weird.
- judsond, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11This is a non-story, as usual since it is about wikipedia. We block IP ranges all the time, usually for very short durations, for vandalism. AOL and many ISPs are much more of a problem than little schools like this. We blocked the US congress a few months ago for Christ sake, I don't know why anyone would think blocking some school was noteworthy.
- Fosnez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"pedophilia" - Do you even know what that word means?
If you referring to articles regarding the human reproduction organs - the ones with the pictures of "pee-pees" (I hope that's not too strong a word...) - go and look them up in encyclopedias - they all have pictures - or goto google image search and type in "penis" (OMG! Bad word!) and see what comes up.. perhaps we should block google as well!
Censorship FTW! - towsonu2003, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8better yet, teach them how to be constructive rather than destructive.
- andycarvin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Hi Kelyn,
At the time I was struggling to get an IP traceroute to show me the name of the city; all I was finding was the service provider. But it appears the school is in Timmins, Ontario:
http://www.timmins.ca/
I've been writing a lot about wikipedia in schools. Personally, I think more schools should encourage their students and teachers to become wikipedians to help improve the quality and even teach other wikipedians about citing sources properly.
You also asked why they weren't banned sooner. I'm under the impression they've been suspended on several occasions, but then restored, because the IP was used by others in a more responsible fashion. - ninjakarl, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6My school has wikipedia banned (the school won't let us access it, not the other way round) and has so for months.. But www.hidemyass.com is my friend
- t3hX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Because then the vandals will create accounts, and still vandalize? Then dump them when they're banned, and start a new ones.
- oriolesfan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5My school's IP has been banned for a while now (at least 6 months or so). Don't know the official reason, but its probably safe to assume that it was just some idiot kids messing around. I don't think this is really a big deal though. If you have to edit an article, you can certainly wait to do it from home or on some other network.
- Xiol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@cheesy
I suffer from the same problem.
What starts as a quick visit to Wikipedia quickly turns into 60 tabs of pages I need to get thru, 90% of which have nothing to do with what the original reason was for me visiting. - cyssero, on 04/18/2009, -0/+4I think all NSW (state of Australia) public schools use only a handful of IPs..
- jc60752, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Our school is also blocked and has been for two years. We use a single IP because all traffic runs through a proxy that has monitoring software loaded.
- Wootery, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've experienced this personally, people here vandalise Wikipedia, so the IP gets banned. Fair enough. If you aren't a retard you can proxy around the block though.... I'm pretty sure vandals are retards.
- enigmattic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3My college has been banned. I went to fix an article and it said that my IP had been banned due to multiple acts of vandalism.
- whiterabbit, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5My school was banned from editing Wikipedia because a student conducted a test to see how long it takes to correct information by adding false information. After one student tried it others did too including the library staff, therefore getting the school banned from editing articles. My school doesn't allow us to use it for any research because apparently a few hours is too long for a correction to be made.
- Xiol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Well, anything *can* be put on Wikipedia, including misinformation.
Wikipedia is a great resource, but don't rely on everything you read there to be fact.
Always check something up if you're using it in a paper. - phpirate, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Heres a reason why: Kids are stupid. I've been in high school a year ago, and I have to tell you, the most immature and stupid things, they find funny.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2My school (Australia) was banned last time i looked, which was probably a good year or so ago.
There was a message saying that it was banned because of vandalism. Too bad... - waynejkruse10, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2my school's ip has also been banned, im happy, i dont want any morons from my school vandalising.
I do all my editing and contributing at home. - serra, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2They're just trying to keep it out of the hands of bored idiot kids that are at school, I can see where they are coming from. If there is a pattern of that happening, they're going to try to stop it. Though I don't think that they are going to be able to can all of the idiots in the world...
- cheesy_1, on 10/12/2007, -7/+9The headline (of both the article and Digg entry) are somewhat misleading, since the school was only blocked because they share a single IP address and some of their students vandalized it repeatedly.
They weren't blocked because they were a school, they weren't blocked from editing because they asked to be, they were simply blocked from editing because there were numerous acts of vandalism coming from that particular IP address.
Just because it happened to be a school doesn't make this special. No Diggity.
Also, what kind of school shares a single IP address for their entire school??? - Xiol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm a sysadmin at a school in the UK.
Every time I visit wikipedia I find messages sent to my IP about vadalism. You see, the way our network is setup where I work, we share our end-point address with many other schools in our LEA - all our schools' internet connections goes back to our local council, then out on the internet.
Long ago I put a block in place to stop children from editing (well, vandalising) pages on Wikipedia - as it can be useful as a resource, but there's no need for them to be editing it. However, since our single IP is shared among 50+ schools it can get a bit hairy.
I dont want to ask Wikipedia to block us from editing, because it's not my decision to ask Wikipedia to block so many schools. Many other schools don't have the kind of advanced filtering system we have in place that will allow them to just block the editing alone.
Kids are kids, they're going to vandalise stuff. It's just not something schools can police on their own. - fredinator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2No they dont ban accounts cause theyre on an IP, ive got an account at my school (which is banned) and my account still works
- Akram, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2old stuff, my school got banned years ago.....and our school does share 1 IP through the whole borough as do most schools.
- m85476585, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I know a lot of teachers that discourage it. They say it isn't accurate.
- Dummies102, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2the title doesn't do the article justice. What actually happened was that an ip with a history of vandalism was blocked, which happened to belong to a school. it's not as if wikipedia targeted a school
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm surprised it wasn't my school.
- Xiol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Dude. Damn right.
Why is it that the most uninformed people teaching-wise and IT-wise are the people who are supposed to be teaching it. - se1zure, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Sorry, but this is lame. Wikipedia blocks ip's that vandalize, so If somone vandaliszes from school, it only makes sense that WIkipedia would block it. Our school has been blocked for months, no news, no digg.
- m85476585, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Maybe they could allow old users?
My school is banned and I don't want to have to remember all the changes I hant to make. - LoganKriete, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Also, what kind of school shares a single IP address for their entire school???"
Ummm....perhpas any school that uses a ROUTER?!?! I'm sure even you have a router at your house to share your internet connection among all the computers in your house--why shouldn't a school do the same? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2My school is also blocked from editing any articles. The IP may be the same because all HTTP traffic is sent through a filtering proxy which limits what websites students are able to view. The teachers and the librarians all tell us not to use wikipedia because it may be incorrect. I use it anyway.
- Zane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Same, that's all my friends do at school, vandalise wikipedia.
- vinbot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wiki has is an incredibly useful tool with mostly very accurate info...HOWEVER, like many internet sources, there is often a lot of inaccurate information. I think it would be fair to say there is much more inaccurate info than a properly edited, scholarly source. The problem with many sites is there is no real oversight or accountability. Kids don't know how to tell the difference between a reliable source and a source that's full of crap. Kids need to be taught how to tell the difference. they also need to be shown how to do proper research (the difference between primary and secondary sources, getting multiple sources to corroborate info, etc.). Banning websites isn't the answer.
- 8ight, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i teach computer class for 3rd - 5th grades. i push and use wikipedia in class ALL THE TIME! however, the district went and bought a (i'm sure) expensive subscription to World Book Online this year. our school district is in need of cash so badly right now. i questioned the high school librarian who initially pushed for World Book as to why they don't use wikipedia. her response was that it's too easy to edit and there is too much incorrect information. i challenged her points, but it was too late anyway. the schools had already forked over the dollars for World Book. i was given the user/pass for World Book and told to teach the kids how to use it, but i refuse. i'll stick to wiki, and i don't give a shat if the administrators would like it otherwise... it's my classroom.
- TheSolomon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Your school doesn't allow Wikipedia citations because of how long it takes to correct errors? I have a feeling this is an incorrect statement. If you compare Wikipedia's correction policy to, let's say, a printed volume like Encyclopedia Britannica, the "three hours" as claimed for a correction on Wikipedia is a hell of a lot more rapid of a response than the YEARS it would take to publish new versions of the printed sort, or even the six months to a year it would take to publish various almanacs.
In truth, institutions concerned with the quality of source material choose not to accept Wikipedia because of its lack of quality controls and fact checking. Anyone on the planet can submit articles and revisions, with no party truly accountable for accuracy. The fact Wikipedia is corrected within only a few hours is a testament to how good it is, but the fact that none of it can be trusted as truth or fact is its biggest problem. That is why it should be taken with a grain of salt, and used as only a *starting* place for research. - ohsh1rt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1At my highschool, Medina Highschool, wikipedia is blocked as "Pornography", that helps me research.
-jeffrey - vhold, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think that teaching teenagers about Wikipedia would just make vandelism _more_ likely.
- ehmjay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1wanted to see if it was true, and it was! Even my school in my podunky little canadian town is blocked! While its upsetting, it's probably an alright idea. Then again, if people want to vandalize they can just wait until they get home.
needless to say, anything that keeps Wikipedia as acurate as it can be is a good idea to me. - parrotscience, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Glad to see my school board made the news. Never expected to find a 'digg local' here. I'm a teacher at this board and looked up the address. I use Wikipedia all the time. Our school board is geographically the size of FRANCE and all schools surf from behind 1 IP address. Thanks kids!
- thecapitalizt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My old high school, Darien High School, was banned from editing Wikipedia too. I actually know the idiot that did it also.
- tommorris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Mightn't they sometimes actually edit things? Or is this possible loss of functionality justifiable because you know best?
- whiterabbit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Flankk:
I agree, I don't see why one would change an article and put false information in it.
It seems that my school is very anti-Wikipedia due to the few bad things instead of the overwhelming good things. - andycarvin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Exactly. Wikipedia needs to be taught in the context of media literacy education. Then teachers can begin creating lesson plans around it, like the one I proposed last summer:
http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2005/07/turning_wikiped.html
I also gave a speech last month at the University of Missouri that dealt with open content tools like Wikipedia and how they raise the need for increased media literacy among students _and_ teachers:
http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2006/02/podcast_open_content.html - computerjoe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The answer is very simple, teachers don't know of the site.
When an admin blocks a school, (s)he shouldn't give a long block. In my view, an hour is good enough so a lesson's easy. - GaryKing, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They've been doing this for a long time now. My school's IP has been blocked from editing Wikipedia for at least a year or two. The school talked about in the article could be my school, since it's in Canada...
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