Jimmy Wales wants Wikipedia edit flags

It appears that last week's Inauguration Day uproar over Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd's health has ended Jimmy Wales' patience with not having the Flagged Revisions options switched on at Wikipedia.

During a post-Inaugural luncheon, Senator Kennedy was taken ill and Senator Byrd left the room in obvious distress. Both men subsequently recovered, but for a few minutes, Wikipedia said they had died -- much to the chagrin of Wales, Wikipedia's founder.

Writing last week, "Jimbo" cited the fake Wikipedia-entry reports of the senators' deaths as "nonsense" that could have been "100% prevented by Flagged Revisions." Citing a Wikipedia user vote showing 60% of respondents in favor of a flagged-revisions option, he said, "To the Wikimedia Foundation: per the poll of the English Wikipedia community and upon my personal recommendation, please turn on the flagged revisions feature as approved in the poll."

Not so fast there, Jimbo. Debate is currently flying fast and furious in the ensuing comment thread. "Flagged revisions will suffocate under its own weight," claimed user "DS" (DragonflySixtyseven). Other users criticized the vote Wales cited. Even some participants who agree with Wales' thesis were cranky with his crankiness.

"Ned Scott" was particularly eloquent in his annoyance: "I really like the idea of flagged revisions, and I'm sure that discussion has spread somewhere else. However, I wanted to comment here about Jimbo's original post where he uses the Post's article as an example of something that went wrong: Are you nuts? Jimbo, splash some water in your eyes and read that article again. It took less than five minutes for the vandalism to be removed, and that's damn impressive. Instead of being proud of your users you instead take it as an opportunity to push for flagged revisions. What?"

And some members of the community were annoyed that Wales took his case to the media. "The media cannot distinguish between 'I'm the boss and this proposal shall be implemented' and 'I'll propose this to the community, and they'll decide," said David Monniaux, who was seconded by members of the Communications Committee.

So let it be known from this corner of The Media, at least: Jimmy wants it, but that doesn't mean Jimmy will get it. No course of action has been decided at this time.