Commonwealth Times

The creator of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales talks to the audience about this popular site. [Click to enlarge]

On Sept. 17, James "Jimbo" Wales, founder of the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia, posted this one-sentence article:

"Mzoli's Meats is a butcher shop and restaurant located in Guguletu township near Cape Town, South Africa."

What happened next made the online world stand still. Twenty-two minutes after Wales put up his article, Chad Horohoe, a VCU student who serves as a Wikipedia administrator, took it down.

Wikipedia is not usually associated with gatekeeping. But, in fact, Horohoe is among 1,500 administrators who have the task of reviewing article contributions for factual errors or copyright issues.

His action caused controversy among other Wikipedia administrators - and made headlines in newspapers around the world. Horohoe, who goes by the online handle, "^demon," firmly thinks no one, not even the "almighty" Wales, is exempt from having articles screened and possibly deleted.

"I don't care if it was Jimbo Wales or Johnny Something in North Dakota," Horohoe said. "If the article is not relevant or (it's) pointless, it will get deleted."

Such a bold move elevated Horohoe to celebrity-like status. Within a few days, the Los Angeles Times contacted Horohoe for an article. Then, he went international in the The Telegraph (United Kingdom) and Der Spiegel (Germany). The outspoken Wikipedia community had mixed opinions about Horohoe's move.

"People were either with me in my decision to delete the article, while others felt this was an attempt to publicly humiliate Wales," Horohoe said. "This is completely untrue." Horohoe has been in contact with Wales and said there are "no hard feelings."

The episode revealed a little-known side of Wikipedia. Whenever a new article is posted, an administrator must review it and decide whether it's worthy of inclusion. The administrators also try to make sure the initial articles are accurate.

Horohoe, 19, deals directly with public relations representatives who usually contact him if a particular article has a negative spin on a celebrity or business. Horohoe was unable to disclose what companies he deals with, but he said he has been in touch with movie studios.

"I deal primarily with copyright or false contributions," Horohoe said. "If someone were to write 'Ben Affleck has been married eight times and has 38 children,' I would be in charge of making sure that was deleted."

Wikipedia plays an integral role to businesses and how people view them, said Marcus Messner, an associate professor in the School of Mass Communications. He said Wikipedia's effect on businesses can't be ignored.

"Wikipedia has a huge impact on corporate image," Messner said. "If you were to read an entry about Wal-Mart on Britannica and then on Wikipedia, they would be completely different. Wikipedia has most of the negative information not found on Britannica, such as employee treatment."

With more than 2 million articles in English and millions more in other languages, Wikipedia provides information for free on almost every subject possible. But since anyone can post or edit an article, how reliable is the information?

"You should take everything you read on Wikipedia with a grain of salt," Horohoe said. "Anybody can say anything on there. I would never use it as a primary source."

Messner agrees, but he said Wikipedia still is valuable.

"If I go to a place that I have never been to before, I would go to Wikipedia to get a quick overview," Messner said. "Wikipedia is useful if you want to get a quick overview, not a primary source."

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