Fun with Wikipedia!

I'm no Wikipedia junkie, but I do occasionally get information from there (as well as update the Handbell wikipedia page), and I've noticed that, sadly, I don't view information from Wikipedia as less accurate as from other sources. Of course, I should -- anyone can go there and write that George Bush is actually the love child of Adolph Hitler and Natasha Fatale. (And I just did it again -- I didn't know Natasha's last name, so I just pulled it from Wikipedia without checking it against a source not open to being changed at anyone's whim.) So for a time, I've been wondering how long it would take for a Wikipedia page to correct a fact that is wrong but not obviously so.

So. On Friday, I decided to test Wikipedia out. I picked a page that would be both relatively well-viewed and that I knew a little something about -- the list of "The Office" (US) episodes. In about 20 minutes, I created synopses for four new episodes that -- to brag just a little bit -- I actually though made a nice little story arc:

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Jan. 18, "The Competitor"
After being angered by Andy’s closeness to Michael, Dwight takes a job at a rival paper distributor. Michael tries to keep his tentative hold on his current paramour. And Karen and Roy both find out the real reason Roy’s and Pam’s engagement was canceled.

Feb. 1, "The Test"
After he is caught not knowing the capital of Pennsylvania, Michael creates a "citizenship" test that every employee must pass to keep his or her job — and one person fails. Dwight starts up a company newsletter, and suddenly a competing newsletter (anonymously written) appears. Meanwhile, an “Office”-mate learns that she is unexpectedly pregnant.

Feb. 8, "Singles' Party"
For her first Valentine’s Day in years without a boyfriend, Pam — and the unexpectedly single Oscar — decide to throw a party for all their unattached friends at the office. When all of the other guests find dates, Pam is left alone — until an unexpected guest arrives. Meanwhile, Andy and Dwight form an alliance to try to prank Jim, and after some inappropriate office nudity, Michael forces Meredith to enter his personal alcohol counseling program.

Feb. 15, "The Policy"
After getting fed up with Michael’s advances, Jan institutes a new policy that coworkers at Dunder-Mifflin are not allowed to date. Michael tries to decide whether to keep his job. Angela finds a loophole, but Dwight isn’t sure he wants to go through it. And the camera crew inadvertently finds something very interesting while eating supper in Carbondale.

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The test was a pretty good success for Wikipedia, I think: My fake episodes were taken down less than seven hours after I posted them, which is a couple days sooner than I had expected.

In the meantime, however, apparently my synposes made it around the Internet and back, so to speak. One of the better "Office" websites, OfficeTally.com, posted them as potential spoilers. Television Without Pity, for example -- the most intelligent and thoughtful TV discussion board -- had maybe 150 posts about my episodes, starting here -- some skeptical, others less so. (My favorite comment from TWoP: "If they're made up I kind of wish the maker-upper wrote for the show.") And the kicker: Someone even apparently actually called NBC to find out if this episodes were legitimate or not. (NBC's response: They don't know of episodes with those titles.)

Anyway, it got to be a much bigger deal than I was intending, but maybe that makes sense. After all, if I had seen those episodes on Wikipedia, wouldn't I have automatically assumed that they were true as well? Yeah, probably, in all likelihood. Is this a problem with the Wikipedia model or with, well, all of us gullible people? I don't know.