UnNews:Wikipedia launches Medicine Reference Desk, orders bot to delete it

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13 April 2008

As if this image wasn't linked to enough already.

WIKIPEDIA, Everywhere — In response to the overwhelming quantity of medical advice requested at the Science Reference Desk, Wikipedia has launched a new reference desk called the Medicine Desk and will moving all such requests there.

However, per policy, Wikipedia stubbornly refuses to help diagnose people it can't examine or even see. Therefore, the admins ordered a hacker to write a script which would periodically delete the entire contents of the new reference desk and replace it with a legal disclaimer in Latin: Habeas corpus a priori de bonis non administratis lorem ipsum Wikipedium.

According to Jimbo, "This new page will operate similarly to the Sandbox. We let people write whatever they want, and then every few seconds a Very Small Shell Script cleans it out and permanently deletes all of the hard work contributed by good-faith editors. It's just like everything else on Wikipedia: you do a whole bunch of stuff, and then someone more powerful than you reverts it."

The bouncy Wikipedia logo declined to comment.

Sources

• Several Anonymous Vandals, Ltd. "Wikipedia Sics Bot On New Reference Desk" Wikipedia, April 1, ∞