Oh, Wikipedia. Remember the age-old saying, “too many cooks spoil the broth?” Well, Wikipedia seems to have all but proven that wrong … except in a few, notable, hilarious cases.
For example, did you know there’s been a heated debate over how to pronounce J.K. Rowling‘s last name since 2001 (5,950 edits)? Or that Nikola Tesla is almost impossible to categorize (seems oddly appropriate … 7,449 edits)?
Check out this awesome, awesome — color coded — chart made by David McCandless at Information is Beautiful. You can see what years the wars began, starting with “The Beatles” or “the Beatles” in 2001 (17,608 edits) down to whether Angels & Airwaves is or are a band (8,055 edits). Many of the wars are simply over British vs. English spellings.
The highest number of edits on the chart? “Is Jimmy Wales a founder or a co-founder [of Wikipedia] with Larry Sanger?” (29,041 edits). Embrace your geek curiosity and enjoy: Wikipedia’s Lamest Edit Wars.
Read more Smile File.
Image by David McCandless via Information is Beautiful.