One Clue To Romney's Veep Pick: Whose Wiki Page Is Getting The Most Edits?

[xchrom]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/08/07/158320294/one-clue-to-romneys-veep-pick-whose-wiki-page-is-getting-the-most-edits

Tech President reminds us that one way to possibly figure out who will be a vice presidential pick is to watch the various contenders' Wikipedia pages in the days before such an announcement is likely.

In 2008, as The Washington Post wrote at the time, "just hours before [Sen. John] McCain declared his veep choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, her Wiki page saw a flurry of activity, with editors adding details about her approval rating and husband's employment. ... Palin's entry was updated at least 68 times, with at least an additional 54 changes made to her entry over the preceding five days."

Meanwhile, the Post said, "on Aug. 22, the day before the Obama campaign officially named [then-Sen. Joe] Biden as the veep pick, Biden's Wiki page garnered roughly 40 changes. Over the five days prior, users would make at least 111 other changes to his entry."

The obvious — in hindsight — implications of the Wiki activity: Aides were going into the entries to tune them up and clean out any material that was either embarrassing or erroneous.

[cleduc]

1. Let's start editing Donald Trumps page

like crazy !!!

Donald Trump would get thumped in swing states, polls show
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53838.html#ixzz22t4HPERZ

j/k

[no_hypocrisy]

2. After all, Trump's claiming that the republicans

"really really want me".

[Comrade_McKenzie]

3. A lot of the IP addresses on the edits resolve to Utah and MA companies and ISPs...

Just food for thought.

[aquart]

4. How is Chris Christie's page?

[aquart]

5. Marco Rubio has a LOT of edits today.

Pawlenty a few. Huntsman and Christie none. Jindal had edits August 3 and 4.

Other short list names?

[morningfog]

8. Check Paul Ryan.

[aquart]

9. Yep. A bunch over the past several days.

[nc4bo]

6. Portman's page updated today...

Where do you find out how many edits have occurred?

Very clean, official and professional looking page for someone I've never heard of. Hmmmmmmmmm.

[aquart]

10. Holy shit. That's a LONG list of edits today.

[nc4bo]

13. Found it and yes it certainly is. nt

[Ruby the Liberal]

12. The history tab in the upper right

next to the search box.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rob_Portman&action=history

[nc4bo]

14. Thanks Ruby - found it. nt

[Ruby the Liberal]

17. Almost 100 since Sunday

And that Sunday edit was priceless:

(Removed loaded term "lobbyist" to reflect actual material of linked article.)

[nc4bo]

20. Teehee - I saw that!

The vandalism removal notes are priceless too.

[progressivebydesign]

16. I say it's Portman. He's perfect. He has a LONG history of working for Dictators.

And "team player" is NOT something you'd ever see on Romney's resume. Ever.

[lpbk2713]

7. Does Rubio look like a saint yet?

I'm sure someone is working on it.

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. Sounds like time to screen capture the pages for posterity

and reference.

[progressivebydesign]

15. does the internet way-back machine work for those pages???

I've had succes with those in other instances, capturing the 'before" pages.

[Ruby the Liberal]

18. You can do a compare to older versions

but it it 1:1 as far as I can tell. Very time consuming.

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. dunno..I am not geeky enough....

[Ruby the Liberal]

21. Sure you are!

Go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rob_Portman&action=history

At the top of the page, you will see radio buttons denoting current and previous. (Next to (cur | prev) )

Select one version as 'cur' (left) and one as 'prev' (right) and you can see what the differences are.

Like the edit function here, Wikipedia never wipes out edits.