A bold experiment by the Los Angeles Times to give its readers the chance to review and rewrite its online editorials has been called off after just two days because users flooded the site with foul language and pornographic photos.
The newspaper launched its ‘wikitorial’ last Friday, with an editorial calling on the Bush Administration to have a clear exit strategy from Iraq. Wikis, based on the Hawaiian word ‘wiki wiki’ for ‘quick’, are online communities that allow their users to collectively write and edit articles, the most famous being Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.
In the end, the newspaper had to pull the page in double-quick time. Although its readers contributed thoughtfully to the debate to start with, and website staff were able to filter