Can you get in trouble for messing with Wikipedia?

It is not a criminal act to vandalise Wikipedia. However, it is against the site's terms of use to vandalise or otherwise cause disruption. Vandals are blocked from editing, and may also be further banned according to the terms of use.

Is it illegal to mess with Wikipedia?

It is not a criminal act to vandalise Wikipedia. This is because the Wikimedia Foundation has based itself in America, and therefore the website is subject to American law.

What happens if you edit Wikipedia incorrectly?

Wikipedia has page histories. So every time you make a change to an article (or most other pages), the old version is still there too, and is almost as easily accessible to a reader or to another editor as the current version of the page. And so if you do something silly, someone else can easily undo it.

Can I get banned from Wikipedia?

However, administrators can block a user at any time if they are abusing Wikipedia on purpose or going against other policies. All administrators who block users must have an email address in their settings so they can be contacted or talked to by a blocked user if needed.

What is an example of vandalism on Wikipedia?

Vandalism is any addition, removal, or change of content made in a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of Wikipedia. Vandalism cannot and will not be tolerated. Common types of vandalism are the addition of obscenities or crude humor, page blanking, and the insertion of nonsense into articles.

The MOST Vandalized Page on Wikipedia

Can you get in trouble for vandalizing Wikipedia?

It is not a criminal act to vandalise Wikipedia. However, it is against the site's terms of use to vandalise or otherwise cause disruption. Vandals are blocked from editing, and may also be further banned according to the terms of use.

Is it legal to edit Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is a wiki, meaning anyone can edit nearly any page and improve articles immediately. You do not need to register to do this, and anyone who has edited is known as a Wikipedian or editor. Small edits add up, and every editor can be proud to have made Wikipedia better for all.

Is it illegal to delete Wikipedia pages?

As a technical action, deletion can only be done by a subset of editors assigned particular specialized privileges by the community, called administrators. An omission that has been carried out can be contested by appeal to the deleting administrator or on another discussion board called Deletion review (DRV).

Can you legally use images from Wikipedia?

Public domain images are not copyrighted, and copyright law does not restrict their use in any way.

Can Wikipedia ban you from editing?

If an editor has proven to be repeatedly disruptive in one or more areas of Wikipedia, the community may impose a time-limited or indefinite topic ban, interaction ban, site ban, or other editing restriction(s) via a consensus of editors who are not involved in the underlying dispute.

Can Wikipedia track your IP address?

If you are not logged into Wikipedia, your IP address is publicly recorded with every edit that you make. If you are logged in, your IP address is hidden from all but a very small number of trusted administrators.

What happens if you delete a whole Wikipedia page?

It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting. Deletion of a Wikipedia page removes the complete page (and all previous versions) from public view.

How do I remove false information from Wikipedia?

If you find some incorrect information, there are a few things you can do. First, you can fix it yourself! Anyone can edit Wikipedia. Just hit the "edit" button on the top right of the page, make the correction, and hit "Publish changes".

Has anyone ever sued Wikipedia?

In 2007, three French nationals sued the Wikimedia Foundation when an article on Wikipedia described them as gay activists. A French court dismissed the defamation and privacy case, ruling that the Foundation was not legally responsible for information in Wikipedia articles.

Is it legal to copy and paste from Wikipedia?

Wikipedia uses grants free access to our text in the same sense as free software is licensed freely. This principle is known as copyleft. Wikipedia content can be copied, modified, and redistributed so long as the new version grants the same freedoms to others and acknowledges the authors of the Wikipedia article used.

Are you allowed to copy and paste from Wikipedia?

Wikipedia authorizes people to use their content, as all of their text-based content is permissible to copy/paste under the Creative Commons license .

Are you allowed to make a Wikipedia page about yourself?

Writing an autobiography on Wikipedia is an example of conflict-of-interest editing and is strongly discouraged. Editing a biography about yourself is acceptable only if you are removing unambiguous vandalism or clear-cut and serious violations of our biography of living persons policy.

Are you allowed to use a Wikipedia article in your paper?

If you want to use Wikipedia's text materials in your own books/articles/web sites or other publications, you can generally do so, but you must comply with one of the licenses that Wikipedia's text is licensed under. Many of the media files on Wikipedia are also reusable.

Can anyone put stuff on Wikipedia?

Yes, anyone can be bold and edit an existing article or create a new one, and volunteers do not need to have any formal training.

Can a celebrity delete their Wikipedia page?

Celebrities can request removal of their Wikipedia page, but paradoxically it involves arguing that they are “relatively unknown”.

Why did I get banned from Wikipedia?

The reason for your block may be found in your block log. Problem with your editing or Wikipedia behavior (under any account or IP address) - your account or a connected IP has been used in a problematic way or there is a concern about your editing.

What are the rules for editing Wikipedia?

Adding information to Wikipedia

As a rule, the more accepted knowledge it contains, the better. Please be bold and add content summarizing accepted knowledge, but be particularly cautious about removing sourced content. Information in Wikipedia must be verifiable and cannot be original research.

How trustworthy is Wikipedia?

Because Wikipedia cannot be considered a reliable source, the use of Wikipedia is not accepted in many schools and universities in writing a formal paper, and some educational institutions have banned it as a primary source while others have limited its use to only a pointer to external sources.

How much do Wikipedia editors get paid?

How much do wikipedia editor jobs pay per year? $50,000 is the 25th percentile. Salaries below this are outliers. $72,500 is the 75th percentile.

How does Wikipedia avoid trolls?

Once vandals and trolls are accurately identified, current practice involves reverting, blocking, and ignoring in order to deny recognition to the perpetrators.