Encyclopedia Dramatica...When "Learning" goes too far

Don't go on this wiki. Don't do it, don't go on it, and if you did I am so sorry you did.

Encyclopedia Dramatica started in 2004 and is a parody of Wikipedia and other encylopedia sites.... It is user ran and maintained, and is ran by your fellow buddies on that side of the internet, you know..the "fun" side, the side that you don't want to be associated with.

There is an Irony in this

With user created instructional learning, comes user created UNinstructional learning, and in this case passing "harmless"(They aren't) jokes or memes around until people think they are actually real. So much so, that this wiki has been taken seriously in lawsuits, such as recently last year in England where the charge of  £10,000 due to posting accusations of paedophilla and "photos of proof" to a formal public administrator. The anonymous user who posted those acusations "has not been found" (Corfield, 2016).  These rises of "Encyclopedias or Altopedias" actually can be thanked to Wikipedia which released the source code to make these types of websites (Brodeur, 2017). As Wikipedia is a "user backed process" we all know in at least our classes not to use it as a source.. As this is ran not by facts, rather individuals, and biases (political, cultural, etc.) can affect the writings on the article. Fortunately studies have shown, the more a crowd "Works" on an article, the less this bias comes to show, though Wikipedia still has more bias than its "Britannica counterpart" (Frick, 2014). Britannica and Wikipedia are big names, compared to the more satirical or even "Alt-Fact" wikis...And some people might go to those to find the "Truth". With less people are those in a "Groupthink", there will surely be major disparities in factual evidence and high biases no matter what side of the aisle one leans or believes.

Sites like the satirical (Dramatica) or politically charged (Conservapedia or Rationalwiki) are problems, though fortunately the populations using them are not harmful...yet.

Disclaimer: I for one like looking at Dramatica time to time if the subject is actually funny. Sometimes some of the topics are funny, most of the time disgusting, and a good amount of the time pretty bad or hurtful, don't go on that site.

Works Cited:

Brodeur, M. A. (2017, June 23). The Rise of the Online Altcyclopedia. Retrieved from Boston Globe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2017/06/22/the-rise-online-altcyclopedia/iXQtJ6JuFE7wxzf98be13N/story.html

Corfield, G. (2016, July 29). Encyclopedia Dramatica User Hit With 10k damages after calling ex-councillor a "Paedo". Retrieved from The Register: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/29/encyclopedia_dramatica_dynastia_likeicare_samuel_smith_10k_libel_case/

Frick, W. (2014, December 3). Wikipedia is More Biased Than Britannica, but Don't Blame the Crowd. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2014/12/wikipedia-is-more-biased-than-britannica-but-dont-blame-the-crowd