Document Type

Honors Project - Open Access

Abstract

Wikipedia serves as the Internet's most widely viewed reference. In order to ensure its success, editors who create and maintain articles must resolve conflicts over appropriate article content. Previous research has measured Wikipedia conflict at two levels: single articles and categories of pages. I observe conflicts within small groups of articles, identifying their frequency, size, and intensity. Additionally, I identify individual conflicts spanning multiple articles and effects of conflict upon users' editing habits. I analyze cross-article conflict in three stages. First, I cluster a group of 1.4 million Wikipedia articles. Next, I find individual user conflicts within each article cluster using a list of reverts. Finally, I characterize the individual conflicts and analyze population statistics. While most conflicts are low-intensity and take place in a single article, high-intensity conflicts frequently span multiple articles.

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