A graph showing how the word "evolution" evolves in Wikipedia

Wikipedia is famous as an online encyclopedia that anyone can participate in additions and edits, but the opinions of editors do not agree with each other, and it is argued that it frequently rewrites the article and falls into a state called "edit battle" there is.

English version Wikipedia's "Evolution(Evolution) "is that people who support Darwin's theory of evolution and" great intelligence "created lifeIntelligent designAlthough it was often an editorial battle among those who hold a thesis, I checked the number of edits and made a graph, and it was quite interesting to come up with results.

Details are below.
Map: Evolution Evolving | Computers | DISCOVER Magazine


This is a bar graph showing how many people edited the item of the English version of Wikipedia "Evolution". The horizontal axis represents time and the vertical axis represents the number of people. Representing one person per color, the more the number of editors, the more the bar graph will extend downward.

(The numbers in the figure and numbers in the explanation match)

1. December 3, 2001
The first version was written in 526 words by a user named "Dmerrill".CreationismAlthough there are links on conflicting items such as intelligent design, the content of the discussion was not touched.

2. July 13, 2002
Some anonymous users changed that "Some scientists take this as scientific theory and discuss themselves," but within two hours they said, "This is a commonly accepted science It is a theory. "

3. October 1, 2002
"Graft" represented by yellowish green appears in the graph. He edited 79 times over three years and discussed thoroughly with other editors. He is a graduate student majoring in biology at Harvard University and has edited more than 250 items besides this "evolution" item.

4. August 9, 2004
The graph is in some places black, but this is because the whole item was deleted by "vandalism". Items lacking in character and items that do not make sense are also eligible for deletion. In recent years, although it is Wikipedia that has more than 1 million items, more than half of "vandalism" is attracting attention so that it can be corrected within 5 minutes.

5. March 29, 2005
It will be the highest record ever with 5611 words. 888 words were deleted this evening, and the editing battle started from there. The content of the deleted text was deleted by an evolutionist who says it should have a sarcastic, neutral and impartial viewpoint on creationists.

6. September 19, 2005
On September 26, 2005, at the Dover School District in Pennsylvania, USAJudge to ask about whether "It is against the Constitution to teach intelligent design theory at school"Has started. The editorial battle began as the contributor of "Jlefler" written that "many non-clergy and scientists also defend creationism" on the 19th week before that.

It seems that there is a characteristic that when you use emotional words or write things that do not have grounds, it becomes very rough. "Evolution"ReferencesAlthough it exceeds 200 such as books and external sites, it is thought that such sufficient preparations are necessary in order not to cause editing battle.