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March 25, 2012

Quickie Wiki

The other day I was listening to an online radio sports talk show and they announced "This just in! Marion Barber retiring!"

Being a fan of the Cowboys and always enjoying watching Barber run the ball (his nickname was "Barbarian") when he played for Dallas, I did a quick search to see how well he had done after he had left the Cowboys. Quite a few results came up, most from football websites like NFL.com, ESPN, various fan sites and the official Cowboys site.

I also noticed news articles on Barber's announcement and most had "fifteen minutes ago" as the time the article was posted, which was about the same amount of time since I had heard the news on the online show. Also in the results was Barber's Wikipedia entry. I clicked on it and saw that it had already been updated with his retirement.

That wasn't surprising, though. It's been something I've been doing after hearing news of note - checking Wiki to see how fast it's updated. I've noticed that with other news stories, one recent one being the death of Whitney Houston. The Wiki entry for the last Super Bowl was changed to reflect the final score within moments of the game being over.

Now, you might think it's pretty sad or a sign of having too much time on my hands for me to check Wiki for updates when breaking news is announced. You would be correct, but what does it say about those who rush to the site to update the entry before anyone else?

Update to add: Another example would be that of the NBC show Celebrity Apprentice. It's just now ending as I type this, but the results/who won the challenge/who was fired has already been posted. I realize there are different satellite feeds, one earlier on the east coast, so that accounts for the quick update, but it would be a spoiler for anyone who read the Wiki entry before the show airs in their time zone.

A disclaimer: I've never watched Celebrity Apprentice much before this season and I haven't seen all the shows this year.  I watched a few of the shows last year because Meat Loaf and Gary Busey were contestants and they had a huge fight during one competition.  (either one could be/should be the poster child for "Just Say No")  I don't care much for Donald Trump and, for the most part, don't care much about celebrities. The thing I like the most about the show is watching the celebrities stab each other in the back in order to be kept on the show for the next week.

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