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Dynamics of Conflicts in Wikipedia

Author

Listed:
  • Taha Yasseri
  • Robert Sumi
  • András Rung
  • András Kornai
  • János Kertész

Abstract

In this work we study the dynamical features of editorial wars in Wikipedia (WP). Based on our previously established algorithm, we build up samples of controversial and peaceful articles and analyze the temporal characteristics of the activity in these samples. On short time scales, we show that there is a clear correspondence between conflict and burstiness of activity patterns, and that memory effects play an important role in controversies. On long time scales, we identify three distinct developmental patterns for the overall behavior of the articles. We are able to distinguish cases eventually leading to consensus from those cases where a compromise is far from achievable. Finally, we analyze discussion networks and conclude that edit wars are mainly fought by few editors only.

Suggested Citation

  • Taha Yasseri & Robert Sumi & András Rung & András Kornai & János Kertész, 2012. "Dynamics of Conflicts in Wikipedia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(6), pages 1-12, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0038869
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0038869
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Timothy Gowers & Michael Nielsen, 2009. "Massively collaborative mathematics," Nature, Nature, vol. 461(7266), pages 879-881, October.
    2. Jim Giles, 2005. "Internet encyclopaedias go head to head," Nature, Nature, vol. 438(7070), pages 900-901, December.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Young-Ho Eom & Pablo Aragón & David Laniado & Andreas Kaltenbrunner & Sebastiano Vigna & Dima L Shepelyansky, 2015. "Interactions of Cultures and Top People of Wikipedia from Ranking of 24 Language Editions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-27, March.
    3. Michael Szell & Stefan Thurner, 2012. "Social Dynamics In A Large-Scale Online Game," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(06), pages 1-18.
    4. Picoli, Sergio & Bombo, Giorgio & Santos, Edenize S.D. & Deprá, Pedro P. & Mendes, Renio S., 2022. "Characterizing postural sway signals by the analysis of zero-crossing patterns," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 596(C).
    5. Hosseiny, Ali & Absalan, Mohammadreza & Sherafati, Mohammad & Gallegati, Mauro, 2019. "Hysteresis of economic networks in an XY model," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 513(C), pages 644-652.
    6. Letchford, Adrian & Preis, Tobias & Moat, Helen Susannah, 2016. "The advantage of simple paper abstracts," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8.
    7. Simon DeDeo, 2016. "Conflict and Computation on Wikipedia: A Finite-State Machine Analysis of Editor Interactions," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-23, July.
    8. Hosseiny, Ali & Gallegati, Mauro, 2017. "Role of intensive and extensive variables in a soup of firms in economy to address long run prices and aggregate data," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 470(C), pages 51-59.
    9. Shimada, Takashi & Ogushi, Fumiko & Török, János & Kertész, János & Kaski, Kimmo, 2023. "A simple model of edit activity in Wikipedia," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 630(C).
    10. Philipp Singer & Emilio Ferrara & Farshad Kooti & Markus Strohmaier & Kristina Lerman, 2016. "Evidence of Online Performance Deterioration in User Sessions on Reddit," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-16, August.
    11. Situngkir, Hokky & Maulana, Ardian, 2013. "Dynamics of the Corruption Eradication in Indonesia," MPRA Paper 49843, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Antonio, Fernando J. & Itami, Andreia S. & Dalmedico, Jônatas F. & Mendes, Renio S., 2022. "On the dynamics of reporting data: A case study of UFO sightings," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 603(C).
    13. Merve Alanyali & Tobias Preis & Helen Susannah Moat, 2016. "Tracking Protests Using Geotagged Flickr Photographs," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-8, March.
    14. Pankaj Dey, 2023. "On the Structure of the Intermittency of Rainfall," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 37(3), pages 1461-1472, February.
    15. Agnieszka Geras & Grzegorz Siudem & Marek Gagolewski, 2022. "Time to vote: Temporal clustering of user activity on Stack Overflow," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 73(12), pages 1681-1691, December.

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