[Air-l] vandalism

[Barry Wellman]

Is there any scholarship on why people vandalize Wikipedia and other
public sites?

I've been doing Wikip. entries and edits for about 6 months, and I
amazed/dismayed at what I see.

Really childish stuff about actress B having big breasts (less respectable
word being used) and Actress S being "pie-faced". Plus a lot of people
writing F--k on entries at random sites.
(No, I am not being squeamish, but I thought that you or your filter might
be.)

Why this, especially when the Wiki police are so efficient on taking it
down. But what social or psychological gratification does it serve?

Naively, Barry Wellman
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  Barry Wellman   S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology   NetLab Director
  Centre for Urban & Community Studies          University of Toronto
  455 Spadina Avenue    Toronto Canada M5S 2G8    fax:+1-416-978-7162
  wellman at chass.utoronto.ca  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
        for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
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