The Chaos Index is The Mather Group’s proprietary metric for measuring turbulence throughout Wikipedia and tracking the community’s current sentiment towards corporate-related pages. The index measures community actions such as editing frequency, content deletion, message board posts, and many other activities that contribute to unstable corporate page environments. Here’s what the data shows for April 2023:
- This month’s Wikipedia Chaos Index is at 66, which is slightly lower than the same time in 2022, which occurred during an-all time high of SPI investigations and AfC draft declines.
- The number of COI (conflict of interest) posts doubled from its previous measurement in March. Though not a trend yet, there was definitely an increase in promotional and/or vandalizing edits to company and individual pages in March.
- After remaining low for six months, pages nominated for deletion increased month-to-month over March, though not to an extreme degree that would be cause for particular concern.
On Wikipedia, there are various mechanisms for a page to be deleted. Some of those are straightforward – formal nominations for deletion, pages being reverted to draft form – but there are other tools experienced editors can employ to quietly delete pages from existence… often without any discussion happening at all!
WP:PROD (or Proposed Deletion) is a tool we’ve seen an uptick in use recently, especially on low quality or low traffic pages, or those barely above the notability threshold. The tag, which will appear at the top of the page when utilized, causes afflicted pages to be automatically deleted after seven days if there is no defense presented. This also means afflicted pages that don’t receive ‘delete’ votes; an absence of conversation will trigger the automatic deletion, which is often by design.
It speaks to the importance of consistent monitoring and defense of a Wikipedia page. Not only to ensure the content is always accurate and as up-to-date as possible, but to defend the page from the many unusual applications of obtuse Wikipedia tools editors use to negatively impact many pages on the platform.
The Mather Group, a Capitol Communicator sponsor, is a boutique digital marketing and online reputation agency that focuses on SEO, Wikipedia and effective marketing for businesses.
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