Wikipedia Trivia

0:03 Calirogus Shark Media. I'm Mark Allison, and welcome to an encyclopedic edition of five daily trivia questions on Wikipedia's birthday. Let's explore some fascinating facts about this global knowledge platform. Question one, which famous novelist anonymously edited his own Wikipedia page for five years, accidentally revealing himself when he made what specific edit? Question two? What unusual challenge led Wikipedia to create a special editing team just for handling articles about living people? Question three? Which article has been edited the most time since Wikipedia's launch and why do they now require special permission to change it? Question four? What unexpected source helped solve Wikipedia's earliest vandalism problem leading to a still used security feature? Question five? Which Wikipedia article holds the record for longest time between edits and what finally prompted someone to update it. We'll be right back with these informative answers after this break. Welcome back, trivia fans.

1:29 Let's reveal today's answers. Question one asked which famous novelist anonymously edited his own Wikipedia page for five years, accidentally revealing himself when he made what specific edit? Answer? Philip Roth edited his entry until he corrected the inspiration for the human stain, revealing his identity when he quoted from personal letters. Wikipedia then required him to provide secondary sources for his own life story. Question two asked what on you usual challenge led Wikipedia to create a special editing team just for handling articles about living people. Answer the death hoax epidemic of two thousand and seven, when pranksters declared hundreds of celebrities dead, leading to the creation of the Biography Protection Squad. They now require three independent sources to confirm a celebrity death. Question three asked which article has been edited the most times since Wikipedia's launch and why do they now require special permission to change it?

2:31 Answer George W. Bush's article has over forty five thousand edits, requiring special permission after editors caught in an endless war over his middle initial The discussion page is longer than the actual article. Question four asked what unexpected source helped solve Wikipedia's earliest vandalism problem, leading to a still used security feature. Answer librarians noticed vandalism patterns match study hall times, leading to the creation of school IP address monitoring. They still block most edits during typical homework hours. Question five asked which Wikipedia article holds the record for longest time between edits and what finally prompted someone to update it. Answer.

3:17 The article on ancient Roman sandals went untouched for eight years until archaeologists found a new style in Pompeii. The original author attended the dig that led to the update that concludes today's five Daily Trivia questions. I'm Mark Allison, and today's questions were crafted with the help of AI technology. If you'd like to enjoy five Daily trivia questions without ads, check the link in our show notes. See you tomorrow.