[WikiEN-l] A proposal to de-table Wikipedia infoboxes

[Daniel R. Tobias]

On 3 Mar 2009 at 11:49:01 -0500, Gwern Branwen wrote:

> All of those are pretty interesting things - what side of the road
> tells you both historical information, and also is terribly practical
> if you're there*
> 
> * Although one certainly hopes that anyone driving in a particular
> country will not need Wikipedia to tell them something like this!

I could see the Simpsons cartoon doing something around this...  The 
Simpson family has just landed in a foreign country, and Homer has 
rented a car, a new high-tech model with built in Internet access.  
He suddenly realizes he doesn't know whether to drive on the left or 
the right in that country, and brings up the Wikipedia page to look 
it up.  At that moment, back in Springfield, one of the school 
bullies (isn't one of them named Jimbo?) has just vandalized the 
country's Wikipedia article to change the driving side to the 
opposite of its correct value, and thus Homer starts driving on the 
wrong side, honking and cursing out all the other drivers who he says 
are all doing it wrong.  "Hey, you guys, you're supposed to be 
driving on the left!  Wikipedia says so!"  Then the other drivers, 
prompted by Homer's advice, pull up the Wikipedia page in their own 
Internet-enabled cars, and realize they've been driving wrong all 
their lives, and all switch to the opposite side.


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