What can we learn from visualizing the nature and shape of collective decisions about the inclusion of a topic in Wikipedia? Like a garden, an online encyclopedia needs constant weeding. Unlike a garden, an online encyclopedia has thousands of potential gardeners. Over years Wikipedia has developed guidelines and policies to help editors collectively decide whether topics are suitable for inclusion or not. We analyzed and visualized such Article for Deletion (AfD) discussions. …Delete decisions tend to be fairly unanimous. In contrast, we found many Keep decisions resulting from a discussion that leaned towards deletion.
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Weeding Out on Wikipedia
What can we learn from visualizing the nature and shape of collective decisions about the inclusion of a topic in Wikipedia?
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April 2026
In this monthly issue, we examine how our understanding of energy — and how we source and use it — is evolving.
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