Wikipedia "Vandalism" Entry Vandalized

The Wikipedia page on "vandalism" was vandalized Saturday, prompting the online encyclopedia to lock down the entry.

"On or around 19:25, 19 August 2006 (UTC), the article page associated with this talk page was linked from Fark, a high-traffic Internet site," the Wikipedia entry read Monday. Another box near the top of the entry stated "Because of vandalism, editing of this project page by anonymous or newly registered users is disabled."

Wikipedia has been forced to change some of its open-door, anyone-can-edit policies in the past because of misuse. Late last year, for example, the e-encyclopedia changed the rules for submitting articles after a posting incorrectly linked the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy to a former administrative assistant.

The practice of vandalizing, or defacing, Web sites, is widespread, and has included events as widespread as a month-long defacement dustup in 2001 between Chinese and American hackers, and as targeted as one in June when someone vandalized the Microsoft France Web site.

The entry for vandalism on Wikipedia can be found here.