How “revenge edits” and the case of a Wikipedia editor named “Qworty” raise questions about how much we should trust the site:

“In the wee hours of the morning of January 27, 2013, a Wikipedia editor named ‘Qworty’ made a series of 14 separate edits to the Wikipedia page for the late writer Barry Hannah, a well-regarded Southern writer with a taste for the Gothic and absurd.

“Qworty cut paragraphs that included quotes from Hannah’s work. He removed 20 links to interviews, obituaries and reminiscences concerning Hannah. He cut out a list of literary prizes Hannah had won.

“Two edits stand out. Qworty excised the phrase ‘and was regarded as a good mentor’ from a sentence that started: ‘Hannah taught creative writing for 28 years at the University of Mississippi, where he was director of its M.F.A. program …’ And he changed the cause of Hannah’s death from ‘natural causes’ to ‘alcoholism.'”