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Wikipedia locks possible VPs' pages

Tech President's Micah Sifry, who introduced the idea that Wikipedia revisions could help predict Mitt Romney's selection of a running mate, reports that Wikipedia has put a lock on the pages of the leading veep candidates following a segment on the topic by Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert.

The pages of Tim Pawlenty, Rob Portman, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie and (following yesterday's Drudge bump) David Petraeus have been locked after Colbert, citing a Fox News report about the jump in revisions to Sarah Palin's page in 2008, encouraged viewers to "go on Wikipedia, and make as many edits as possible to your favorite VP contender."

(Also on POLITICO: Why Wikipedia isn't the veep oracle)

On Monday, I endorsed Sifry's thesis; on Tuesday, I tried to refute it, arguing that the number of Wikipedia revisions did not account for random edits by individuals who had no bearing on the veep selection. Clearly, I should have also pointed out that the number of citizen editors would increase as Sifry's thesis gained publicity.

But the question now is: Will Wikipedia open the pages in time for the Romney campaign to make edits? While I still think Sifry's thesis is flawed, the campaign will almost certainly try to clean up the Wikipedia page of Romney's VP before the announcement is made. That is, if they can get past the administrators.

UPDATE (2:03 p.m.): According to Wikipedia, some users — known as "autoconfirmed users" — are still allowed to edit the pages in question. Those users must have made at least 10 edits and been active for more than four days.

"Although the precise requirements for autoconfirmed status vary according to circumstances, most English Wiki user accounts that are more than four days old and have made at least 10 edits are considered autoconfirmed," Wikipedia's user access levels page states.

(PHOTOS: 10 running-mate rollouts)

So, if someone associated with the Romney campaign has established an account (presumably anonymous) that is active for the required period of time, they will still be able to edit the pages.

Full details here. I've reached out to Wikimedia for comment and will update here if and when I hear back.