Comment on A generational gap on Wikipedia - 91% of WP admins started editing before 2010
twistedtxb@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Many people pointed this out in the link but yeah, it’s much harder to make edits / entries in wikipedia nowadays.
The rules are more strict and you have to respect an increasing number of rules, etc.
I remember when Wikipedia started to get some steam, it was basically a text editor with very basic hyperlink-style formatting.
Minor changes / typos are still easy to do, but frankly I wouldn’t know how to start anymore if I wanted to create a new entry.
I’ve tried editing a few articles years ago, only to have everything undone hours later with no explanation why and nothing in the way of constructive criticism for whatever invisible criteria the power users were looking for. I don’t even bother anymore and avoid using the entire site if I can find what I need elsewhere.
Push away eager contributors and you’re stuck with the old guard before you realize it.
That was my experience trying to clean up some obvious typos. I’ve never bothered trying to contribute again.
I fix dead links too. References to news websites are the worst.
What was the edit about? There’s a rule to never revert others with the default summary
Ah this was like 10 years ago when I was in undergrad. Possibly something video game or chemistry related.
Yea, I'm happy to make minor edits and do reverts on vandalism, but starting something? Man, I have no idea what the best practices are.
In general you can just do it. As long as it’s not malicious it’s probably fine.
One of their rules/motos is “be bold”
frankly I wouldn’t know how to start anymore if I wanted to create a new entry
Read about it in advance (from decent sources, as much as possible), find a few similar articles to see how they’re usually formatted, map out how you want your article to look (while generally respecting the format of the other articles), and do it. The formatting is a bit trickier in the raw editor, but I think the visual editor is the default now. They also have help articles of all sorts, and a message board for new users looking for help.
And if you make some technical mistake, some bot or no-lifer who edits 50 articles a day will smooth it all out anyway.
KevonLooney@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I’ve corrected a typo before and had it reversed by a bot. Why the fuck would I help them again?
Aatube@kbin.social 1 year ago
What was the typo correction? Are you sure the article wasn’t e.g. written in British English while you use American English?
KevonLooney@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Yes, I’m sure. I don’t remember because I left and never gave it a second thought.