When thinking about Wikipedia and how much information it contains, it’s daunting to think about. In school, we were told never to use Wikipedia as a reference or source, as anybody and everybody can edit the information. But there’s actually so much that goes into editing or making a Wikipedia article that it should be considered a good reference for us to use. This week I wound up creating a Wikipedia account and trying my hand at it and this is my experience.
Making an account was actually the easy part! After that is where I struggled a bit. When finding my first article, I chose a subject that I loved, which are books! Sounds easy, right? But you have to find information that’s missing and from an actual credible source, otherwise you’re just spreading misinformation. I started with one of my favorite authors, Grady Hendrix and found one of my favorite books from this year, My Best Friend’s Exorcism. Something that I noticed while on the Wikipedia page was that they were using the first edition book cover. At first I tried finding who the cover artist was. I had seen on some other book Wikipedia’s where the cover artist had been credited and wanted to do the same for this cover.
Alas, no such luck. Then, I found the paperback edition cover and it’s so pretty! I was able to find the artist for that one and it’s a lot more recognizable than the first edition cover. So I headed to the Talk page to try and ask about an edit or addition for the alternate edition. Within a day, someone responded. They were really nice but unfortunately said my edit wouldn’t have been approved since 1) usually the first edition is preferred as it’s the first cover that it’s published with and 2) there might be some copyright issues with changing it and 3) felt that it was an unnecessary change. They linked me to some information when it comes to editing book articles and it was really helpful. I made sure to let them know that I was new to editing so was very thankful for the advice and explanation. But this left me in a bit of a bind. I didn’t know what article to edit….
So I went to another author’s page that I also loved, Sarah Gailey, who wrote science fiction and horror novels. I was able to find some information that was missing, like their date of birth and where they grew up. Before I edited it, it had said they had grown up in the San Francisco Bay area where I had found an interview and feature that said that they were born in Fremont, California and grew up there. So, I again headed to the Talk page to ask to edit the page with the new information.
I waited a few days and didn’t hear anything back so I made the edit myself. I used the template from the old information since coding can be a little complicated and daunting.
The overall experience was a little nerve-wracking. I sometimes have a hard time talking with strangers online as 90% of the time, strangers aren’t the friendliest. I also didn’t want to mess up someone’s work or page and then get in trouble. It did give me a new perspective and appreciation for Wikipedia editors as it is almost like a full time job.