User:AlisonLiang00/Report

Wikipedia Reflection Essay
The Wikipedia assignment was a really fun and challenging experience for me. I felt a sense of accomplishment after I finished the article.

To be honest, there are some things that I think Wikipedia should change. First, it’s the copyright problems. I created a new article about my favorite celebrity Guo Qilin for my Wikipedia assignment. As one of his fans with the most followers on Weibo, I posted hundreds of photos that I took for him. When I finished uploading the photo, it showed that “this file is a copyright violation”. I was a little bit confused because I remembered in the WikiEd training, it clearly stated that the creator of the image can share his/her own work and release the copyright to Wikipedia. I reported this problem to Kaylea and we found out that the worker thought I copied this photo on someone else’s Weibo page and he could not make sure that it was me. After several conversations about this problem, he removed his objection. Even though it was fast, I still didn’t like the way that they handle this kind of problem on Wikipedia. As a photographer and a blogger, I am very clear about the copyright of photos. If I agree to upload the photos into Wikipedia, I know they are not mine anymore. It was a huge step for me because I have never wiped my watermark off when I posted photos of Guo Qilin on social platforms. I hope the workers of Wikipedia can be trusted to newcomers sometimes. Otherwise, it would cause a big misunderstanding, and my article could be deleted as soon as I make it live. During the case studies we had in class, we learned that sharing and communicating are very significant traits on any social platform and website. I think if another problem like this happens in the future, well-experienced Wikipedians can at least ask about the situation on the newcomer’s talk page. Defining one as “violating copyright” easily is not friendly at all.

Another reason that I chose to create an article about Guo Qilin is that I want the overseas fans to have a better understanding of him since Wikipedia might be the only way for them to look him up. The Chinese entertainment industry is developing fast all over the world, and Guo Qilin is going to collaborate with Jackie Chan in the movie Ride On releasing on December 31st, 2022. It is a milestone in his career, and I am so proud of him. This movie might be released in North America and Europe as well since it’s a Jackie Chan movie. I assume a lot of people would look him up after they watch this movie. By creating a Wikipedia article about Guo Qilin, western audiences can see his efforts and achievements in his career. If I have the chance to edit this page continuously in the future, I will add more sections.

To be honest, this assignment was more like an activity that I must do in order to let more people get to know him. I would say that there were two commitments. One is identity-based commitment, and the other one is normative commitment. As a fan of Guo Qilin, I felt connected to the mission of creating a new page for him. And as one of his most influential fans, I needed to do something good and right for him. My enthusiasm made this experience very enjoyable. It was the intrinsic motivation that came from the inside of me. Also, I am a Weibo blogger with more than 20 thousand followers and there are over 1 million people that go over my Weibo page every day. The social recognition in the Weibo community made my motivation stronger. I believed that I could create a perfect article for Guo Qilin and I did not feel tired during the whole process at all.

I hope that his Wikipedia page can be a platform for his overseas fans to share their opinions, ideas, and questions. We even can have a Q&A section on the talk page. One thing that I learned in class was that group work is of great importance to creating good content online. Even though there were things I didn’t like about Wikipedia, I still think that all of his fans can contribute some things on his page without any doubts, judgments, or punishments. The one thing that I like about Wikipedia is its notability and authority. It is the uniqueness of Wikipedia. They need to make sure that everything that the readers see is worth searching for. It is something that other websites fail to accomplish. I don’t know much about western search engines, but there are a lot of errors and unofficial descriptions on some of the Chinese search engines because the editors cited them from blogs and gossip websites. These contents will really mislead readers and make a bad impression on the subjects. On Wikipedia, these kinds of problems can never happen. Everything is clear and official. It is bad that we cannot access Wikipedia in mainland China unless we use VPN, otherwise I would give up using Baidu to search for things.

Overall, I am really thankful for having the chance to choose the topic that I like. Also, I am thankful for creating, editing, and publishing the article on Wikipedia. It is an experience that I will cherish forever. Maybe I will make more contributions to Wikipedia in the future, and I won’t be considered as a newcomer eventually.