User:Angelita Cecilia/Report

Wikipedia Reflection Essay

The Internet is a terrific tool, especially for school work; however, can you trust that the information we are finding is accurate? How could the Wikipedia community get hundred of thousands of people to collaborate for free in their free time to write something reliable, neutral balanced, and create rules to make it that way? Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that can be used as a reference for information freely. Wikipedia comes with various conveniences, including being available in multiple languages from many countries worldwide. One of the things that become an attraction is that Wikipedia provides a medium for its users to edit and actively deliver content. Wikipedians allow users to increase their knowledge and other Wikipedia users from around the world, ultimately increasing free knowledge. Volunteers also work with institutions like galleries, libraries, archives, museums, and universities to create free cultural heritage and academic knowledge. And this site offers so much information that it can be accessed easily. No wonder Wikipedia is one of the references for many academics and others in getting the information needed. Although Wikipedia is very popular among students as a search engine journal or article, you must remember that some of the information might be inaccurate or need to be improved. The Wikipedia community needs to know how to use them wisely rather than avoid using them.

Wikipedia allows people to edit any page and improve articles without registering. Wikipedia allows for changes to be made immediately and keeps the current information. According to BBC.com, it is not true that anyone can edit any Wikipedia page, as some of the most viewed entries are locked, which means that there are only a certain high-level Wikipedians who can change them. Wikipedia administrators will lock the edit page if they think the information published is vandalism. Some people do articles or edit in Wikipedia because it is a way to contribute back to the world by sharing their knowledge as they think it is the right thing to do. On the other hand, Wikipedia is also home to many online trolls. Those people enjoy annoying and provoking others and often cause damage and create misleading information to the site. That is the nature of the community-driven operation. Wikipedia did not even make rules volunteers wrote all of the rules govern Wikipedia. Everyone can edit and insert some information or images without limitation. Moreover, some of the information might be derived from not credible sources. There are thousands of pages of regulations and essays, including the rule that they are no rules. One of the rules is not being dishonest. Other than that is avoiding opinion and sticking to the confirmable facts. Therefore, I think it is essential for the Wikipedia community to manage all the editorial content on the site. Admins elected by the community of users on Wikipedia can take stuff down or identify if it violates policies.

When asked about my experiences in using and contributing to the Wikipedia pages, I would say that my Wikipedia experience was beyond my expectations. At first, it was a bit daunting as it looked hard. However, once I drove to the pages, followed all the instructions given in the dashboard, and published my first edited article on the Wikipedia page, I found it fascinating. Moreover, my professor and teacher assistant are both very helpful in helping me evaluate the articles, find the sources, and provide feedback to improve my articles. While doing the assignment, I have gained useful insight into positively contributing to the Wikipedia pages by writing and editing some stubs articles into more scholarly writing. In the first week of the course, I learned all the basic overview of Wikipedia's policies. According to the training, to collaborate effectively in Wikipedia, we must follow all the fundamental principles of Wikipedia. Knowing about those pillars can help the users know how to build a positive contribution to the online community. As we have covered in the class discussion, many of the users violate because of lacking knowledge about certain rules and norms. Those pillars, such as you should not use Wikipedia pages for personal purposes such as advertising or personal website, as Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, are places where you can find a good summary of what's already known about a topic. The article published should have a neutral point of view. All information added to the articles should be based on reliable sources, and you should always include references to any information you cite. Plagiarism and copyright violation are fatal and must be avoided while writing an article. Copying and pasting the content from another source will be considered plagiarism. Therefore, before writing an article, we must find attribute facts to reliable sources and make sure that you write the article in your own words. The fourth pillar is that all editors should respectfully respect and interact with each other. Sometimes some editors might edit or alter your works or contribution as a part of the process. We should avoid the personal attack, and if you disagree, you talk politely to your fellow Wikipedians via the talk page. Lastly, as Wikipedia has no firm rules, it is important to be bold in writing the articles as the public will consume the articles.

Wikipedia is known as one of the most successful online communities; we can find thousand of inquisitive people who want to share their knowledge and talk about what they do when there is new exciting information about a train-related topic essay. The WikiEdu dashboard has also provided steps in compiling research and writing drafts in the sandboxes, adding a citation, and contributing to discussion before moving my work to Wikipedia live. There are numerous other user pages, including help pages and tutorials. The Wikipedia community members can help each other and educate new users to create their own page by following all the norms and commitment of building positive contribution to the community. Posts the link to the talk page of that Wikipedia article together with other users and discusses how to use the information to make the article even better. On the talk page, everyone can contribute their perspective forming a coherent overall picture of the topic. Those major things that make me successful in publishing my edited articles to be consumed to the public.

As a new user, I found that Wikipedia is easy to use. I really recommend this site for individuals who like to share their knowledge. I like this community because the platform has provided many resources and tutorials for the new users to learn before contributing to the community. Based on my opinion, what I found unique from Wikipedia is that Wikipedia can gather so many communities and volunteers to share their information through this platform. Moreover, what makes it different from other platforms is that Wikipedia allows people to edit any page and improve articles without registering, and it is also friendly for newcomers.

References

Wall, B. M. (2015, April 22). Wikipedia editing rules in a nutshell. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32412121