User:Ckelln/sandbox

Wikipedia: “Free Solo Climbing” Evaluation

Wikipedia promotes the principles of neutrality and accuracy for its articles. The article “Free solo climbing” on Wikipedia unreliably adheres to neutrality, yet has exhibited progress in achieving accuracy.

Neutrality in the article is inconsistent. Some portions are purely facts, while others include analysis, which is not welcome in an encyclopedia. Under the header “Notable Accidents” a bullet point reads, “Jimmy Jewell fell to his death (October 31, 1987) from Poor Man's Peuterey (Severe) at Tremadog, North Wales. Ironically he was using the route as a shortcut from a local pub to his climbing club hut; the route was well below his usual grade and capability.” The Wikipedian principle of neutrality is upheld in the first sentence above since it contains just the particulars of Jimmy Jewell’s demise such as date and location, sans commentary. The article breaks from impartiality in the next sentence since it comments on the irony of the facts of Jewell’s final climb, rather than just present the situation of Jewell’s purpose of the climb and the fact that the route was within his usual capabilities. Facts in Wikipedia are not to be analytically linked, but presented plainly.

The article is currently in line with Wikipedia’s pillar of accuracy. An older version of the article referenced Alex Honnold’s non-free-solo climb of the Nose of El Capitan as an example of free soloing being more expeditious. This is not a relevant example. However, the article now includes an updated, logical example of a speedy free solo climb, ever since a Wikipedian pointed out the need for revisal in the talk page. The facts are checkable with reputable sources such as the New York Times, exemplifying the article’s pursuit of accuracy.

There are other notable aspects of this article aside from Wikipedia’s explicit principles of neutrality and accuracy. For one thing, people searching an encyclopedia for a topic are most likely not knowledgeable in that subject; therefore the prime article would be written to a general audience. “Free solo climbing” fails to do this. Under the header “Difficult free solo ascents” the article reads, “There are few climbers who have free solo climbed in the 5.14 range.” There is no explanation of the range scale nor a link directing readers to an explanation page. Also, the article uses the categorial word “severe” to describe a climb, again with no elucidation of the significance of the qualification. For another thing, There are multiple portions of the article that are just litanies of names of climbers. Under the section “Practitioners” there is a chunk of text of 39 names. Even if every one of the names were pertinent, this is not the ideal way to display information of this sort, as it is hard to follow.

This article exhibits much room for improvement. Thanks to Wikipedia’s format that promotes collaborative betterment efforts, “Free solo climbing” may continue to approach Wikipedia’s ideal article that exemplifies neutrality and accuracy.

1. I acknowledge my “Games” class for incentivising this exploration of Wikipedia. Thank you.

2. Free solo climbing

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Free_solo_climbing&oldid=450838526

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Free_solo_climbing

5. http://search.proquest.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/docview/1712313220?pq-origsite=summon&accountid=14667

6. The Article