User:Dawitet

. Write the copy. After all those other steps, you are finally ready to get down to the writing and posting of your Wikipedia content. I wrote my client’s page in Word first, cut and pasted it into the Wikipedia interface and then formatted it from there. You can add your page to the Sandbox, where you can format it or you can add it to your My Talk page (part of your user account), which is what I did. I chose the My Talk page as content is regularly cleared out of the Sandbox; keeping it in My Talk ensured it wouldn’t be deleted.

Formatting the page using “Wiki code” took a little while. It’s a tedious process even if you’re HTML savvy, which I am, so be sure to allow time for this or hire someone to do it for you. You can learn more about Wiki Code by reading Wikipedia’s Help Pages.

6. Submit the page for review. Once your page is complete and error-free, you will need to submit it to Wikipedia for review. This process can take as little as a few days or as long as a few weeks or more to get a response.

After waiting about 12 days for a response, I saw that other pages that had been submitted around the same time as mine had gotten their approvals, or challenges, or had been deleted. Eventually, I assumed mine was fine and went ahead and moved it to the public space.

However, shortly after it went live, I noticed that an editor had changed the title of the page and made other edits (but, thankfully, nothing substantial was changed). I now monitor the page and update it as needed (for example, my client recently introduced a new technology-advancing product, which warranted a Wiki page update).

Having gone through this process, I’m now a confirmed Wikipedia admirer, which before this experience I was not. True, I wanted to tear my hair out at times, but it was well worth the effort.

What has your experience been with Wikipedia? Have you created pages or articles? Have you run afoul of Wiki editors? Have you had problems correcting erroneous information posted by others? Post your comments below.