User:Teratix/Common misconceptions about Wikipedia
Various misconceptions about Wikipedia exist in the general public and the press.
Steven Pruitt
[edit]Steven Pruitt, who goes by Ser Amantio di Nicolao on Wikipedia, has done extraordinary work for the project, making more than 3 million edits and writing more than 30,000 articles as of 2019. There's no need to exaggerate such incredible accomplishments, which is why it's even more of a shame when CBS News misrepresents Pruitt as "behind a third of what's on Wikipedia".[1] The article supports this claim by explaining "one-third of all English language articles on Wikipedia have been edited by Steven" – a severe misunderstanding of the editing process. A substantial portion of Pruitt's edits employ the semi-automated program AutoWikiBrowser, which allows users to make rapid changes to many pages. These edits may be as simple as fixing a typo or changing a category – it's inaccurate to claim Pruitt would now be responsible for the entire article's content.
Administrators
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Finances
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The Wikimedia Foundation is in sound financial condition and in no imminent danger of running out of money to fund Wikipedia's servers, despite the alarming tone of its fundraising advertisements. Several outlets have highlighted this discrepancy.
Notability
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Notability has a special meaning on Wikipedia and is not synonymous with significance, importance, popularity or fame. Topics one might regard as trivial such as toilet paper orientation, exploding whales or a comprehensive list of Pokémon still meet the general notability guideline, as enough independent, reliable sources have written about them in sufficient depth. Conversely, articles one might regard as important will still be deleted if not enough sources can be found – a recent controversial instance was the deletion of an article on Clarice Phelps, a nuclear chemist. This fallacy cropped up frequently in coverage of the Strickland incident, with many outlets claiming a draft on the 2018 Nobel Prize winner was not published because she was not "important" or "famous" enough.[a]
WikiLeaks
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The website WikiLeaks, notorious for publishing leaks and classified media, is not affiliated with Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation, despite the similar name. Jimmy Wales explained to The Independent in 2010 that "the most important message ... is that we have absolutely nothing to do with WikiLeaks".[8] He also highlighted that WikiLeaks is not actually a wiki – users cannot collaboratively edit content. Alas, "wiki" is not a copyrighted term, so there's no way to stop WikiLeaks from keeping its confusing name in future.
Notes
[edit]- ^ The Times,[2] The Guardian,[3], Quartz,[4] The Daily Beast,[5] Business Insider[6] and The Irish Times[7] were just a few outlets exhibiting this misconception.
References
[edit]- ^ "Meet the man behind a third of what's on Wikipedia". CBS News. 26 January 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
- ^ Whipple, Tom (4 October 2018). "Nobel prize winner Donna Strickland wasn't famous enough for Wikipedia". The Times. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
- ^ Cecco, Leyland (4 October 2018). "Female Nobel prize winner deemed not important enough for Wikipedia entry". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
- ^ Purtill, Corinne; Schlanger, Zoe (3 October 2018). "Wikipedia rejected an entry on a Nobel Prize winner because she wasn't famous enough". Quartz. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
- ^ "Nobel Laureate Donna Strickland Judged Not Famous Enough for Wikipedia Page Before Win: Report". The Daily Beast. 2 October 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
- ^ Baker, Sinead (4 October 2018). "Wikipedia rejected an entry on a physics Nobel laureate right up until she won, saying she wasn't famous enough". Business Insider. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
- ^ "The Nobel prize winning scientist who wasn't famous enough for Wikipedia". The Irish Times. 3 October 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
- ^ Burrell, Ian (20 December 2010). "Jimmy Wales: 'It's not about how many pages. It's about how good they are'". The Independent. Retrieved 12 November 2019.