When you enter the word «Wikipedia» in Google, one of the most recurrent searches is: «Wikipedia is reliable», which means that many people wonder about the reliability of the platform as well as the veracity of their data. There have been events to measure and compare wiki results with those of prestigious publications such as the Encyclopedia Britannica. For example: If we search for «Robin», the fictional character on the wiki Spanish, we find that his father is Batman. If we look for him in the Britannica, it gives us the story in which Bruce Wane witnessed the death of Robin’s parents and then welcomed him as his fighting partner.
This is an example of how some wiki data can be unreliable. Now, moving on to the theme of the Month of Asia, which is celebrated internationally in November. It is a contest promoted by various Eastern countries, to motivate wiki editors to create new entries concerning the culture of their continent. The contest is divided by languages, in such a way that there is a section for those who edit in German, another in English, Spanish, and so on. The requirement is to create new articles of at least 300 words, and of course, that these comply with the Wikipedia conditions, such as being on a relevant subject, having references, etc. «The carrot», sorry, the prizes for the editatón participants are: a) Those who create at least four new articles will be sent a postcard specially designed for the occasion. b) Those who create the most articles on each Wikipedia will be honored as Asian Wikipedia Ambassadors.
In this case, I had an account that I opened on the wiki in June 2020, and which I had not yet used. So on November 25, I entered the competition. There is less than a week to go, but I still decide to participate. I join the Spanish section. The organizers are Millars, from Castellón and Rodelar, a Leonese, both from Spain. In the list of participants, we find 44. «Although, as concerning the date I write this article, six of those accounts no longer exist.» Everyone must create articles and add them to Fountain, which is a page where we can see the active participants and the number of contributions of each one. When I enter the system to create my first entries, the leading one is DarthVader2, a Colombian designer, movie fan, who won the honorary position of «Asian Wikipedia Ambassador in 2018», and with more than 40 articles, he is ahead of the majority who has between 1 and 20 entries.
I decide to work on the theme of contemporary artists in Asia. However, my first post is concerning Master Choa Kok Sui, Pranic Healing teacher, because I am grateful for what I have learned from him. Almost immediately I receive a «Notification of quick deletion: A4: Page without encyclopedic interest. Remember that Wikipedia is not a collection of information without criteria», made by Techso01, who in June 2020 was asked/warned: «Do not edit arbitrarily As you did in «Belarus», other editors lose valuable time by reversing your actions, and you tarnish the image of an occasional visitor to Wikipedia. Also, arbitrary edits can be considered an act of vandalism (which would force us to block you ).» Later, on September 6, 2020, he managed to be a verifier, but on the 15th of the same month, that charge was removed for alleged plagiarism, although he tried to reach an agreement. Then, in November, because he was involved in the deletion of entries and edition wars, he was notified: «Hello Techso01. By now you should know that even if it is about reverting editions considered vandalism, it is best to report the user in VEC or the corresponding TAB, adding diffs and the specific reasons why the edits are incorrect, and have a librarian handle it; do not enter into a reversion war. Best regards.»
I write another entry, this time it is about a visual artist: Udomsak Krisanamis. Almost immediately I receive a «Notification of quick deletion: A4: Page without encyclopedic interest. Remember that Wikipedia is not a collection of information without criteria», made by Ontzak, a Basque fan of Athletic Club and the Basque Nationalist Party. Looks that I quickly have run into wiki-hooligans. Fortunately, your deletion complaints have to be executed by a librarian, who are people with more authority and we expect judgment. I wait for the intervention and decision of the librarian. However, before the arrival of such a librarian, Ontzak lashes out and requests that my user page be deleted. Due to this harassment, I post a note about it on my discussion page:
I HOPE WIKIPEDIA IS MORE OF COLLABORATION AND LESS OF CONSTANT BULLYING: Not long ago, I saw an interview with one of the founders of Wikipedia, and he was talking about how unfortunately the platform was being «taken over» by some people who had less interest in the collaboration toward promoting knowledge for all, and more in imposing their very particular ways of seeing the world. I hope I’m wrong, and that this is just a passing bad experience and we do get more help and less censorship. On the page about how to edit a User Page, we find: «The content is your sole responsibility and may be used at your discretion, but it must respect the general rules of the site, being the main guide that should deal with your participation in Wikipedia. This is not a personal website. «Well, this is what we are trying to do: Explain that we have a cultural information archive and we want to collaborate with Wikimedia on these documents, particularly in the context of GLAM. I would appreciate help and guidance in this regard.
AtmaUnum
At this moment, Lmalena, Argentina, partner of Wikimedia Argentina, the Argentine chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, instead of completely deleting my articles, transfers them to a «workshop», where I can continue working on them until they are improved for publication. Also, Ezarate, from Argentina, affirms that my user page does not have to be deleted: «she is introducing herself, it does not say anything out of place.» I wonder if: Those who denounce and ask to erase what we novices do, are «gatekeepers» in some way to discourage the contestants of Wiki Asian Month and work to favor a friend? Or do they just annoy us because it makes them happy to disturb those who have less experience?
On November 27th, the self-verified user Lordzrawn performs a «Quick Delete Notification on» Imelda Cajipe-Endaya «, another of my articles. Nevertheless, I decide to continue with the publications. Until the 29th I publish 44 articles, I am in third place, DarthVader2 and MaríaSacristán have first and second place respectively. The last day is still missing, and I am not more than a dozen articles behind, which would not take me more than 3 or 4 hours to complete (I have previous notes on the subject, which facilitates my work because I have taken e taught courses concerning the art of Asia). So I enter the wiki editor on November 30, but it is no longer possible to access Fountain. I wonder if my IP has been blocked, but I can’t access it from a Public Internet business either. The display shows HTTP 500. Error processing request. I write to Rodelar, one of the organizers, who replies: «Thanks for the warning. I don’t know what could have happened with the tool; I just wrote to its developer, to find out what happened and if he has a prompt solution. Greetings. » In short, nothing happens, the system is still blocked: on the last day was impossible for me to add more content for my participation in the Asian Month event on Wikipedia, WAM.
After the end of the contest, another of the participants -with 6 published articles-, Madamebiblio, – (who has been asked many times to change her username since it leads to confusion since she is not a wiki librarian, but she has denied) – suggests that I should clean up the writing of my articles. Maybe I should also go and check out her articles when I have time to see how her writing style and grammar are. In summary, Wikipedia may not be very reliable, and among the factors that cause it, in addition to being a free editing space in which anyone can participate, the truth is that it is relatively «taken» by some interests that are involved in «edition wars» to try to establish their particular sense of humor and way of seeing the world.
If you want to know what I have published, this is the list of my articles (in Spanish). Xu Bing, Wu Shan Zhuan, Chalermchai Kositpipat, Vasan Sitthiket, Jirapat Tatsanasomboon, Agus Kamal, Gu Wenda, Kori Enokura, Tōshi Yoshida, Susumu Koshimizu, Noubo Sekine, Tomio Miki, Jiro Takamatsu, Shozo Shimamoto, Yun Duknam, Alvin Reamillo, Ravinder G. Reddy, Nindityo Adipurnomo, Montien Boonma, Kim Hosuk, Kamol Phaosavasi, Jakapan Vilasineekul, I Wayan Bendi, F. X. Harsono, Dadang Christanto, Cho Duck Hyun, Chatchai Puipia, Arpita Singh, Arahmaiani, Agnes Arellano, Bhupen Khakhar, Choi Jeong Hwa, Heri Dono, Imelda Cajipe-Endaya, N. N. Rimzon, Nalini Malani, Sheela Gowda, Fiona Tan, Yutaka Sone, Navin Rawanchaikul, Jonathan Meese, Won Ju Lim.
For now, my mission is accomplished, between November 25 and 29 I made 44 articles in relation to Asia for Wikipedia in Spanish, and I share my experience as a witness/participant in one of the competitions/editathons in the Wikimedia Foundation. I hope this story can be useful to you in one way or another, they say that knowledge should always be shared, in fact, that is one of the reasons why it is said that Wikimedia exists, to make knowledge a public and accessible good.
Note on January 2021: If you would like to know more about this story, please read Surviving Wikipedia Grinchs. Thank you. See you soon.
Thank you. Love, grace and transcendence blessings
I hope you liked this reading, I appreciate a like, comment, or sharing. I also remind you that you can buy my books on Amazon Kindle.
Atma Unum 