Barcamp Bangalore 7 Live Session – Understanding Wiki Pages
Srikeit explains how to edit Wikipedia.. He is an administrator at Wikipedia. “Srikeit Tadepalli can be contacted at srikeit@gmail.com”
Said a few good points, and final touch up speaks that you get noticed.. you get famous if you have a good position in Wikipedia, but being frank.. I have never seen his name and never heard about this guy although he is an administrator at Wikipedia and am a regular Wiki user.
Says there are many rules that you would have to follow while editing a wiki page, but you can ignore every rule and be bold and free when editing an article or a page in Wikipedia.
I would say – I was a user earlier and i edited an article with some information which was real and had nothing related to spamming as i had not included any links in it. But still i was banned with a big user note and a warning.
His advice – Be cool and good and helpful to Wikipedia. The administrators are there to help you out with your mistakes.
But do they realize that not all the administrators are same in there? There might be some admins like those editors of DMoz who would try to run the site just for their personal benefit.
Srikeit, you might be a good contributor and administrator, but not everyone might be like you.. and that’s why Wiki readers who want to edit pages in Wikipedia would think thousand times before wasting their time. Isn’t it?
Dear Chetan,
Firstly, let me thank you for attending my session despite your unpleasant experience with Wikipedia and your kind words about me being a ‘good contributor and administrator’.
Let me first clarify what I meant by saying that ‘one can get famous by contributing to Wikipedia’. I didn’t mean famous like a celebrity or even well known. What I meant that your work will be seen and referenced by millions of people around the world. Also I do not claim to be an authority on Wikipedia and the reason you haven’t ever heard of me before the barcamp is because I have been inactive on Wikipedia for the last year and a half. Anyway even active and prolific Wikipedia administrators aren’t at all famous. In fact only very few people probably know the name of Wikipedia’s founder, Jimbo Wales.
I still maintain what I said about being bold while editing because that is necessary for building Wikipedia. I am sorry that you had a bad experience while editing Wikipedia; you might have meant well but Wikipedia is managed by volunteers who sometimes err and can come across as uncivil. If you engage in a calm discussion with anyone on Wikipedia or follow the channels of dispute resolution that are given, I assure you that you will be fairly treated.
Admistrators are just regular users with a few extra tools to help Wikipedia. I understand that this does not always happen and sometimes administrators overstep their authority and impose their decision over non-admin users. Dispute resolution mechanisms in Wikipedia and civil discussions can always defuse the problem and lead to amicable solutions. All discussions in Wikipedia are open for anyone to see and comment so you can rest assured that you will not be subject to biased or unfair treatment if you engage the administrator in discussion.
Whether or not anyone wishes to contribute to Wikipedia is a matter of personal choice. I cannot force anyone to do this. Feel free to use this resource for reference without feeling compelled to input anythig. However, I can say that Wikipedia would not have become the world’s largest encyclopedia if people like you and me did not contribute to it. If you feel that you have anything to give to this enormous resource (and believe me, every single one does have something to give), just click ‘edit’ and contribute. If not anything else, it will definitely not be a waste of time.
Thanks
Srikeit
Srikeit,
Thanks for your comments. I have never been against you or Wikipedia, but as you too indirectly said that there are some administrators that come uncivil, this is the same case like the corrupt DMoz editors. Isn’t it?
Anyways am always happy to contribute to Wiki and am already editing things which are deserved to be edited and added more information.
Good to see you commenting here.
I do understand that the joy of people reading what you have written or edited can be something that can give you a reason to be proud of. But I dont think that there are enough people who care about that pride.
In the end the corrections you make or the things that you add are things that are already there somewhere else…. There is no space for creativity here or neither is there any scope of challenge per say.
Why not start blog in the mean time and contribute stuff that comes out from within and not somewhere from the net.
well said aroah, i also think that editing and posting on wikipedia is just helping out someone and writing for him free of cost, i also prefer using a blog as a platform to show our creativity.