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That post didn't look particularly noteworthy to me, but I remember creating a similar page regarding a casual wear company (called "Lost..." if I recall) that
by aaronchall 10y ago
That post didn't look particularly noteworthy to me, but I remember creating a similar page regarding a casual wear company (called "Lost..." if I recall) that I got distracted with one time. I saw their logos in my local mall in every department store. I spent a lot of time researching and writing up an article on the company. Then it got deleted. Probably not particularly noteworthy either, even if at one time it was a national brand.
I also wrote up a thorough discussion of various kinds of permanent life insurance contracts (I was a financial advisor at the time, and I had spent a lot of time studying them, and wanted others to have that information). I think the bulk of my contribution managed to get redacted at some point, but it lives on in the version control, forever.
There's a lot of stakeholders to Wikipedia: the subjects of articles and their followers, hawkish community members who try to control new and changed content, and consultants who charge money to change the framing of subjects on the site.
As a result, pages tend to be flattering of their subjects, unless the subjects don't have a lot of followers who speak the language that the page is written in. And new pages are likely to be deleted unless you have the cooperation of community members who will advocate for it when you start focusing on something else.
Now I mostly write up Python on Stack Overflow, where I get credit for my answers in terms of valuable internet points, which reflects my reputation in the community.
Perhaps Wikipedia could learn something from Stack Overflow. But unfortunately, it looks like they have incentivized deleting content and creating value for subjects over creating value for readers.