9 ms·

If you're knowledgeable about missing topics that's a perfect opportunity to give back to wikipedia and write the article yourself.

CSMastermind 3y ago
I generally agree with you and I will say that my experience contributing to wikipedia has been extremely pleasant. The community does a good job of making newcomers feel welcome even if you make mistakes. With that said I've seen two areas where contributing to wikipedia falls short: The first is things involving what I'd call editorialization (I'm sure there's some wikipedia term for it). Any article that's about an unsettled or somewhat contentious issue seems to give outsized weight to the non-consensus view. Even if 85% of a field thinks that one thing is more likely than the other the wikipedia article will often split its coverage of the views 50/50 and then maybe tack a sentence on at the end saying that the majority of people in the field favor xyz view. Contributing to or changing those pages is often a hassle because you have to argue with people and that's generally not worth your time (unless you're of the minority opinion and you want to give legitimacy to your side - in which case you are motivated to argue). The second are the stub articles. The ones that say "This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it." Often I could help wikipedia by expanding it but it's so much work to write a full encyclopedia entry. Like it might take me 4 hours to summarize what I know, look up references, etc. It's easier to just not do it. Where I find contributing useful is when I'm fixing a small factual error, updating based on a recent discovery, fixing a citation, etc. I'm not sure if they do it but it would be good for Wikipedia to pay someone to go through and fill out the basics of a bunch of pages on a topic so that there's a scaffolding to work with and then the occasional volunteers could come through and add on facts and fix problems.
mcpackieh 3y ago
Often it's a topic I don't yet know much about. I hear about a topic and search for it, and find a disappointing wikipedia stub. I continue my search to find there are numerous books and research papers about the subject. After reading those my intellectual curiosity may be satisfied, but I wouldn't consider myself an expert and I also don't have any inclination to go back and write a proper wikipedia page.

CSMastermind 3y ago

I generally agree with you and I will say that my experience contributing to wikipedia has been extremely pleasant. The community does a good job of making newcomers feel welcome even if you make mistakes. With that said I've seen two areas where contributing to wikipedia falls short: The first is things involving what I'd call editorialization (I'm sure there's some wikipedia term for it). Any article that's about an unsettled or somewhat contentious issue seems to give outsized weight to the non-consensus view. Even if 85% of a field thinks that one thing is more likely than the other the wikipedia article will often split its coverage of the views 50/50 and then maybe tack a sentence on at the end saying that the majority of people in the field favor xyz view. Contributing to or changing those pages is often a hassle because you have to argue with people and that's generally not worth your time (unless you're of the minority opinion and you want to give legitimacy to your side - in which case you are motivated to argue). The second are the stub articles. The ones that say "This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it." Often I could help wikipedia by expanding it but it's so much work to write a full encyclopedia entry. Like it might take me 4 hours to summarize what I know, look up references, etc. It's easier to just not do it. Where I find contributing useful is when I'm fixing a small factual error, updating based on a recent discovery, fixing a citation, etc. I'm not sure if they do it but it would be good for Wikipedia to pay someone to go through and fill out the basics of a bunch of pages on a topic so that there's a scaffolding to work with and then the occasional volunteers could come through and add on facts and fix problems.

mcpackieh 3y ago

Often it's a topic I don't yet know much about. I hear about a topic and search for it, and find a disappointing wikipedia stub. I continue my search to find there are numerous books and research papers about the subject. After reading those my intellectual curiosity may be satisfied, but I wouldn't consider myself an expert and I also don't have any inclination to go back and write a proper wikipedia page.