Places (Namespaces)

Wikipedia has different “namespaces,” seen in the URL.

• “Live”/“Main-space”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog
• Draft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Dog
• Talk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Dog
• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Dogs
• User: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Reagle
  • includes your “home” page
  • where people “Talk” to you as a user
  • where you can create subpages, such as a sandbox or draft
• WikiEdu is a complementary website for student projects.

Talk

History

Diffs

History and diffs

Compare & identify??

Use the interactive history browser of the Dorodango article to find out:

1. Which edit changed a URL to YouTube to a proper citation with title=Mythbusters Polishing a Turd.
2. Who made the edit?
3. What is the edit’s oldid=?

Editing

• Visual Editor
• Source Editor

Neutral point of view

You may be used to persuasive styles of writing. On Wikipedia, you don’t want to persuade. Articles don’t take sides, but describe significant viewpoints published in reliable sources. You want to share facts. Wikipedia lets people interpret those facts for themselves. (WikiEdu 2017)

No original research

Wikipedia isn’t a place to share original ideas or opinions. Instead, you should summarize what others have published in reliable sources about the topic. Skip the thesis statement! Don’t offer your own conclusions, interpretations, or analyses.

Reliable sources

Good sources have a reputation for fact-checking. That means books published by academic presses, peer-reviewed academic journals, and international newspapers.

You should also use sources that represent widely held viewpoints, rather than authors who write to persuade readers to a particular point of view.

(Wikipedia has a page of frequently discussed sources.)

Conflict of interest

If you have a conflict of interest about a particular topic, avoid editing articles about it. Don’t write about your instructors or workplace, for example.

Keep to the facts, and let your writing be clear, formal, and impersonal. You aren’t trying to convince readers to agree with you. You’ll want to make sure they trust the information you’re sharing. (WikiEdu 2017)

Words to avoid

• puffery: legendary, best, greatest, …
• loaded: cult, racists, controversial, myth, …
• unsupported: some say, widely believed, …
• doubt: supposeduly, alleged, …
• editorializing: notably, fortunately, …

Wikipedians are people too

• The vast majority are working to improve Wikipedia. If you are doing the same, you’ll be fine!
• They are real people with different personalities – or sometimes having a good or bad day.
• The best way to disarm a fractious situation is to simply ask for help.

Case: To draft and back again

Case: Renamed

Style guide

• Article titles and section headings are sentence case.
• Terminal punctuation is logical style.

Exercise: Group editing

In 4 groups, fix typos, make links, and add citations. Consult the actual article if you like.