Wikipedia

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Editing Wikipedia

The Art

In ancient times, the Greeks held that society must transform in virtue –Art, Science, Academia, all must emphasize a focus on the virtuous. Art portrayed Heavens and Gods, in their Perfection – never human imperfection. In the author’s opinion, articles must be so constituted that their content has a positive effect of transforming human society. This often means adhering, in substance and form, to what is good, to what is true. Selecting and employing sources, with that

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goal in mind.

Wikipedia is the most widely read resource on the planet – read by all, from the academic to the student; from the journalist to the author. A starting point for many researchers, students, and journalists, its pages always rank among the top hits on Google.

Editing Wikipedia is Simple.

Wikipedia is a publicly editable encyclopedia. Meaning, literally anyone can edit, add, or remove content.

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Source the content you would like to add to what is called in the wiki-world a Reliable Source.

To contribute long-term or significantly on Wikipedia, one must register a user account – a process which takes only a few seconds. Using a nickname is often preferable to airing your personal details online.

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Add in the content in a manner that makes sense in the broader structure of the article.

Of course, boldness is encouraged in the wiki world and if you find the structure itself inadequate, you can boldly set to work to improve it.

The interface is intuitive, and the editing process is intuitive. The community is urged to overlook errors beginners may make. And you can use the help or ask around, when lost.

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If you’ve done a major change, or intent to do a major change, leave a note on the talk of the article, mentioning it to other editors.

Always, and no matter what, discuss calmly.

Never lose composure. The calmer, more focused, more rational, the greater the power of your words. Keep improving your understanding of wiki policies as the ones linked to above, and use them to your favor in discussions. .

Contributing to articles you have an interest in is a joyful experience, and, is, at the same time, having a positive impact on society, making contributions to society at large. With an hour a week, you can significantly contribute to your favorite topic.

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Editing Wikipedia

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The Science Each Wikipedia article has tab as the ones below:

To edit the article, click on the “Edit” tab, to view previous states of the article, click “View History,” to discuss your changes, click “Discussion.”

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Editing Wikipedia

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To figure out how to do something, embolden text, create headings, etc., click edit and scroll to an instance where you can see it done:

In the above example, you can see a word is emboldened by using three apostrophes around it. Links to other articles in Wikipedia itself are in double square-braces [[ ]]. A link to an external site is structured as [http://www.nasa.org NASA Home Page], with one square bracket. A reference is structured as with the <ref></ref> tag. If you specify a name to the reference <ref name= britt>…</ref>, the next time you cite the same reference, you can just write <ref name=britt/>..

The reference tags can be auto-generated by clicking on the “Cite” button above. All fancy stuff, including the reference templates, can be generated by clicking on the appropriate buttons in the editor.

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Editing Wikipedia

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If the rich text editing buttons are not visible: 1. Log-in to your account 2. Click “My preferences” on the top of your browser screen. 3. Click the “Editing” tab there. Make the changes shown. Just explore around the pages of your favorite academic topic and you are ready to go.

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Editing Wikipedia

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The Experience Wikipedia is a society, where editors abide by forms of that society. To be a good contributor there, to have a good impact, one needs to conform to the forms of that society.

A good Wikipedian expresses a â&#x20AC;&#x153;neutralâ&#x20AC;? viewpoint on topics, discusses his changes, has the material he adds well sourced to respectable sources on the topic. He builds a friendly rapport with other editors, is willing to discuss changes, etc.

He always keeps his calm and his composure, through the worst of arguments. Always focuses on content, makes no personal remarks on other editors. All his changes are well sourced, driven by reason, conforming to wiki-rules. The three core policies that govern addition of content to wiki are: 1. Neutral Point of View, 2. Verifiability, 3.No original research.

Usually, a person is allowed to have only a single account on Wikipedia. Administrators can see the IP of the editor, the browser version, etc., which can be used to identify multiple accounts held by the same person. Mis-use of multiple accounts reflect badly on the editor and can lead to blocks.

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Editing Wikipedia

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The Experience If you are really passionate about a topic – you definitely do not want to come across that way on Wikipedia! There exists a policy called: “Conflict of Interest”… defined as: ”…an incompatibility between the aim of Wikipedia, which is to produce a neutral, reliably sourced encyclopedia, and the aims of an individual editor. COI editing involves contributing to Wikipedia in order to promote your own interests or those of other individuals, companies, or groups. ” The fact is almost all editors have their focused interests and that is where they can contribute best. But, one would not express it as such on wiki – unless it is purely academic. One has to work, in conformance to the rules of Wikipedia. If you project yourself as an activist for a cause, or promoting a product, etc. – you are likely to get blocked from editing the topic. A positive contribution to a page on “Google Instant Search” from a Google server will reflect badly on the entire company, no matter how neutral and it could lead to blocks on those IPs.

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Editing Wikipedia

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The Experience If you jump into the pages of your favorite cause, or product, and edit away â&#x20AC;&#x201C; your impact will not be good. You have to start with a broader set of articles, a more academic focus, ideally, art, science, or even your favorite TV show, cars, your favorite subject, a recent topic, do a bit of editing here and there, stumble into the page of your cause and contribute there as well. If you have a cause like that, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mention it on your user-page. A neutral-appearing, objective-minded editor is the editor that is most welcome in wiki society, and has the best impact.

When you add content to any page, it has to be well-sourced and removal of content, you have to justify on talk, or in your edit summary.

Beginners can take mentorship under an admin. Ask around when you need help. It helps to create a rapport with, and gain support of, other editors as well.

If you and your friend are editing from the same computer or IP, it is still likely you may be suspected for multiple accounts held by the same person.

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Editing Wikipedia

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The Experience Another policy is Wikipedia does not encourage accounts that come across as single purpose. But if you are contributing in solid terms, being slightly “single purpose” is not much of an issue. But if you have a single purpose like that, still start with and edit around on other pages as well.

You can report people who do disruptive edits, violating Wikipedia policies to admins. Disruptive editing is referred to as “vandalism”. You need to collect your evidence (from edit history point out which edits were disruptive and why.

Read this page for info on collecting such evidence. ) Editors acting up as one unit, advocating their goal are called a CABAL. And it does not reflect well on them. See: WP:CABAL. If a group of editors form a CABAL, try to win over a reasonable edit by majority vote, etc. – you can raise your concerns with admins. But don’t be shaken, or too hasty to raise allegations – go work on another page, etc.

Don’t keep pushing too much when you lack support, as it can reflect badly on the editor doing that. Evade confrontation; try to seek another way in.

Most importantly, when you are a beginner, it is good to be a beginner. A precocious new editor, experienced in various policies, is always a suspect as someone evading a block, etc.

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Editing Wikipedia

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The Sources Good sources are sources that meet the WP:RS criterion mentioned above. You can use search engines like http://books.google.com/ http://scholar.google.com/ http://news.google.com/ to find your content. Broader searches on google, websites where you are likely to find the content you need, are always helpful as well.

All the skill it takes to contribute to Wikipedia is reasonably good English and an ability to do a few searches, and find the right info.

If you are looking to improve your writing skills, the process of working on the articles would be helpful, and the short book â&#x20AC;&#x153;Elements of Styleâ&#x20AC;? by Strunk, & White, is highly recommended. The latest 4th edition is the best; the one linked is an older edition.