Post by George on Mar 19, 2009 15:35:36 GMT 10
If there's one complaint I've heard from micronationalists more frequently than any other in recent years, it's "some evil ignorant bastard admin deleted the beautiful article I wrote about my micronation in Wikipedia! oh woe is me! why do they hate me so?".
Wikipedia need not be the cause of so much angst so long as people take the time to understand a few simple things about it before jumping in at the deep end.
Below is a modified series of comments I published on another forum several months ago seeking to explain things a little more clearly.
Wikipedia has fairly strict inclusion and general content guidelines which, by definition, automatically exclude most micronation content.
Unless an article subject is verifiable in multiple non-trivial third party sources, and unless those sources are cited in the article, it is very likely to end up being deleted.
Even if it complies with the above it may still need to survive an AFD or "article for deletion" nomination. As an indication of what you're up against, some micronation articles have been nominated for deletion 6 or more times.
Several years ago there was a clique of powerful editors at WP who opposed - often to the point of raving insanity - the inclusion of any micronation content at all in the encyclopedia. These people were known for trying almost anything in order to "make it go away", including intimidating, threatening and blocking the accounts of those who attempted to challenge them.
They were able to do this because WP is not a democracy - which is a very important point to bear in mind if anyone is thinking of contributing to the project.
As a WP contributor for over 5 years (my nick is Gene Poole) I had to fight some major battles with them at various times just to prevent articles on even major micronations such as Hutt River Province being summarily deleted.
Fortunately things are improving, and there is now a group of editors working to jointly improve and expand WP's micronation content. Details of that project can be found here:
WikiProject Micronations
Anyone interested in joining the WP micronations project is encouraged to do so.
The complete list of WP micronation articles can be found here:
Category:Micronations
I would strongly urge anyone contemplating contributing to WP to familiarise themselves with the following policies, as they jointly constitute the standards by which your contributions will be judged. Failure to comply with these policies will guarantee that your contributions will be deleted:
1. Verifiability
2. Citing sources
3. Neutral Point of View (NPOV)
4. No original research
Wikipedia need not be the cause of so much angst so long as people take the time to understand a few simple things about it before jumping in at the deep end.
Below is a modified series of comments I published on another forum several months ago seeking to explain things a little more clearly.
Wikipedia has fairly strict inclusion and general content guidelines which, by definition, automatically exclude most micronation content.
Unless an article subject is verifiable in multiple non-trivial third party sources, and unless those sources are cited in the article, it is very likely to end up being deleted.
Even if it complies with the above it may still need to survive an AFD or "article for deletion" nomination. As an indication of what you're up against, some micronation articles have been nominated for deletion 6 or more times.
Several years ago there was a clique of powerful editors at WP who opposed - often to the point of raving insanity - the inclusion of any micronation content at all in the encyclopedia. These people were known for trying almost anything in order to "make it go away", including intimidating, threatening and blocking the accounts of those who attempted to challenge them.
They were able to do this because WP is not a democracy - which is a very important point to bear in mind if anyone is thinking of contributing to the project.
As a WP contributor for over 5 years (my nick is Gene Poole) I had to fight some major battles with them at various times just to prevent articles on even major micronations such as Hutt River Province being summarily deleted.
Fortunately things are improving, and there is now a group of editors working to jointly improve and expand WP's micronation content. Details of that project can be found here:
WikiProject Micronations
Anyone interested in joining the WP micronations project is encouraged to do so.
The complete list of WP micronation articles can be found here:
Category:Micronations
I would strongly urge anyone contemplating contributing to WP to familiarise themselves with the following policies, as they jointly constitute the standards by which your contributions will be judged. Failure to comply with these policies will guarantee that your contributions will be deleted:
1. Verifiability
2. Citing sources
3. Neutral Point of View (NPOV)
4. No original research