OT: Wiki errors

[rohart]

Maybe its fixerdave's thread on a machining wiki that has prompted me to ask this.

More frequently nowadays I find a wikipedia page that is rubbish. The content is usually reasonable, but maybe the grammar or spelling is lousy, or in the case of my latest find the contents are missing.

I was reading a book set in Wales that referred to some hills called the Golfas. Searching led to a wikipedia page called List of 158 Marilyns in Wales. If I remember those are hills with 150m of prominence. But the page had no list - just links to sections of Wales. I guess the last editor messed up the links and didn't test anything.

Well, my point, or my question, is, I could become an editor and recreate the page myself, or get a message to 'someone who knows'. But how do you contact these editors ? I can find no way to get a line on these folk, and I'm only trying to be helpful.

Am I totally out of order ? Or just blind ?

[Toolguy]

What I'm wondering is - are those hills called Marilyns in remembrance of Marilyn Monroe?

[Mcgyver]

I thought everyone could edit wiki pages, although I they seem to have a secret wiki druid like clan hierarchy behind the scenes that takes the content very seriously (like get a life serious). Ever notice how large corps pages are always perfectly sanitized? they have their people editing wiki pages constantly to spin it properly.

When you load the page, you're on the 'read' tab....look for the edit tab beside it. Then there's

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:FAQ/Editing

[AD5MB]

I corrected an error on Wikipedia once. they mistakenly referred to a military base as a U.S. base. It was actually a Turkish Army base with a major U.S. presence. I would know, I was there.

somebody changed it back.

[old mart]

The name Marilyn is a joke name after miss Munrow's chest and also taking the mickey from the Munrows which are low mountain peaks above a certain height in Scotland. Climbers set out to scale the whole set of Munrows and some joker decided to name lower peaks in other parts of the UK, Marilyns and it caught on. Some more knowledgeable person will no doubt clarify this for me.

[Alan Smith]

Sounds about right Mart, obviously Munrow is the Zummerset spelling of Monroe.

[Paul Alciatore]

I had the same experience. I tried to correct some errors on their pages and someone, perhaps the original author, removed my changes. It appears that some of the authors there are very protective of their efforts and do not take kindly to any changes that you may make. This seems to be a flaw in their "anyone can contribute" policy.

You can see the change record of the page if you go into the edit mode.

I corrected an error on Wikipedia once. they mistakenly referred to a military base as a U.S. base. It was actually a Turkish Army base with a major U.S. presence. I would know, I was there.

somebody changed it back.

[BobinOK]

Same thing happened to me, I added some actual first hand history to a page and it was removed even though it was factual and not controversial or in any way negative. Told me as much as I needed to know about that web site.

[fixerdave]

Edit.

If it gets edited back, so be it.

If, for some reason, you want to get into a bun fight with another author, take it to the talk pages. But really, why? Yes, some people take a ridiculous amount of ownership while "not owning" is really the best way to share. Some people just don't get that... let it go. Don't let it stop you from participating, sharing what you know. I mean, if everyone here just stopped posting because of one bad experience... it would pretty much be crickets.

The best wiki pages are ones with many authors, just like forums are better with more posters. In the world of crowd-sourcing, quantity matters. Begging everyone to play nice is only going to go so far. Sometimes, a thicker skin is the only way to move forward.

David...

[old mart]

Hey, Alan, I was born in Worthing, I only live in Zummerset.

[Machine]

This lady gives an interesting talk about wikipedia and other internet sources of "information."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bYAQ-ZZtEU

[BobinOK]

This lady gives an interesting talk about wikipedia and other internet sources of "information."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bYAQ-ZZtEU

Sharyl Attkisson, she does a show on Sunday AM that I record, one of the few true news reporters left.