Has Anyone Here Written or Edited a Wikipedia Article?

[NJCher]

I'm writing an aticle on a friend who made an original contribution in his field (mathematics, statistics). It seems pretty easy for someone like me (taught academic writing at the college level), but I'm curious if anyone here has ever written such an article and what the experience was.

[Doc Sportello]

1. Yes

I did about a decade ago and it was for an academic research center. I just looked at the page and it has been updated so much that I didn't recognize any of my writing. About all I can remember is that it was very constrained from my perspective, but that was because I had someone above me and others contributing ideas. At the time I and others didn't take Wikipedia that seriously, so I just said ok, whatever. It sounds like your experience will be more cordial and Wiki is considered a valuable resource these days. Unlike some of my other work, this one did not last in digital or printed form, so I probably didn't put my best effort into it. Sounds like you will. That may not help, but that was what I experienced.

[NJCher]

3. revisions to Wiki articles

Hi, Doc, thanks for the input. In a way I am unsurprised that the article you wrote has undergone many revisions, since it was for an academic research center. That's what we do--revise!

Your experience might be quite applicable to mine, or at least your comments have me prepared for others to come in and revise. The person I am writing about comes from a family of academicians, so it is quite likely one of them may decide to add or change my article, based on when they see it.

I'm surprised that none of them have written the article, but the siblings were not particularly close, so maybe that's why. My motive for writing the article is that the achievement is noteworthy, but in reading around the web on the topic, there are numerous complaints and comments about the lack of an article. Somebody should do it, so I will be the one.

[Frasier Balzov]

2. Is his work referenced in materials published by anyone else?

If so, use all those external citations you possibly can.

Otherwise, you may run up against the rule against original research Wikipedia imposes.

They feel that allowing articles based on original research leads to self-aggrandizing crackpottery attempting to legitimize fringe theories.