What I wanted to do was add a blurb from San Diego Real Estate Hunter to the Wikipedia page for my neighborhood Banker’s Hill. I thought it would be alright if I could add something that could make the place seem like a great neighborhood to live since I have lived here for a number of years now. So I created my Wikipedia account and left a message in the talk section. I thought it was going to take a couple days to get a response, so I left it at that and went about my business. Two days later, I remembered I had forgotton to check my emails for any replies about the Wiki request. Sure enough, there was one from the same day I had sent the talk message.
When I saw the reply, I thought, “Wow. What a dick.” And then I thought about why I was denied. I was asking to add a blurb to a page that was as neutral as neutral could get. There is just the bare bones description of the neighborhood’s location and brief history. At the time, I figured what harm could it do to add something positive to the page. Now I realize that I was wrong about what I wanted to do. What belongs on the page are facts that shows no bias. I was attempting to insert personal bias into a page where none existed. I should have tried to find something more about the neighborhood’s history and pitched that to the talk section.
My takeaway from the experience is Wikipedia is an overwhelming online community. At first I used Wikipedia as a quick resource if I was stuck on trying to remember something. But after reading about how Wikipedia has evolved and perservered over time, I realize the people who edit on Wikipedia on a regular basis are like gatekeepers to the tech generation’s encyclopedia. My respect for the people who safeguard what goes on the site has grown exponentially. It is definitely not a part-time hobby. It is intensive time consuming work to stay on top of pages and make sure everything is on the up-and-up. I could not have imagined how vast and intricate and nuanced the site actually is. It is like a priceless work of art in a sense. It has curated to have certain standards and criteria. When Wikipedia first came out, I had these preconceived notions about other users being able to alter and edit information at will. Now I know it is a lot more complicated than that. There are checks and balances and certain guardrails in place to make sure it does not turn into another information cesspool like in other corners of the internet. In a way, I feel that Wikipedia is a pillar of the internet that should be considered sacred due to its potential to be the best contribution to online information out there. Hopefully it will never succumb to the pressures of toxic online behavior and continue to be something that can be everlasting.
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