Women4Wikipedia

Don’t waste your time,
I’ve tried to contribute to a couple of articles which I have a pretty good knowledge of and cleaned up the page to remove inaccurate information, but I got tired of “discussing” the merits of edits with other contributors whom obviously didn’t know anything about the subject, but loved causing a shitstorm.

I did also notice that the contributors who did seem to have a good knowledge of subjects had a similar problem.

As Dr Karl says, the internet (and wikipedia especially) is as reliable as the rambling drunk down at the pub.

Auntyem said :

I know there’s a website for Canberra women called Her Canberra. It has recently been developed to “provide a virtual community for local women”. Maybe you could contact the creators of this site to gain some local support for your enterprise.

http://www.hercanberra.com.au/

Good luck!

Thanks for this.

gospeedygo said :

I hope you can turn the lightswitch on and off the required amount of times in order the get out the door first.

Again:
OCD
vs
OCPD

Also, congratulations on making jokes at the expense of everyone suffering a mental disorder.
You’re an hero.
PS: Trolling is a art.

Anything that broadens the pool of Wikipedia editors has to be good. A lot of articles on “non-nerdy” subjects are somewhat underdeveloped in comparison to, say, anything about Star Trek. That’s a stereotypical example, of course, but I think the site would benefit greatly from a having wider range of contributors.

gospeedygo said :

I hope you can turn the lightswitch on and off the required amount of times in order the get out the door first.

Ah, because people with OCD do things compulsively. Hilarious and insightful, 10/10.

John Moulis said :

The era of luminaries like Albert Einstein writing articles for Encyclopedia Britannica, and all entries being scrupulously checked for accuracy before going to print has long since gone in the Wikipedia age.

Just because I’m a shitstirrer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Errors_in_the_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica_that_have_been_corrected_in_Wikipedia

How is the gender imbalance a bad thing? And is the gender of the author important when it comes to writing entries in an encyclopaedia?

Good on CollectiveAct for having a go, and for encouraging others who maybe don’t have the confidence to also have ago.

What’s the worst that could happen – a few Canberra women create or edit Wikipedia entries and improve the quality of content on Wikipedia. Is that really such a bad thing?

Maybe the naysayers on this forum should ask themselevs who on earth will be hurt by a group of women getting together to do some writing?

matt31221 said :

gospeedygo said :

Except for the fact [citation needed] that the Wikipedia community is full of manchildren with aspergers and OCD. I suggest you look elsewhere ladies.

Wow, great way to stereotype and put down people with aspergers and OCD. I may have OCD traits and I’d Love to show you what a ‘manchild’ is capable of if I ever find out who you are and meet you in public. F***wit.

Thank you Mr. Keyboard Warrior for your input and vague threats. I hope you can turn the lightswitch on and off the required amount of times in order the get out the door first.

John Moulis said :

I was reading the entry on the Canberra 400 V8 motor race and was staggered at how easy it was to edit the entry.
…
As it turned out, the entry on the Canberra 400 had a mistake saying the Stanhope govt came to office in 2002. I amended it to the correct date, 2001.

And now you’ve discovered the beauty of the system.

gospeedygo said :

Except for the fact [citation needed] that the Wikipedia ommunity is full of manchildren with aspergers and OCD. I suggest you look elsewhere ladies.

You mean OCPD, not OCD.
But lay off the Aspies.

To help your cause, isn’t it more appropriate to start writing/editing articles on Wikipedia rather than wasting time to start this group?

i think you need to get out more… really.

anonymoose said :

Wikipedia is one of the most unreliable sources of information and I don’t think trying to clean it up now will help.

I’ve made false modifications to it for years to test this and less than 10 have ever been noticed. Some of the data I provided in wiki articles has been quoted in other discussions about the topic

wow, you’re an idiot. You have a cry about how wiki isnt reliable, then you vandalise pages to see if someone else will notice it in a wall of text? Why dont we burn down your house to prove that police can’t catch criminals – just to prove a point. is that ok?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia

There you go, have a read (assuming you have the mental capacity to)

gospeedygo said :

Except for the fact [citation needed] that the Wikipedia community is full of manchildren with aspergers and OCD. I suggest you look elsewhere ladies.

Wow, great way to stereotype and put down people with aspergers and OCD. I may have OCD traits and I’d Love to show you what a ‘manchild’ is capable of if I ever find out who you are and meet you in public. F***wit.

anonymoose said :

Wikipedia is one of the most unreliable sources of information and I don’t think trying to clean it up now will help.

I’ve made false modifications to it for years to test this and less than 10 have ever been noticed. Some of the data I provided in wiki articles has been quoted in other discussions about the topic

I’m with Skid, but not as polite. You’re an idiot.

testosterone has been implicated (by simon baron-cohen, among others) in aspergers/autism and there is also a higher incidence of this in geeks (and in silicone valley, where geeks inter-marry, sheesh!), so perhaps there is some prior rationale for the greater masculine incidence in wikipaedia (sorry, i spelt that correctly) editing – nonetheless, good luck in the quest! (being an anonymous on-line experience, though, how will you check gender? [ok, technically ‘sex’, i agree…]

You seriously have nothing better to do than worry about this? I think women should be proud that only 13% contribute..

I know there’s a website for Canberra women called Her Canberra. It has recently been developed to “provide a virtual community for local women”. Maybe you could contact the creators of this site to gain some local support for your enterprise.

http://www.hercanberra.com.au/

Good luck!

I echo the responses of other members in saying that Wikipedia is notoriously unreliable and seems to encourage cybervandalism of its information.

I was reading the entry on the Canberra 400 V8 motor race and was staggered at how easy it was to edit the entry. All you needed to do was click on the word Edit and all the information in that segment was displayed in a Word-style field which you could then edit any way you wanted to. You didn’t even have to sign into Wikipedia, just click Edit and it is open slather. As it turned out, the entry on the Canberra 400 had a mistake saying the Stanhope govt came to office in 2002. I amended it to the correct date, 2001.

As far as the OP’s complaint that only 13% of entries are by women, this should be something to be applauded, not deplored. The fact that women can detect a dodgy site and refuse to contribute to it is something they should be proud of.

The era of luminaries like Albert Einstein writing articles for Encyclopedia Britannica, and all entries being scrupulously checked for accuracy before going to print has long since gone in the Wikipedia age.

anonymoose said :

Wikipedia is one of the most unreliable sources of information and I don’t think trying to clean it up now will help.

I’ve made false modifications to it for years to test this and less than 10 have ever been noticed. Some of the data I provided in wiki articles has been quoted in other discussions about the topic

Perhaps you could help by fixing the damage you’ve done, assuming that’s true? Good grief.

“I wouldn’t buy anything from Woolworths – I’ve been smearing e-coli on the fruit and veg for years, and they’ve hardly ever caught me…”?

anonymoose said :

Wikipedia is one of the most unreliable sources of information and I don’t think trying to clean it up now will help.

I’ve made false modifications to it for years to test this and less than 10 have ever been noticed. Some of the data I provided in wiki articles has been quoted in other discussions about the topic

So, you intentionally introduced false data into a free service, expected the kindness or willingness of a motivated stranger to correct and compensate for your deliberate act of vandalism, and are using the gullibility and trusting nature (ie: critical analysis and authoritative acceptance weaknesses) of yet another third party, namely the users, as an argument against the ENTIRETY of wikipedia.

You don’t blame Johnboy for the quality of the average RiotACT comment, nor use single comments as examples of the entire site’s failings, do you?

(By the way, edit tracking for new content has gotten a -lot- better recently…)

Except for the fact [citation needed] that the Wikipedia community is full of manchildren with aspergers and OCD. I suggest you look elsewhere ladies.

anonymoose said :

Wikipedia is one of the most unreliable sources of information and I don’t think trying to clean it up now will help.

Wikipedia is only a bad source of information when you don’t read it critically and check the sources offered (or not offered, as the case may be).

So basically, you choices for finding information about things on the net are:

– websites written by the people concerned (biased up the wazoo)
– news sites (usually not referenced at all)
– random sites by random nut jobs

Wiki at least usually offers a consensus position of various opinions out there. Of course, dick heads intentionally making it wrong doesn’t help.

I wonder if the 13% contribution by women has something to do with the ratio of men to women amongst bored nerds.

I like the idea of a group of women being empowered and contributing to something but I suggest you chose something more constructive.

Wikipedia is one of the most unreliable sources of information and I don’t think trying to clean it up now will help.

I’ve made false modifications to it for years to test this and less than 10 have ever been noticed. Some of the data I provided in wiki articles has been quoted in other discussions about the topic

While you’re there perhaps a certain website could be added to Canberra’s media section.