Discussion Of Wikipedia Postings
From WRIT-2510 Spring 2007 Wiki
[edit] Eric Wyler's Post
I made a post on the article found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soy about the controversy over soy and the brain (more specifically, whether or not eating soy-based foods increases the rate of brain aging). I kind of have that warm and fuzzy feeling right now, like I've made some wonderful contribution for the greater good of humanity. I know it isn't that at all, but I feel that way. The hardest part of writing the entry was finding all of my references, and also verifying that they were valid. Writing from a neutral point of view wasn't very difficult, I just had to steer away from my own tendency to emphasize the negatives of soy, since that is my personal opinion. That's about all I have to say...if for some reason people at Wikipedia don't like my post and delete it, the link to the history copy right after I added my part is http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Soybean&oldid=111244986.
[edit] Cory Anderson's Wiki reflection
I edited a wiki post about the skateboarding trick called a kick-flip. Basically the post that was on the wiki was very brief. The part I edited most was the instructions on performing a kick-flip. For someone to learn a kick-flip off of those instructions would be quite difficult. I made them a little more specific and clear. The reason I feel qualified to make these changes is because I have been skateboarding for about 9 years now, and I have taught skate camps for kids for about 4 years. I have seen the difficulties the people have with this trick more then anyone could imagine. Here is the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickflip.
[edit] Andrew La Padula's Wiki reflection
I edited a section of the New York Yankees Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Yankees). This is the third time I have edited this page. The first time I re-wrote a couple of paragraphs which were obviously written by biased Yankee fans. The next time was to remove some vandalism. This time I edited the 2006-2007 offseason information listed under the 21st Century. Many new developments have occurred since the last time this part was edited and there were hardly any references. I added the most important and pertinent information and also went back through MLB.com to get specific article references. I have enjoyed editing the page because I keep up with Major League Baseball activity on a daily basis and feel I report information in an unbiased manner and add as many references as possible. Therefore, people who may read this article feel they are viewing up-to-date information that is accurate.
[edit] Brian McEvoy's Wiki reflection
I decided to edit the history portion of the Wiki article on Mesa Boogie amplifiers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesa/Boogie. This part of the article is pretty substantial in size but lacks encyclopedic tone or even good grammar. It amazes me how there's an embedded spell checker and yet the authors failed to use it. I set out to revise the entire history portion but the poor grammar and some incorrect information impeded my progress. I found myself having to recheck every fact I came across. I choose this article because it was sloppy; though, I didn't realize that it needs a complete overhaul. I think this article is a pretty good example of the shortcomings of the Wiki without degenerating into vulgarity and vandalism. All in all, this is a work in progress and there's still substantial work to be done before the Mesa Boogie page can even be considered a good article.
[edit] Kenny Johnson's Wiki reflection
I edited the page for a Half-Life 2 mod that I helped develop, called Plan of Attack. The original article was written not by any of the game's developers, but by a devoted fan - and the language he used was slightly biased in favor of the game as a result. Instead of focusing on factual, encyclopedic information for example, the writer used opinion phrases like "the much anticipated" Beta 4 release. I'm glad he liked the game, but I thought it would help the article to strive for accuracy, and focus on objective facts and dates. I edited the brief summary on the top of the page, noting that the game is no longer in development and that the Source Code has been released to the public. I also listed the game's maps (levels) in a new heading near the bottom of the page, noting which Beta releases these coincided with. My experience editing Wikipedia for the first time was, for me, kind of stressful! This article is meaningful to me, and I want it to be presented well. Also, I had considered writing more facts, like the release dates of Beta 2 and 3, the names of the weapons, objective points, and character classes in the game, but I was afraid to write these things down first, without opening up the game to verify, and second without really making a "plan of attack" for how the ideal article should be structured!
[edit] Robert Augelli's Wiki reflection
I chose to edit information about rehabilitation of ACL Surgery at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anterior_cruciate_ligament_injury#ACL_surgery. I checked many references, specifically WebMD, as well as drew on personal experience as factual background for my information. In general, the page itself is factually sound for the most part, I decided to add some extra information about length of time for rehabilitation as it was one of the most important things I considered before receiving the surgery myself. I felt that other people interested in ACL reconstruction and surgery should know first hand what they are getting themselves into before embarking on the process. Hopefully my post will be able to inform someone who may lack some information before having the surgery. Likewise, I also added a piece about preventive braces since the original poster seemed to portray the idea that every surgeon will require this post operation. This is not true so I reflected this by clarifying that this option is given by a "surgeon by surgeon" basis.
[edit] Daniel Jones' Wiki reflection
I decided to add information on the wiki entry of Lloyd Banks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Banks#The_Game I am a big fan of his so I have followed his rapping career from his underground stints to now. I added information on his controversy with another rapper The Game. I brought to light how the disagreement started and a few songs that are in the fued timeline. I thought to add this information just in case anyone wanted to know some history of the fued and what was part of the fued.
[edit] Kevin Kelly's Wiki reflection
I had a difficult picking something that I was able to edit. I normally feel that all of the posts I read at wikipedia.org are very well developed and in no need of edits. I tried to shuffle through all of my interests throughout wikipedia to see if I would be able to add some little tid-bit of information to the article. It was difficult for me, because i feel that the people who actually created the articles on my interest have more knowledge in that area then I do. So what I finally decided on was the wikipedia posting on poker at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poker . There is a major section about the history of poker. In the fourth paragraph in this section they discuss about game and jargon of poker. I felt that since I have been enveloped in the jargon/phrases/and cliches of poker I would be able to make my contribution. So I added a few phrases/jargon at the end of the paragraph. As of this post, the edits that I made 24 hours ago have not been reverted, so maybe I actually made a solid contribution to the wikipedia world. In a quick summation, I generally found all of the information to be sound, so the only logical thing to do was to provide additional information, rather than totally change the previous posts.
[edit] Terry Isabella's Post
I made a revision to a Wikipedia article about the band Metallica. In the article, the writer quotes Metallica’s drummer Lars Ulrich. The quote was a comment made by the drummer while accepting their Grammy three years after losing their 1989 nomination to Jethro Tull. Following the quote, the writer begins a new paragraph by stating, “It was at this time…” which was confusing because the last sentence (which contained the quote) of the preceding paragraph was referring to three years into the future. I hope that this is somewhat clear. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallica)
[edit] Daniel Wong's Post
I made a revision to the Wikipedia entry concern the popular computer game "Diablo". It is a game that I had played in junior high school and was a very popular game at the time. I corrected some minor details of the gameplay as well as some simple grammatical errors that I found awkward. Other than those few minor details, the Wikipedia entries like the many other entries were well researched and were very accurate. It was hard to find something to correct or edit because the entry had overgone so many edits and revisions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_%28computer_game%29
[edit] Matthew Fyffe's Post
I've edited a lot of Wikipedia articles over the past few months and so, for this assignment, decided to try and correct the layout and grammar of one such article. The article I chose was about the music group Atlantic Starr, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Starr. In my first editing of the article, I added a great deal of information about the group, detailing the change in lead singers over the course of their career. I also added information about the group's albums and their success on the charts. I obtained my information through research on other web sites and my own knowledge of the group. I then decided to update grammar and change some sentences that were poorly written. I thought this would be an interesting task as more often than not, people just make minor fixes instead of doing massive layout changes. Even still, these corrections were difficult to make due to the task involved.
[edit] E. Filipov's Post
My first post was about Godech which is my mother’s home town in Bulgaria. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godech) I have lived there over many occasions and feel qualified enough to expand the Wikipedia in this subject. Initially the page contained only the population and the geographical coordinates of the place. I decided to write only what I was certain was correct and also adapted some information from an online source that talked in more detail about the history. I felt great posting about such a new topic however I would really like to improve on this information. I currently have insufficient recourses and skills to create a good website; however I feel that in the future I will be able to improve a lot of such sites.
[edit] Chris Jaeger's Editting of Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moirae is the article which I selected to edit. Originally, I had looked at a certain video game article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactics_Ogre:_The_Knight_of_Lodis, to edit, as it was a game I had played and the article was brief. Or possibly creating an article for the broken link. Lacking the actual game on me as I left it at home, I thought about other options. Many game articles usually have a 'trivia' section which details references in the game from other sources. So I checked one such reference from the game, and looked at its equivalent trivia section and placed my edit there, the bottommost factoid. I also corrected a typo while I was there. I enjoyed the act, for the most part. It felt kinda nice, because in honesty I use Wikipedia a lot, when I've gone through a video series or after a game's completion, just to see all the quirky things. Or, if I want to look up something I didn't understand in a show, it helps, or if I was curious about the background information. Usually this editting and additions are done before me, so it's really a novel feeling I had in contributing. Because certainly I have a huge knowledge base... but how much of it wasn't already there?
[edit] Chris Dromms' Editting of Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locations_in_the_Warcraft_Universe#Dustwallow_Marsh is the link I updated. Really I had a hard time finding a link I wanted to or could update. I'm not really even a person to even look at wikipedia in the first place, so trying to find something to edit wasn't very easy. Most stuff that interests me really already has been covered. Basically I chose to add a little 5 word blurb adding some slight detail to one topic.
[edit] David Crolius's Editting of Wiki
The article I updated was an article regarding my hometown, Boonville, NY. I added information about a tornado that ripped through the area in 1983 and about the relocation of a major employer in the town. The link to the page is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boonville_%28village%29%2C_New_York#History I found the experience kind of thrilling, since my edit can be read by any of the numerous users of Wikipedia.
[edit] Jeff Connolly's Wiki reflection
The article that I chose to update was one about Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame_Fighting_Irish. As some of my classmates mentioned it was a little difficult for me to find something to post on because of my lack of experience using wikipedia I believe. I did find a spot to post and it felt pretty cool to be able to go in and add something to further agree with what someone has already mentioned. It will be interesting to see if that post stays up there for long or if someone will go in and change it. The thing I like most about wikipedia from this experience is that you can get your view point and facts across to people looking into the same subject but might interpret them differently.
[edit] Dylan Noblesmith's Wikipedia reflection
I added information to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rensselaer_Polytechnic_Institute RPI] article regarding campus buildings. It was one of the aspects of this school I knew I was familiar enough with, and the only section where I noticed a deficiency in the article. I added Barton Hall as a more recently constructed dorm -- the RPI source page used for all the other information only came up to 1995, and Barton was made in 2000. I also made a less than verifiable statement about the library's architecture -- the article already told me it was a modern brutalist style, which I didn't know before, but I added 'weasel words' saying that it could be compared to a parking garage, matching an observation I've made and heard before from others but that very likely has never been published anywhere reputable. If the article ever becomes someone's project, that statement will probably be pruned. --DylanN
[edit] Marissa Hecker's Wiki Reflection
I decided to make a revision to the Rancho Cucamonga High School wiki page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_Cucamonga_High_School. This is the high school I attended and I take great pride with anything affiliated with it. I felt as if the wiki page about my high school was weak and it only included general facts that someone could have formulated from the top of their head. I added the school's mission and vision to the page and elaborated on some of the sub headings in the post. The page also lacked activities that I was involved in. Therefore, I had to add to athletics and activities with track and field where I had established my athletic career. I doubt any changes will be made to my revisions to the page. I didn't vandalize the page but instead made it better.
[edit] Ryan Bobrowski's Wiki Reflection
I edited the wiki page for the movie 'Taxi Driver', located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_Driver. I actually did not edit any existing information on the page, I simply added a quote from the movie in the Quotations section (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_Driver#Quotations). The quote I added is at the bottom of the list. I remembered the line from the movie, but to ensure I had it completely correct I referenced http://imdb.com. I chose a movie because I am a movie fan and I am also very familiar with this particular one.
[edit] Keve Zoltani's Wiki Reflection
I decided to edit the wiki page about Phil Hellmuth, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Hellmuth. Since I have a passion for poker and enjoy watching this player, I found it appropriate. The page was well written and documented, but some of the wording made it a difficult read, so I made some changes to make it an easier read. Also, one of the quotes was not exactly correct so I changed it. This is a good place to start with wiki edits.
[edit] Malcolm Rose's Wiki Reflection
I edited the wiki page on the old school DJ KOOL Herc aka Clive Campbell. The page is located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kool_DJ_Herc. I first heard about DJ Kool Herc when I listen to Who Killed it? by Nas aka [Nasir Jones[1]]. Clive Campbell created the first DJ scratches with breaks for dance parts or for rapping, which means that he created hip-hop. I was amazed to find that he was a Jamaican since I listen to reggae a lot.
