Wikipedia:Who writes Wikipedia?: Difference between revisions
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<tr><td bgcolor=cyan><center>Sponsored by the Wikimedia Foundation</td></tr> |
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<td bgcolor=white><center><font size="+2" color=black>Who writes Wikipedia?</font> |
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{{Infopage|WP:WWW|WP:WRITES|WP:WRITERS}} |
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{{nutshell|Everyone – including you – can make improvements to [[Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]].}} |
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<tr><td bgcolor=cyan><center>ANYONE CAN! |
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[[File:Edit Button.ogv|thumb|thumbtime=0:42|upright|A short video about that "Edit" button and what it can do when '''you are bold!''' <small>(1:06 min)</small>]] |
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'''You do.''' Yes, anyone can '''[[WP:BOLD|be bold]]''' and edit an existing article or create a new one, and volunteers do not need to have any formal training. The [[:Category:Wikipedians by ethnicity and nationality|people who create and edit articles on Wikipedia]] come from many countries, with individuals who all bring something different with them, but most importantly a willingness to help. Any contributor to this encyclopedia, [[Wikipedia:IPs are human too|unregistered]] and [[Special:CreateAccount|registered]] alike, is called a "[[Wikipedia:Wikipedians|Wikipedian]]", or, more formally, an "editor" of the [[encyclopedia]]. Almost all Wikipedians are [[virtual volunteering|volunteers]]. Other categories of Wikipedians have emerged as well. |
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==Who contributes to Wikipedia?== |
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{{Infobox |
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| bodystyle = width:17em |
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| captionstyle = font-size:90%; text-align:left; |
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| title = Gender |
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| image = {{Composition bar|84|100|#99F|width=196|background-color=#F99}} |
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| caption = The 2013 study '''[http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0065782 The Wikipedia Gender Gap Revisited]''' measured gender bias in survey completion and estimated that as of 2008, 84% of English Wikipedia editors were male. In the worldwide '''[[Meta:Editor Survey 2011|Wikipedia Editor Survey 2011]]''' of all the Wikipedias, 91% of respondents were male. |
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}} |
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{{Infobox |
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| bodystyle = width:17em |
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| captionstyle = font-size:90%; text-align:left; |
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| title = Nationality |
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| image = [[File:Enwiki-map.png|200px]] |
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| caption = The greatest number, or [[:wiktionary:plurality#Noun|plurality]], of editors (20%) reside in the [[United States]], followed by [[Germany]] (12%) and [[Russia]] (7%). The only country not in [[Europe]] or [[North America]] in the top 10 is [[India]] (3%). |
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}} |
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{{Infobox |
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| bodystyle = width:17em |
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| captionstyle = font-size:90%; text-align:left; |
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| title = Age distribution |
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| image1 = {{Composition bar|13|100|#FFFF0F|width=196}} |
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| image2 = {{Composition bar|14|100|#FFFF0F|width=196}} |
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| image3 = {{Composition bar|26|100|#FFFF0F|width=196}} |
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| image4 = {{Composition bar|19|100|#FFFF0F|width=196}} |
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| image5 = {{Composition bar|28|100|#FFFF0F|width=196}} |
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| caption1 = 13% of editors are 17 or under. |
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| caption2 = 14% are in the group 18–21. |
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| caption3 = 26% are 22–29. |
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| caption4 = 19% are 30–39. |
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| caption5 = 28% of editors are aged 40+. |
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| image6 = {{Composition bar|59|100|#F00000|width=196}} |
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| caption6 = 59% of the editors are aged 17 to 40. |
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}} |
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{{See|Wikipedia community|Wikipedia:Wikipedians}} |
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The English Wikipedia currently has [[Special:Statistics|{{NUMBEROFUSERS}}]] users who have registered a username. Only a minority of users contribute regularly ([[Special:Statistics|{{NUMBEROFACTIVEUSERS}}]] have edited in the last 30 days), and only a minority of those contributors participate in [[Wikipedia:Dashboard|community discussions]]. An unknown but relatively large number of [[Wikipedia:IPs are human too|unregistered Wikipedians]] also contribute to the site. |
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{{quotation |The type of people who were drawn to writing an encyclopedia for fun tend to be pretty smart people.|author=<small>[[Jimmy Wales]] · Founder of Wikipedia</small>|source=<small>[https://www.ted.com/talks/jimmy_wales_on_the_birth_of_wikipedia/transcript July 2005 – TEDGlobal conference]</small>}} |
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Contributions come from diverse demographic and ethnographic segments: |
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* '''Mid-20s males''' and '''retired males''' are the largest demographics. See [[Wikipedia:Database reports/User preferences#Gender|Gender database reports]]. |
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* '''10–20% women of various ages''', significant underrepresentation acknowledged by [[Gender bias on Wikipedia]] and [[m:Gender gap|Gender gap]] |
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* '''Students''' (e.g., in the context of a course) |
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* '''Enthusiasts''' (e.g., people with interest in a particular subject, like butterflies) |
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* '''Insiders''' (e.g., people who work for an organization, such as the Sierra Club) |
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* '''Dabblers''' (e.g., people who see some problem with an article and want to help) |
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* '''Scholars''' (e.g., researchers who want to use Wikipedia as an additional dissemination platform) |
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* '''Archivists''' (e.g., people who work or volunteer at a museum, archive, or library wanting to contribute artifacts, like 18th-century paintings) |
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* '''Marketers''' (e.g., individuals, staff, members, or a PR firm seeking to promote a product, service, or brand) |
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* '''Evil-doers''' (e.g., spammers, vandals) |
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Many people in the Wikipedia community are conscious that the demographics of who edits the site can lead to [[Wikipedia:Systemic bias|systemic bias]] in the content of the site and there are efforts to [[WP:CSB|remedy these biases]]. |
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==How do editors contribute to Wikipedia?== |
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{{Main|Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia}} |
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The content of any particular article is subject to editorial discretion developed via consensus. [[WP:NOT#PAPER|Wikipedia is not paper]], which means we ''can'' write almost an unlimited amount on any topic. Still, there are limits on what we ''ought'' to include, and especially how we ought to write it. When an article is incomplete or inaccurate, you can [[Wikipedia:Introduction|edit the article]] to be more accurate and/or useful. Someone may place a notice at the top of the article indicating that it needs to be [[Wikipedia:Cleanup resources|cleaned up]]. It is also possible to [[Wikipedia:Your first article|create a new article]] to share information that is not yet in Wikipedia. |
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The way to decide whether a particular statement is accurate is to find independent [[Wikipedia:Reliable sources|reliable sources]] to affirm that statement, such as books, magazine articles, television news stories, trade journals, or other websites. For more guidance on evaluating the accuracy of [[Wikipedia]] articles, see [[Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia|researching with Wikipedia]]. It is Wikipedia's policy to add to the encyclopedia only statements that are [[Wikipedia:Verifiability|verifiable]] and not [[Wikipedia:No original research|original research]]. The Wikipedia style guide encourages editors to [[Wikipedia:Citing sources|cite sources]]. Detailed citations allow readers of the article to easily verify the content in question. |
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When a large group of people work to compile information on a given topic, disputes may arise. A useful feature of Wikipedia is the ability to tag an article, or a section of the article, as subject of a [[Wikipedia:NPOV dispute|dispute about a neutral point of view]]. This feature is especially popular for controversial topics, topics subject to changing current events or other topics where divergent opinions exist. To resolve the dispute, the interested editors will share their points of view on the article's [[Wikipedia:Talk page|talk page]]. They will attempt to reach [[Wikipedia:Consensus|consensus]] so that all valid perspectives can be fairly represented. This allows Wikipedia to be a place not only of information, but of collaboration. Many users of Wikipedia consult the [[Wikipedia:page history|page history]] of an article in order to assess the number, and the perspective, of people who contributed to the article. You may also consult the talk page of any article to see what other readers and editors have to say about it. |
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Wikipedia's best articles are highlighted in the [[Wikipedia:featured articles|list of featured articles]]. These articles were granted "featured" status because they were [[Wikipedia:What is a featured article|judged to be of high quality]] by other editors and users. (If later edits reduce the quality of a featured article, a user can nominate an article for removal from the list.) |
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==See also== |
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{{See|Wikipedia:Essay directory#About editors}} |
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* [[Wikipedia:Administration|Administration]] – discusses how Wikipedia requires a certain amount of administration in order to further the project's goals. |
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* [[Wikipedia:Core content policies|Core content policies]] – a brief summary and background on Wikipedia's core content policies. |
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* [[Wikipedia:Editor integrity|Editor integrity]] – discusses how editors have a responsibility to uphold the integrity of Wikipedia and respect intellectual property rights of the sources they draw upon when they create and improve encyclopedia pages. |
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* [[Wikipedia:Five pillars|Five pillars]] – describes the fundamental principles of Wikipedia summarized in five "pillars". |
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* [[Wikipedia:Purpose|Purpose]] – describes Wikipedia's motive for being by its founders. |
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* [[Wikipedia:The essence of Wikipedia|The essence of Wikipedia]] – describes how Wikipedia is the harnessing of the collective intelligence and collaborative efforts of editors who hold opposing points of view, in an attempt to preserve all serious contributions which are reliably sourced. |
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* [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia is a volunteer service|Wikipedia is a volunteer service]] – discusses how editors on Wikipedia are mainly volunteers. Editors can contribute as much as they want, and however long as they desire. |
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<big><center>'''''ANYONE CAN!'''''</center></big> |
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{{Basic information}} |
{{Basic information}} |
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