I gave up editing wikipedia years ago. My edits would be swamped with reverts and snarky comments because the information didn’t agree with intro textbooks. In at least one case it turns out an instructor was giving extra credit to students to “correct” information. The textbook they were using was deeply flawed of course. But there you are.
I remember reading that Wikipedia was just phase one of the project where draft articles were written. Phase two was a more formal project where experts would refine the draft articles and they would be peer reviewed. Unfortunately, production was slow and Wikipedia took off so the project was effectively abandoned after a few years. Too bad. What field were you writing in?
Neuroscience. I think the last straw was where I had a review article on a specialist topic rejected from a couple of fancy journals. Rather than rewrite it for a lower tier, I modified it for Wikipedia. It got insta-banned and I got scolded/black marked for plagiarism. It was truly a “but I am Pagliacci” moment. Nobody in the chat page believed it or seemed to want to listen.
Well you know the tenure treadmill. This was 15+ years ago so Wiki contributions weren’t counted towards professional activity. It literally wasn’t worth the effort given the other options. Cheers to you as well!
I gave up editing wikipedia years ago. My edits would be swamped with reverts and snarky comments because the information didn’t agree with intro textbooks. In at least one case it turns out an instructor was giving extra credit to students to “correct” information. The textbook they were using was deeply flawed of course. But there you are.
I remember reading that Wikipedia was just phase one of the project where draft articles were written. Phase two was a more formal project where experts would refine the draft articles and they would be peer reviewed. Unfortunately, production was slow and Wikipedia took off so the project was effectively abandoned after a few years. Too bad. What field were you writing in?
Neuroscience. I think the last straw was where I had a review article on a specialist topic rejected from a couple of fancy journals. Rather than rewrite it for a lower tier, I modified it for Wikipedia. It got insta-banned and I got scolded/black marked for plagiarism. It was truly a “but I am Pagliacci” moment. Nobody in the chat page believed it or seemed to want to listen.
Sorry to hear that. What a weird experience. Glad you removed yourself from a bad situation. Cheers!
Well you know the tenure treadmill. This was 15+ years ago so Wiki contributions weren’t counted towards professional activity. It literally wasn’t worth the effort given the other options. Cheers to you as well!