What is Wikipedia and Why Should We Care ?Document ActionsThis MindFreedom page discusses the rather unique internet encyclopedia – wikipedia.org. Sub-pages discuss: How to monitor wikipedia articles that you care about for accuracy, bias, or possible deletion; and how to study and prepare to be a participating author of wikipedia articles. You can learn how to contribute to wikipedia in a way that respects the spirit and written guidelines of this unique project.
Below in quotes taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About “Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project. The name Wikipedia is a portmanteau (combination) of the words wiki (a type of collaborative website) and encyclopedia. Wikipedia’s articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information.” “Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference Web sites. There are more than 75,000 active contributors working on some 9,000,000 articles in more than 250 languages.” Wikipedia has become very successful! For those of us who like to root for the underdog, it’s nice to see a group that is in many ways ‘grassroots’ become as successful as the giant media companies. Wikipedia has an article about mindfreedom.org. Wikipedia also has articles about the big pharmaceutical companies. Wikipedia’s biggest obstacle to continues success is credibility. Would you subscribe to a magazine or watch a TV channel that always gave you bad information or really biased, narrow-minded informatio ? Probably not ! That’s why the leaders and motivators behind Wikipedia ask the authors of wikipedia articles to maintain at least two important writing standards :
Note that ‘neutral point of view’ does not mean you can’t still have opinions about what you are writing about. It only means that you adopt a neutral style when writing… ‘just the facts.’ Wikipedia is not a good place to engage in ‘flame wars’ with proponents such controversial subjects such as bio-psychiatry. However it is a good place to monitor articles about psychiatric disorders, mental health and alternative mental health treatments, to see if this articles present a well-rounded, unbiased and neutral portayal of these topics. How to monitor wikipedia articles that you care about for accuracy, bias, or possible deletion. How to study and prepare to be a participating author of wikipedia articles.
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Tips on Authoring Wikipedia Articles