WikiStudent Blog

When going through all the content of the old wiki (a big job for one person, but I really did want to read it all myself and see what was there) I picked up some problems with writing styles.

To overcome these problems, I have started making a list of “editing conventions” that need to be put in place on the new WikiStudent. Here’s the start of the list

1. Don’t use the word “I”. E.g. “I think a good way to study for the exams is x”. Nobody is going to know who “I” is, unless they go to the trouble of viewing the editing history. Rather use “we” or write in the third person. Pretend you’re writing for an encyclopedia!
2. When writing about a textbook, name the book, otherwise there will be confusion when the textbook changes. E.g. The sentence “The prescribed textbook was excellent” will not mean much the following year when Unisa prescribes a new textbook. Rather write: “The prescribed textbook by x, y, and z was excellent”.
3. Don’t just say “This course sucks”. It might improve next year, so rather say “In 2008 many students thought it sucked”.

An appropriate quote from page 29 of one of my wiki books: Wiki Web Collaboration:

Since many people from around the world and having the most varied of political and religious views take part in the project, Wikipedia is obligated to formulate articles as neutrally as possible. The point is not to write them as objectively as possible – this is a common misunderstanding – but to present all aspects of an issue. Most wiki users have thus learned to express themselves in a conflict-free way, insofar as possible. Instead of writing “Apples taste good,” one would instead write “Some people like the taste of apples.”

Ok, I’ve just ordered another wiki book! This one’s called “How Wikipedia Works: And How You Can Be a Part of It” and is about editing Wikipedia, rather than about wikis in general. I thought I might learn a few useful things, and apply some of Wikipedia’s policies and procedures to my own site.

I think many people don’t edit Wikipedia because it’s not obvious where to begin, and the documentation is so extensive and time-consuming to go through. I don’t want it to be like this on WikiStudent. I want you to be able to see within 10 seconds that it is a site that relies on YOUR contributions, and you should be able to find out in 5 minutes how to go about making changes.

I’m spending some time this weekend finishing off WS module content, and just thought of mentioning the only time I ever edited Wikipedia.

It was 2 years ago, on 11 may, and I’d attended a Sergei Nakariakov concert the night before. After the concert, they presented him with a bunch of flowers as it was his birthday When I looked him up on Wikipedia I saw the year he was born (1977) but his actual birth day was not up there. So I clicked the “Edit” button and filled in the day – after all, I had just witnessed his accompanist playing happy birthday on the piano in front of everyone at the Baxter so I was confident of the accuracy of my contribution!

A couple of weeks later I was curious to see if my change to that page was still there. I mean, someone might have removed it. For all I knew I wasn’t conforming to Wikipedia’s conventions or something. When I checked, I saw that someone had turned his birthdate into a link! When you click on this link it brings up other famous people born on that day. So somebody noticed my change and actually took it further.

It was such a good feeling, having made a contribution to Wikipedia and having my edit noticed. That is exactly how I’d like students to feel when they edit the WikiStudent wiki: that they’re making a useful contribution that others will read and extend / improve on.