# For pure, distilled, idle curiousity - how many Dopers are also Wikipedia editors/contributors? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 12, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897 "2010-12-12T17:18:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/41 "2010-12-14T21:06:11Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I do. I started by correcting spelling and other minor errors. Then I found that I thought that certain subjects deserved better articles than they had, so I tried to improve them. I’ve also created a few articles from scratch. I’ve gone as far as visiting the library or ordering books from [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) specifically for source material… I practically could’ve written this myself. Most of my original work is about descriptions of books I’ve read, the law, American history, Hollywood trivia, science fiction and militaria. Most of the stuff I write tends to stick around, so maybe I have been favored by the Wiki gods. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/42 "2010-12-14T22:13:23Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > There was an article on a mathematical concept that I created and named. The article was rather incomplete and I rewrote it completely. I needed help as I didn’t (and still don’t) know how to put up mathematical symbols and a friend helped me with that. (if I can’t do it in tex, I can’t do it.) I would have been disappointed if someone with the user name ‘ **Hari Seldon** ’ hadn’t contributed to Wikipedia! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/43 "2010-12-14T23:54:46Z")
I rewrote the article on baseball’s Hall of Fame into the first version of it that was not actually a peice of crap; until my version it was short, what it had was rife with factual errors, and referred to the institution as the “United States Baseball Hall of Fame.” It’s since been punched up by others but essentially follows the flow of my version. I’ve always wondered why institutions like that don’t just get in there are write their own articles. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/44 "2010-12-15T00:29:22Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I’ve always wondered why institutions like that don’t just get in there are write their own articles. They do, but it is always the morons from the marketing department who cut and paste their boilerplate promotional glurge, which immediately gets reverted. Marketing morons are constitutionally incapable of grasping the freely distributable nature of Wikipedia. I’ve had this fight any number of times with MMs who insist on trying to put an artist’s standard promotional photo up on Wikipedia. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/45 "2010-12-15T00:46:42Z")
I’ve edited and added links to a few Wikipedia articles but nothing really that major. One article I edited was klunkily written (I think it had been awkwardly translated from a non-English language source) so I rephrased a few paragraphs so it read more smoothly. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/46 "2010-12-15T00:47:24Z")
I’ve done a tiny bit of editing, but no original pages (or maintenance) is mine. ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/47 "2010-12-15T00:54:27Z")
No I haven’t. Nor do I have any real plans to do so in the future. But thanks for asking. ---
**Author:** ![gurujulp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba9def/32.png) [@gurujulp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gurujulp)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/48 "2010-12-15T02:30:35Z")
I have corrected quite a bit, but the only pages I have authored have been removed, even though I think they have relevance (they were schools), they are always taken down. Apparently, unless a person of note attended, or something of the sort, having a separate entry for a school isn’t enough to keep it listed, depending on who else chooses to fact check your work. And never mind that there are articles exactly like that on there, ‘someone else did it’ isn’t an answer! ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/49 "2010-12-15T02:38:02Z")
> [@gurujulp](#): > > I have corrected quite a bit, but the only pages I have authored have been removed, even though I think they have relevance (they were schools), they are always taken down. > > Apparently, unless a person of note attended, or something of the sort, having a separate entry for a school isn’t enough to keep it listed, depending on who else chooses to fact check your work. > > And never mind that there are articles exactly like that on there, ‘someone else did it’ isn’t an answer! Yeah, the deletionists are an annoyance. The only solution I’ve found is to start with multiple references in the first version you post. One that I created from scratch had a dozen references in the very first version posted. You learn to post defensively. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/50 "2010-12-15T02:52:39Z")
I haven’t done much lately, but I’ve contributed much on etymology and food items history amongst others. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/51 "2010-12-15T03:53:52Z")
I corrected some egregiously erroneous information regarding the Rangsit area north of Bangkok, but that was the only time. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/52 "2010-12-15T04:13:44Z")
I have an account and I am active, mostly correcting spelling, grammar, and coding errors and fixing vandalism. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/53 "2010-12-15T18:12:48Z")
I started off making the occasional spelling correction, but then I joined the [Typo Team](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Typo_Team) and gradually went completely overboard with it. Now I do periodic searches for particular errors (accomodate, cemetary, prarie, resevoir, etc.) and purge them. I’ve also been doing a lot of [disambiguating](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Disambiguation_pages_with_links) lately. Just a reminder – if you’re writing an article, please check your links to make sure none of them are pointing at a disambiguation page. They should go to the specific article you’re referring to. I haven’t created any articles myself (other than redirects) but I’m planning to write one shortly. I had to make a visit to the library to collect some offline newspaper references. I hit the 15,000 edit mark earlier this week. It’s really getting to be a bad habit. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/54 "2010-12-15T18:42:01Z")
I’m not a “real” editor, but I do occasionally come across things that should be adjusted by a couple of words for accuracy. I’ve also been part of a two-year long battle to keep a celebrity’s date of birth in line with the official records, as opposed to what his parents told the studio. It’s still ongoing. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/55 "2010-12-15T21:08:39Z")
> [@Number](#): > > I hit the 15,000 edit mark earlier this week. It’s really getting to be a bad habit. Where is the count? I’ve been editing since 2006 and can’t see where my statistics are. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/56 "2010-12-15T23:09:13Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Where is the count? I’ve been editing since 2006 and can’t see where my statistics are. Go to the **My contributions** link in the upper right, then scroll all the way to the bottom and click **Edit count**. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/57 "2010-12-16T01:18:49Z")
> [@Number](#): > > Go to the **My contributions** link in the upper right, then scroll all the way to the bottom and click **Edit count**. Cool, thanks! ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/58 "2010-12-16T01:21:54Z")
I have an account. I use it to correct spelling and grammar errors when I see them as well as update dates (I’ll change “Set to release in March, 2010” to “Released in March, 2010” for example). Just little things like that. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/59 "2010-12-16T04:06:42Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > I have an account. I use it to correct spelling and grammar errors when I see them as well as update dates (I’ll change “Set to release in March, 2010” to “Released in March, 2010” for example). Just little things like that. I know this is just an example you’re giving, but I can’t resist pointing out that there [shouldn’t be a comma after the month](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_%28dates_and_numbers%29#Dates) there. Like I said, a bad habit. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897/60 "2010-12-19T05:58:47Z")
> [@sevenwood](#): > > OK, disconcertment (sp?) resolved. After writing the above here, I went back and looked at the current entry for that page and it has been edited by the powers that be to remove both the old section that I’d modified and the text I’d replaced it with. The edit history on the article contains an entry dated December 4th that says “Accuracy of history is disputed, therefore removing until properly cited”. > > So now neither the old, incorrect text nor my new, correct (says I, an entity totally unknown to the Wikipedia Powers That Be) text is being displayed until someone they know and trust resolves the issue. And that’s a Good thing. We are all the Powers That Be. Do you have a reference? PM me the article title and I’ll look back through the history and attempt to find a cite. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-pure-distilled-idle-curiousity-how-many-dopers-are-also-wikipedia-editors-contributors/563897.md?page=2)