# Who REALLY writes Wikipedia articles? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 25, 2014, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-writes-wikipedia-articles/699510 "2014-09-25T09:35:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-writes-wikipedia-articles/699510/21 "2014-09-26T07:03:46Z")
I used to be a contributor to a large number of articles, in particular at the beginning, articles on California counties, various movies, and other topics, but it became so political that I gave up. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-writes-wikipedia-articles/699510/22 "2014-09-27T04:01:16Z")
I’ve found it best to make minor changes to articles on areas I know very well. For the most part, I do think Wikiepedia does a tremendous job on keeping edit wars to a minimum and the usually do the right thing. I say this even though I had a terrible experience with a contributor to, of all things, the article on Elvis Presley. One contributor was obsessed with Presley (and others ) being homosexual. Was a very unpleasant experience that kept me away from Wikipedia for many years. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-writes-wikipedia-articles/699510/23 "2014-09-27T06:13:33Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > I’ve found it best to make minor changes to articles on areas I know very well. For the most part, I do think Wikiepedia does a tremendous job on keeping edit wars to a minimum and the usually do the right thing. I say this even though I had a terrible experience with a contributor to, of all things, the article on Elvis Presley. One contributor was obsessed with Presley (and others ) being homosexual. Was a very unpleasant experience that kept me away from Wikipedia for many years. In a large general democratic system, sanity usually prevails - the crazies just get outvoted. But in a small self-selected democratic system, unfortunately, the crazies can have too much influence. Issues get decided by who’s the most committed to their point of view rather than whose point of view is right. It’s a system that gives an edge to fanaticism. ---
**Author:** ![Standarduser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@Standarduser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Standarduser)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-writes-wikipedia-articles/699510/24 "2014-09-27T15:09:44Z")
Wow. This really sucks. From your extensive knowledge of the wiki, do you of community sites that contributors hang in? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-writes-wikipedia-articles/699510/25 "2014-09-27T15:18:05Z")
Keep in mind my experience in Wikipedia is very dated. I was at my peak of activity ten years ago. I still use Wikipedia and occasionally make minor edits but I’m nowhere near knowledgeable on its current way of doing things. I imagine many things have changed since I was active there. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-writes-wikipedia-articles/699510/26 "2014-09-27T16:01:48Z")
If there are signs of an obnoxious editor causing problems with a particular article, you can notify an admin to have the page protected from editing. There are different levels of protection, depending on the severity of the problem. I’ve never seen the drive-by deletion problem **Little Nemo** mentions, but the admins do have the power to ban an editor, and any sick puppets. Since there are a lit of very knowledgeable computer/Internet-savvy editors, their bannations tend to be very effective. That may have developed since **Little Nemo** was active. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-writes-wikipedia-articles/699510/27 "2014-09-27T16:23:54Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Well, I myself have written Wikipedia articles on subjets that had not been covered at all. When I do, I typically find that, 6 months to a year later, what I wrote has been drastically expanded adn re-written to the point where I can barely recognize any of my prose or take much credit for the article. > > Sometimes the result is much better than what I created, sometimes it’s a lot worse (the writers don’t always show much fluency in English.) For other languages, the articles often are machine translations; in turn, sometimes I’ve seen articles in English which seemed to be a machine translation of an original in another language (comparing both, the supposed original actually had correct grammar and made a lot more sense than the supposed translation). The worst ones I’ve seen seemed a mixture of machine translation plus vandalism (for a while there was some idiot or idiots who spent a lot of time going to articles on long-deceased male historical figures and adding stuff along the lines of “probably homosexual”… seeing the bit about Presley, what is it with weirdos and claiming that anybody with a dick was homosexual?). ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-writes-wikipedia-articles/699510/28 "2014-09-27T17:09:19Z")
> [@Standarduser](#): > > Wow. This really sucks. > > From your extensive knowledge of the wiki, do you of community sites that contributors hang in? It’s really not that bad. I’ve contributed to some articles, corrected others and created some (particularly when a writer I liked didn’t have an article or deserved a better article). If you’re carefully about citing stuff, the edits will stand. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2014, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-writes-wikipedia-articles/699510/29 "2014-09-28T18:18:20Z")
For one thing, votes don’t count for anything anymore on deletion. It’s all about pointing out the policy that’s being violated. Being poorly written is not one: it’s all about whether you can prove the subject is notable, meaning it’s been covered in some sort of depth in two or more sources. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-writes-wikipedia-articles/699510.md?page=1)