Week3:Wikipedia's scope and editors -- ZHANG XIAOTONG(장효동)

 Summary

Wikipedia is the world's largest encyclopedia, which is open to editing and freely accessible, and is maintained by volunteers. However, through this week's courseware, I have a new understanding of issues surrounding Wikipedia's scope, visibility, and editor community.


Interesting points:

1. Scope of Wikipedia: 

Although Wikipedia is called the "free encyclopedia", it is not a perfect knowledge base, nor is it a social media or news website. Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, so errors and biases are inevitable, and Wikipedia cannot be used as a platform for real-time news releases or personal opinions.

2. Wikipedia has a deletion mechanism:


Wikipedia has a strict deletion policy. If an article or topic is not supported by enough reliable sources, or contains infringement, malicious or low-quality content, it may be deleted by the administrator.


3. Wikipedians:


The content of Wikipedia is maintained by volunteers around the world, who are called "Wikipedians". There are editors, administrators, etc., but only a very small number of Wikipedians contribute most of the content.


Questions to be discussed

 

How can Wikipedia ensure the accuracy of information while maintaining openness? Will the deletion mechanism be too strict, resulting in the deletion of valuable but not yet widely known content? And how can Wikipedia attract a wider range of people to participate in editing?

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