Week 12 - Fatima Paulina Lopez Diaz

My reflections about editing Wikipedia

I used to think Wikipedia wasn’t a reliable source. Teachers always told us not to use it for school projects because “anyone can edit it.” That idea stuck with me for years. I assumed it was full of mistakes and not something you could trust. But recently, when we started editing Wikipedia for this class it totally changed the way I see it.

At first, I thought it would be easy. I picked a topic I knew a lot about and tried to add some information. But it didn’t go as smoothly as I expected. My edit wasn't a good quality one since it didn't included a reliable source. That’s when I realized Wikipedia has a lot more rules than I thought.

To make even a small change, you need to show proof from a solid source, like a published book, a major news website, or a scientific article. You can’t just write what you know or what you think is true. Everything has to be backed up. And if it isn’t, there’s a good chance someone will catch it and fix it right away.

I kept trying, though. I read the guidelines and learned how to properly add references. I saw how other editors discussed changes on the "Talk" pages and how seriously they take the idea of being neutral and accurate. It surprised me how much effort goes into keeping Wikipedia clean and trustworthy.

The more I edited, the more I saw how strong the system actually is. There are so many people constantly checking articles, fixing mistakes, and making sure the information is up to date. It’s like a big team of volunteers who all care about getting things right.

Of course, Wikipedia still has its flaws. Some topics don’t have enough good sources, and some pages can get messy because of people trying to sabotage them. But now I know it's a source of information as reliable as any other I usually use for the research I do in school.

Editing Wikipedia helped me understand it from the inside. Now, when I read an article, I know how much work goes into making it accurate.