Warning: Undefined array key "file" in /home/kristyro/public_html/wp-includes/media.php on line 1749
Warning: Undefined array key "file" in /home/kristyro/public_html/wp-includes/media.php on line 1749
Warning: Undefined array key "file" in /home/kristyro/public_html/wp-includes/media.php on line 1749
We have all used Wikipedia before. Growing up I was always told that Wikipedia shouldn’t be trusted because anyone could make changes to the pages. I did not know just how strict Wikipedia made its process for creating edits to articles.
Wikipedia’s online training courses were very helpful in learning how to edit their articles and have your edits kept. Before posting, I went through the final edit checklist. This helped me make sure my edits were perfect.
I chose to attempt to make an addition to the Coolidge High School Wikipedia page. I lived in Coolidge for almost 10 years, while attending Coolidge High School for all four years of high school. I have a lot of knowledge about the school because of how small it was and the extracurriculars I did while attending. I found out this page had basically no information on it. It even stated, “This article needs additional citations for verification.”
The first thing I did was go to the Coolidge High School’s talk page to add my suggested improvements to the page. I have attached a screenshot below with my improvements. However, there hasn’t been anyone else in the talk stream so after not hearing back for a day, I went ahead and added my improvements to the page.
The Coolidge High School Wikipedia page was pretty empty before my edits. I had added to and fixed the info box located on the righthand side, added a sentence about how the middle school now shares the campus and a section about the sports at CHS. Below is a before and after with my edits outlined in red.
Overall, I thought it was a pretty successful edit. It is still up so I hope it stays up and doesn’t get reverted because I did correctly cite all the information I added. With my improvements, I decided it would be smart to look at other more popular high school pages to see how they were set up before starting my edits.
One thing I did not like was how hard it was to post an image on the page. I tried to post a picture of the Coolidge mascot and because of how strict the guidelines are I was not able to. That was basically the only complaint I have about editing the page.
I enjoyed editing a Wikipedia page which lead me to wonder why so few women are Wikipedia editors. I read an article, which was a bit old (2008) which stated only 13% of Wikipedia editors are female. It was a really interesting read and suggest everyone give it a look.
