Atkinspedia:Who writes Atkinspedia
From Atkinspedia
Unlike other encyclopedias, the volunteer authors of articles in Atkinspedia don't have to be experts or scholars, although some certainly are. They can be anyone, including you! Volunteers do not need to go through any formal process before creating a new article or editing an existing article. Many people have created or edited articles in Atkinspedia. They come from countries around the world, and are of all ages and backgrounds. Anyone who contributes to this encyclopedia is called a "Atkinspedian." It is Atkinspedia policy to add to the encyclopedia only statements that are verifiable, and not to add original research. The Atkinspedia style guide encourages editors to cite sources. Sometimes Atkinspedians do not follow these policies, because they forget or because they are not aware of the policy. Then readers of the article cannot be sure that a statement is verifiable.
If people holding different points of view edit an article, someone may place a notice at the top of the article indicating that it is the subject of a dispute about a neutral point of view. To resolve the dispute, the interested editors will share their points of view on the article's talk page. They will attempt to reach consensus about how to edit so that both their perspectives are fairly represented. This allows Wikipedia to be a place not only of information, but also of collaboration.
Many users of Wikipedia consult the page history of an article in order to assess the number of people that have contributed to the article. An article can be considered more likely to be accurate when it has been edited by many different people (since most edits make constructive changes, rather than destructive ones). You may also consult the talk page of any article to see what other readers and editors have to say about it.
One list of articles that have been edited by many people is the list of featured articles. These articles are considered to be of high quality when they are granted featured article status, and if later edits reduce the quality of the page, a user can nominate an article for removal from that special status.
The best way to decide whether a particular statement is accurate is to find independent, reliable sources to affirm that statement, such as books, magazine articles, television news reports, trade journals, or web sites. For more guidance on evaluating the accuracy of Atkinspedia articles, see Atkinspedia:Researching with Atkinspedia.
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How Atkinspedians improve articles
Whenever a reader finds something in an article which he or she doesn't think should be there, that person can edit the article and help make Atkinspedia more accurate and useful. Someone may place a notice at the top of the article indicating that it needs to be cleaned up. It is also possible to create a new article to share information that is not already in Atkinspedia.
When they first hear about Atkinspedia, many people think that articles are created by people adding a few words at a time. Many edits are very minor, and just fix spelling, rephrase, or add a fact or two. But some editors who are interested in a particular subject contribute paragraphs or whole articles at a time; these editors might be anyone from a professor in the field, to a hobbyist, to a person who just wants to fill a hole in the encyclopedia.
Assembling text piece by piece doesn't necessarily take into account the bigger picture, so sometimes an editor will reorganize an article, or rewrite it, keeping the same facts, but making them flow more smoothly. Material also sometimes needs to be moved into other articles, for any of these reasons: if it's been put in the wrong place, if one article has become too big and needs to be split up, if two articles on the same subject have accidentally been created, or if there are many small articles that need to be combined into one larger one. Profanity is usually removed immediately.
Who keeps order?
Most Atkinspedia editors discuss article content in a friendly way, or quietly improve each other's work. Most mistakes or bad edits are corrected by someone noticing them and changing them back or cleaning them up. Publicly available tools like the recent changes page and personal watchlists help editors find bad edits without having to continually check all the pages on the site.
Some problems are more serious, including vandalism (deliberate defacement or falsification), disputes which result in edit wars (where editors change an article back and forth and fight instead of discuss), and disruptive behavior. To deal with these cases, several hundred Atkinspedia administrators have the power to protect (lock) articles, and to block individual editors. These administrators are elected by the community to enforce the site's policies and guidelines.
Be Bold! Be a Atkinspedian!
Meet the Atkinspedians
Find out exactly who writes Atkinspedia - visit Category:Atkinspedians for some interesting lists of some of our most dedicated contributors!
See also
- Atkinspedia:About - a more general overview
- Atkinspedia:Readers' FAQ - general questions about using Atkinspedia
- Atkinspedia:Schools' FAQ - specific questions about Atkinspedia use by students
- Atkinspedia:Where to ask a question - links to special help desks
- Atkinspedia:General disclaimer - legal statement that Atkinspedia makes no guarantee of validity
- Scientific community metaphor - a philosophy of science validating Wiki content evolution
