lessons from wiki

for the past few months of my school holiday i spent a lot of time in front of the computer with the internet on. i didn't go for a holiday; my practicum term didn't allow for that. heck, 2 months of training and it was practically hard to travel. i had my dreams of going to japan, or somewhere out there, but alas, time is my eternal enemy.

so what did i do with my 3 month "holiday". well, a year ago, i got acquainted with wikipedia and became an editor there. spent much of my time working up on final fantasy articles, since that's the game I cherish most. then i got acquainted with another wiki, a fanbase final fantasy wiki, and i got active in there as well.

what i learnt from wikipedia as an editor for a fictional subject, was how hard it was too argue on the subject of its notability. not too mention that wikipedia, because it strives to become an encyclopedia, wants verifiable sources and less to nil fanboy edits. it was a serious encyclopedia, you can't make joke edits, it will be reverted. the people in wikipedia are serious in their work, even though what they did... what we did was writing about games. we scoured the net for gaming articles, sources that can help verify what we write.

and as it goes, I enjoyed their company, and they enjoyed mine, and we worked together as a team. we reverted edits from vandals; those people who like wasting their and others precious time, and argued with fanboys about this and that, and won because facts were on our side, and most of the editors are good at winning arguments. and they're mostly our age, teenagers, but they work like professionals. they follow policies and guidelines of wikipedia like the rulebook. some of them know how to work around the loopholes in the policies. Some of them are teens, some are mothers, they come from all ages and different countries. a formidable bunch.

then in ffwiki, the atmosphere was less serious. since I started off as a wikipedian editor it was pretty awkward to get used to such a less-serious place. i got over it eventually and editted to my heart's content. my expertise is on ivalice games, i said, and that's where I worked. they were an encouraging bunch who really love their FF games. some wikipedians, like me, have also found their way there, much earlier than me actually. they come from different countries and regions, and they also work like professionals. but they also work like a family, they make jokes at each other but they are an open-minded bunch. we were united in our love for final fantasy. i'm sure if they were reading this entry they'd joke about it.

alas, holidays come and go. I had to take my wikibreak and concentrate on my final year. i'll still do small edits from time to time, and visit when time permits. so what have I learned? I learned that you need to be concise in your arguments. no need to make strawman arguments, and create nonexistent cases just to prove your point. find verifiable sources to support your statements. always be polite and be civil-minded. no need to mix in emotions during your arguments. wikipedia is a neutral, emotionless place, somehow i fit there, but I really love the ffwiki more.

pay a visit to that place some time soon. My user name is Bluerfn. Just type in User:Bluerfn in the search page and you'll find tidbits about me, reader.