I made my edit on the Red Rising Wiki
Before this course began, my relationship with Wikipedia was best described as cautious and limited. Like most students, I had been conditioned by years of teachers and professors warning me away from it, so I never viewed it as a serious academic resource. I used it occasionally to get a quick overview of a topic or to familiarize myself with something before going to find “real” sources, but I never thought of it as much more than a starting point. In that sense, Wikipedia existed somewhere in the background of my research process, useful enough to glance at, but never something I would openly admit to relying on.
That perspective changed significantly not really over the course of the semester, but now during the project, and the shift came mostly from actually engaging with Wikipedia rather than just reading it. Before this class, I had no idea how serious the Wikipedia editing community truly is. I assumed that because anyone could technically edit an article, the platform was inherently unreliable and loosely maintained. What I discovered was the opposite, that you exemplified there is a deeply committed community of contributors who care genuinely about accuracy, sourcing, and the quality of information that reaches readers.
The most impactful experience by far was making my first edit. I honestly did not expect it to be as straightforward as it was, and once I did it, something clicked. There is something surprisingly satisfying about contributing to a resource that millions of people use, and it made me want to do more. I found myself thinking about topics I am genuinely passionate about, things that most scholars might overlook or even laugh at, and wondering whether they deserved better Wikipedia coverage. That kind of thinking would never have crossed my mind before this assignment.
What I did not expect was for someone else to come along and build on what I had done. Not long after I added in my critical reception Gawaon made a small edit of moving my citation to the end of the paragraph and adjusted my use of the authors last name to “she” so it fit the surrounding text more naturally. It was a tiny change, but honestly it was the coolest moment of the whole project, after I found out about it from professor Isbell. Someone who had no idea who I was noticed my contribution, thought it was worth keeping, and quietly made it better. That is exactly what a community is supposed to feel like, and seeing it happen in real time made the whole thing feel more real.
Outside of my own experience, I did not find that class discussions about Wikipedia shifted my perspective in a major way. However, I did have a conversation with Hank after class about his chosen topic that I found genuinely interesting, though that was really about his subject itself rather than about Wikipedia. As for the platform training, I did not complete them 😁.
If I were to tell someone who had never taken this course about Wikipedia, I would simply tell them to make an edit. I would not oversell it or explain why, because I think the experience speaks for itself. More importantly, I would tell them that what they have been taught about Wikipedia throughout their education is probably not the full picture. It is far more carefully maintained, far more community-driven, and far more legitimate than most academic settings give it credit for. It is, actually, really cool.
- My Wikipedia username is: Sonderal
