Why Wikipedia is Nigh Inaccessible by New Members

I cannot say why, exactly, but I decided it would be cool to edit Wikipedia pages. For years I’ve heard about user generated content, and how subjective and suspect it is. I’ve seen stories where public figures edit their own Wikipedia pages for a more sympathetic viewpoint, and read about weeks of heated discussion over the size of certain pictures.

Wikipedia has its faults, but I still use it as the go-to search for most information. As a quick reference of aggregated knowledge, it has always worked for me.

Brandon Sanderson has finished writing, and will be publishing in August, a novel called The Way of Kings. Epic fantasy is what Sanderson writes, has always wanted to write, and will, probably, write forever. The genre includes huge sagas, like the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan that is currently at 3 million+ words. The Way of Kings is Sanderson’s “epic saga” and is book one of ten.

The most interesting thing, from my perspective, is an orphaned Amazon page made for the book. Its publication was delayed, and during this delay Amazon users wrote false book reviews. Most of them are quite funny, and I thought the Wikipedia page should mention these reviews.

So I did what all good citizens of the internet should do, and I joined Wikipedia. Then I went over to The Way of Kings’ page and edited it. I added the information I wanted, and then went on a bit of an editing frenzy, before I was satisfied with my contribution. I did the same thing for John G. Hemry/Jack Campbell’s new book, The Lost Fleet: Victorious.

I didn’t know it at the time, but each Wikipedia user has a “talk page.” It’s really just a blank article field where other users can leave messages and the talk page owner can leave information. As soon as my minor edits were completed, someone came along and fixed what I’d done wrong. Then, he/she added “getting started” page to my talk. It was 50+ links to articles I should read before I begin editing.

Well, I wasn’t about to read 50+ articles just to add some information about a couple books. I decided to look up what I needed as I needed it and go from there.

Every time I turned around, though, I was told something was wrong with my edits. I added the cover art for The Way of Kings only to be told it was three pixels too big and would be deleted in five days. I added plot information toThe Lost Fleet series’ main page, only to have it flagged as original research.

Now, those 50+ links didnot have the information needed to properly edit the pages I was working on, and if I hadn’t checked back from time to time my work would have all been for naught.

So, what I’m trying to say is: Wikipedia needs an easier startup experience for new users. The rules are many and arcane, and reading all of them before editing is just not fun and fulfilling. The solution may be a dummy mode that has to be turned off by individual users, which queries about citation and added content before publishing the page. Or it may just be someone needs to write a series of “How to write a book article” and similar pages that explain contextual flags and citation rules; if such pages exist, I did not see them, which is most of the problem.

Though, now that I’ve figured out how, editing Wikipedia has been a fun diversion, and when I see something missing it’s satisfying to add that information for the English-speaking world.