Wow this was so fun! I've been working on creating a Wikipedia page for James Underdown from CFI and IIG and I learned so much that I'm bursting to share my experience. But I know I'll just bore you all to death. Lets just say that I'm better able to answer questions you might have about editing that I didn't know a few weeks ago. Please please please ask if you need help on anything. Leave comments here on the blog and I'll answer as quickly as I can. Or email me at susangerbic@yahoo.com.
Did you know...? Here is a blog I wrote about Karen Stollznow's 8 hour experience on the front page of Wikipedia. Make sure you read the comments as well as I give the numbers for the 8 hours.
So I was able to manage through the crazy "paperwork" Wikipedia requires to nominate a page for the Did You Know... ? section and I persisted until it happened. I think this had a lot to do with it. Editors would leave a note saying...this needs to be fixed...or that sentence isn't cited correctly... I would check back pretty regularly (by watching my Watchlist) I would fix everything they wanted fixed, added and removed anything that was a problem. I felt that they finally approved it and put it up because I was so on them.
Why is DYK important? When you manage to get your page listed in this section you are exposing the Wiki page to an audience outside of skepticism that we are aiming for. Thousands of people hit that page, and a lot of them scroll down to see the DYK section. Maybe they like to see what is newly released? Maybe they just have a "thing" for DYK? Who knows, but they are going there and we should be aiming for the attention that DYK offers us.
Not only did Jim's name get hit on, but so does all the skeptical links that are included on his "hook" and on his main Wiki site. The ripple effect. When we are aware that this is going to happen, it forces us to really step things up and make sure that all the pages that are about to be hit are cleaned up.
Also Jim's page has now been checked over by some serious editors from Wikipedia looking at the writing, checking out the sources and so on. His discussion page announced the DYK and the results. I'm not going to link to the pages here because I really want you to go there and look for yourself. That's what this blog is all about, doing things.
Here are some of the results from that 8 hour window.
Jim normally receives about 30 hits per day. He received about 6,400 hits in that 8 hour time. WOW!
Here is the hook ... Did you know... that James Underdown (pictured), an investigator of fringe science claims, once declared himself Poet Laureate of Calumet City, Illinois, and toured Midwest comedy clubs under the name Jim U-boat?"
I originally had submitted this......that James Underdown director of Center for Inquiry West CFI and founder of the Independent Investigations Group IIG, once declared himself Poet Laureate of Claumet City, IL and toured Midwest comedy clubs under the name Jim U-boat?
They shortened it and added fringe science and took out IIG and CFI. But that's what Wikipedia is all about, you don't "own" anything.
Calumet City got an extra 200 hits. Poet Laureate got about 300-400 more than normal. The term fringe science (that I didn't even know was in Wikipedia) got an extra 4,400 hits. These were all in the hook.
Once you are on his page, lets see how the things hyperlinked did.
Center for Inquiry got about 285 hits extra
Humanist about 60 extra
IIG got about 150 extra
So there was some activity with the hits. I report these in numbers, but you have to remember that if I were talking about a percentage, then we would be seeing 500% increases and higher.
The IIG did see a small about of hit increase to its main page www.iigwest.org from people following the links from Wikipedia. Barry Karr from CFI is having problems accessing his numbers today but will get back to me with them.
Here is a screen shot from that day.
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