What Wikipedia Taught Me

Wikipedia is the world's free and openly editable encyclopedia. I am an editor. I introduced my relationship with the site in a previous essay, but to recap: I have been an active editor for roughly 6 years, I have contributed to four peer-reviewed articles, and have reviewed many other articles. I like editing the site. There is also something deeper I appreciate, that is the system behind Wikipedia. The entire site acts similarly to a democracy, in effect, and participating in that system is rewarding to me. I am going to talk about a few of my most proud accomplishments on the site and how they shaped me as a person. 

My current account was created in February 2020, but I did not become active until September of that year. Before this account, I still interacted with the site and even submitted some edits. The farthest back I can remember is submitting edits, either on a now lost account or anonymously, back in 2016. The first three months of active editing in 2020 taught me how the entire site worked. I edited articles around my hometown of Reedsburg, Wisconsin, and didn't really stray far away from that subject matter. The first article outside of my wheelhouse was my work on the International Travelette article. I got that article developed to a point where I submitted it to feature on the "Did You Know?" section of the main page. My interest in this topic comes from a buddy of mine who is really into classic International pickup trucks. 

Did you know that the International Harvester Travelette was the first six-passenger, four-door, crew-cab pickup truck? (First three-door model pictured)

My next big accomplishment was writing my first Good Article. That is, a peer-reviewed article that is well-written, neutral in point of view, factual, and verifiable. My first article was on Wisconsin's dairy industry. This article is special not only for being a Good Article; I created it from scratch. Yup, before December 2, 2020 Wikipedia did not have a stand-alone article on the dairy industry in Wisconsin. Since then, I have created 32 new articles on Wikipedia. The process of turning the article from a blank slate to a Good Article forced me to master Wikipedia article-writing. I learned how to find and add citations, write neutrally from a number of sources, and finish an entire work to be peer-reviewed. Looking back, this article is my weakest "Good Article." There are a number of things if I were writing it today that I'd do differently, and by now I've slowly done some of them. One of those things are relying more on book citations rather than relying so heavily on websites. A published academic work is generally more reliable and more useful than a website from a dairy organization, a news org, or from the historical society. 

The next Good Article of mine was on the Geography of Wisconsin. In this one I applied a number of the lessons I learned from my writings so far and it is one of my better works. After that, I took a bit of a break. I did other things on the site and just took some time away from researching and writing. In 2025, I would be reeled in again to write about a very personal topic, the closures of the University of Wisconsin branch campuses. I spent my first three years at a smaller branch campus, and the experience is something I am extremely grateful for. Well, in March 2025 I traveled to the UW Platteville main campus as part of the student government association to ask the university chancellor some questions about the future of our institution. I asked her, fairly point blank, what she was doing to improve recruitment. She could not give me an answer at all. This deeply troubled me and I knew I needed to do something with this built-up emotion. I turned to writing. The article was finished and promoted only a month later.  

Aside from writing, I have also participated in the back-end processes on the site. I have reviewed a number of good article nominees. Having to go through and check another editor's work does two things: for one you help them bring the article up to standard, and it also helps teach you how to write better. This process was extremely helpful when I was first learning how to even write a good article in the first place. Another area I participate in is in requests for adminship. This is the process by which regular editors become administrators on the site. Interested individuals will be nominated (or nominate themselves), then the whole community comes together to either agree or disagree. The process is a consensus based one, and not one where whoever gets 50% + 1 of the votes wins. 

I could write a lot more about my time on the site. But that is a different essay for a different day. I deeply appreciate my time participating in the Wikipedia project and meeting other like minded people, and I feel good about contributing my time and effort into making this a better resource for others. If editing Wikipedia is something you have thought about, might I recommend you give it a shot. It has really helped to develop my voice as a writer and instill some basic habits - like verifying sources, writing impartially, and being able to work collaboratively. And looking back, that is really what I value about the site. The lessons it taught me in thinking and expressing myself, not just the information in the encyclopedia entries themselves.