Talk:Wikipedia

This is a great idea! Also, I can't find the post right now, but I think it was the Sectus article on Fanlore that was created in response to Wikipedia deleting it. According to Wikipedia, Sectus wasn't notable because it was fan-run and not "official"![1]--æþel 16:53, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

I worked a lot on en-Wiki for nearly 5 years, latterly as an admin, and I believe there's a real hatred there for articles that don't fall into their (unstated) mission of being a 'serious' encyclopedia -- fannish and pop culture material, in particular. Although there is nothing in their policy documents that states that fan articles are not permitted (and indeed there's a note that self-publication is not an absolute indicator of non-notability), 'serious' editors will do anything to get rid of them, or 'merge' them into larger articles -- which often means delete the entire content, and add the name to a list. If I could only remember my admin account password I could poke around a little in the deleted content, but I suspect a list of the fan-related articles Wikipedia deleted would be much longer than our total articles! On that particular one, there doesn't seem to be a link in time between Wikipedia's Sectus being deleted (March 2008) and our article being created (November 2011), so unless someone had the content saved they are unlikely to be directly related?

It's not really relevant to the ways in which Wikipedia is linked here (mainly as an canon resource) but I think it's an interesting reflection on the mundane attitudes to fandom through the 2000s (mainly in the US), while mainstream newspaper/magazine coverage has become much more tolerant over the same timeframe. Personally I'd be interested to see if attitudes have changed since I left 2 years back. Espresso Addict 21:05, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

Let me echo what aethel said, this is a gread idea! Absolutely fascinating and the way Wikipedia deals with fannish content is very relevant to Fanlore. Should we add links to a few Wikipedia pages about fannish terms (Fanfiction, slash, Mary Sue, etc.) so that people can better compare the differences? --Doro 11:13, 23 November 2012 (UTC)

Good idea! There are actually more than I'd thought. Hopefully others from the opposite side of the fence (I rarely edited Wikipedia on fannish topics, and as an admin, got called upon to act on consensuses to delete) will weigh in with their experiences. Espresso Addict 12:23, 23 November 2012 (UTC)

Espresso Addict, the first paragraph of your response is so interesting it could go on the page itself as a quote of your personal experience.--Aethel (talk) 04:02, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

If you think it would work there, sure! Although the opening of the Fandom on Wikipedia section is pretty much a paraphrase in less personal language. Espresso Addict (talk) 11:01, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

On science fiction fandom

Interesting addition. Ironically, as it turns out, the blog article is actually slightly inaccurate. I know RHaworth -- he's one of the more reasonable Wikipedia admins. Espresso Addict 00:35, 24 November 2012 (UTC)