Correction: We inaccurately reported that Wikipedia is considering paying editors. Wikipedia is considering what to do about editors who are paid to write wiki pages, but who don’t disclose the payment. For more information, please follow this link.
Journalist and author Judith Newman wanted to have her own Wikipedia page; she figured if Edward the Blue Engine of children’s literature fame has a Wikipedia page, why didn’t she?
But Wikipedia’s rules are that you can’t write your own page. Her self-confessed “Wikixiety” led her to convince a co-worker to write her page, but it was rejected by Wikipedia editors because it was formatted incorrectly and contained unverifiable information.
After Newman wrote about the experience for the New York Times, she got a Wikipedia page, but it was almost immediately taken down when editors debated its news worthiness.
Newman tells Here & Now’s Robin Young that she now has a Wikipedia page “that is longer that Henry Kissinger’s!”
Maia Weinstock, an editor at Wikipedia, explains the online encyclopedia’s editorial standards.
- New York Times: Wikipedia-Mania: Wikipedia, What Does Judith Newman Have to Do to Get a Page?
- New York Times: Wiki-Validation: A Wikipedia Page for Judith Newman Is Approved
Guest
- Judith Newman, journalist and author.
- Maia Weinstock, a Wikipedia editor. She tweets @20tauri.
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