This assignment is on the Pokemon TV series Wikipedia page. One of the discussions I found on this topic was the discussion of whether it is acceptable for a Wikipedian to change a formatting style. This was found in the “Talk” tab of the Wikipedia page. There was no further discussion on that issue because it was agreed on by the community. Another discussion that was being made was to add specific day, month, and year because the standard was only mentioning the year in most anime articles. He expressed the importance of complete dates and to be able to provide the appropriate context in order to give a vivid introduction to the article. The respondent is stating that they don’t believe it is necessary to use specific dates because the details can be found in the body of the article. He believes that things can be left very general. The editor comes back and states that the respondents’ arguments were invalid and arbitrary. The editor says that the respondents’ arguments were not strong enough to bother changing it. The respondent noted that the editor went back and changed the date to a more general one despite not agreeing with what the editor stated at the beginning. The respondent was asking for specific guidelines that state that TV series articles need specific dates. The respondent concludes that maybe they need to talk to more editors to reach an agreement. The editor states that they were fine with the format that the respondent requested and stated that he hopes this resolves the issues. The final thing the respondent says is that they were glad the editor came to an understanding and the respondent could not find other discussions that indicated whether specific dates or general dates make a difference in TV series articles. The discussion started very professional and informational and then it quickly became very personal when the respondent said, “Ok? And what is your point?” which made it feel like a personal attack. Then the editor retaliates with a verbal response tearing his point down. But then, the editor decides to take advice and make the changes. Then the respondent came to a consensus even though the editor basically backed down and went with the respondents suggestions. I feel like, in the middle of the discussion, they were not respecting each other’s inputs. The respondent engaged in personal attacks. They started to have an edit war but ended up reaching a consensus that they both agree on. They ended their discussion peacefully and appropriately. Some of the patterns that are being edited contain information on airing and production of the Pokemon TV series. Other patterns of discussion are the comparisons of the Pokemon TV series and the Pokemon games. Another pattern that is seen throughout the revisions is labeled critical reception meaning the critics are saying the show is boring and repetitive (which I kind of agree). The review of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl states that it is overly simplistic but still would be enjoyable to watch for children. Due to the conflicting critic reviews there are many discussions on how to revise the TV series. To review possible edit wars I went to the “View History” page. Some of the words that stuck out to me were “reverting possible vandalism”, “undid revision”, and “remove misleading 4th paragraph”. After further reviewing the history, some revisions are disregarded and others are relevant and changes are made. 

I found it interesting that the revisions are completed by anyone with an idea. When reviewing the revisions, it shows two columns of different lines. The first column contains the original content and the second column is the requested edits to the original line by line. 

I learned that the Wikipedia site was more complicated than I initially thought it was. After years of my teachers and professors telling me not to use the site for information for papers, I now realize the reason. Practically anyone can create a page of information. It is a long process to get the page approved. And after it gets approved, page can go through numerous edits on just about any part of the information. There is a group that is considered the Wikipedia community and they have a set of core principles that they live by. These include act in good faith, seek consensus, avoid edit wars and never disrupting Wikipedia to illustrate a point. I found this interesting and sad that you need to have a rule to be nice to other people that may have a different opinion than you do. I understand that it is needed after I read some of the edit wars. I wasn’t sure what they meant by disrupting Wikipedia to illustrate a point, but it illustrates the point of using direct discussion and following the rules of the community. There is a possibility of getting banned from Wikipedia. Which means that you can no longer post or edit or create a Wikipedia page. It is possible to be able to re-enter the community by appealing the decision and pleading your case to a consensus of editors. 

To get started on creating a Wikipedia page you must work for a notable company, have a unique idea, and research Wikipedia to make sure it hasn’t been created by someone else. There is a lot of information to learn about the Wikipedia page development. I had no idea that there are revisions and talk about every page. I thought that the page was created like the old encyclopedias and the information was taken from years of research. So, before you present your information, you must research all the steps that it takes to begin writing your page. The first thing that needs to be completed is to create an account in order to create your Wikipedia page and to be able to edit other pages. To build your profile on Wikipedia, it seems like people do a lot of editing of other people’s pages. I see the same usernames popping up in different but related sites.

The most important thing to have is verifiable sources. They need to be factual and unbiased. Be careful of copyright infringement on photos that you use on your page. If you are including other company’s information, you will need to add a link to their site. If everything is in place then begin writing your text. When this is completed, the page needs to be submitted to Wikipedia for review and can possibly be rejected. If the page is accepted, it can be placed in the public space. I would think that would be the end of it. Now you must continue to monitor for updates and revisions from others or even updates from your company that may be happening every day or week or month. I personally don’t understand why anyone would go through all of this and not get paid for it?