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Reviews and feedbacks play a huge role when purchasing a product or service. You usually check out users’ feedback and want to learn about their experiences with it. Reviews are genuine, and you based on actual customer experience. People tend to believe in them easily and judge the product or service according to that. But what if we tell you that these reviews aren’t reliable?
It’s not always the service provider or company who is at fault; sometimes, it’s the customer too. This is especially the case with Wikipedia reviews on various platforms, such as Trust Pilot, Yelp, Google My Business, Facebook, etc. When you search about Wikipedia services on the internet, you are most likely to come across negative reviews and unpleasant experiences. You’ll see customers bashing Wikipedia and its editors with foul words and calling them a fraud. But that’s just one side of the story, and we’re here to tell you what exactly happens.
Creating an article on Wikipedia is not a piece of cake, and users usually do not understand this. Article creation takes a ton of time, research, and effort while maintaining is a tougher task. Users tend to forget that Wikipedia is a global encyclopedia, a platform where you find factual, informative, and valuable content. To maintain the essence of the encyclopedia, Wikipedia highly condemns articles that are promotional and advertisement-like. It takes strict action against accounts that seem fake and have only been created to create a page they were paid for.
Wikipedia is an open-source platform where anyone, at any point in time, can make any edits to any article. Yes, that’s right, but what you don’t know is that those edits don’t stay for long. You can make an edit today, and it could be gone by tomorrow. This is because Wikipedia has a team of active editors and administrators that keep track of all the articles out there. This team is always ready to correct irrelevant edits made on Wikipedia pages.
When users begin the creation of their page, they should have a clear understanding of what can be added to a Wikipedia article and whatnot. They cannot just add their entire life story and expect the editors to accept. Unfortunately, that’s not how it goes. There’s a certain tone and way to go about a Wikipedia article. Be it a person’s page, a business page, or general information about a product or service, the subject needs to be known by the internet or valuable enough for the world to know.
So, users with their assumptions about Wikipedia articles keep trying to publish their page unaware and ignorant of Wikipedia’s publishing policies. And the next thing they see is their article being deleted or the draft being rejected. This frustrates the users, and they lash out at reviews websites, talking bad about Wikipedia and its editors. You see, it’s not Wikipedia to be blamed; it’s the users that do not go with the editor’s advice. Wikipedia editors have created a dedicated page of rules and guidelines known as the Wikipedia GNG, i.e., the General Notability Guideline. This page provides a clear idea of what can be published on Wikipedia and the factors one can judge the subject.
The General Notability Guideline is a detailed guideline about what the articles on Wikipedia should look like. The GNG includes factors such as significant coverage, reliability, sources, independent coverage; all these are followed by the editors and advised to the users, which they don’t follow and end up losing their page or account. Wikipedia has created a detailed page that covers every query and aspect that a person publishing on Wikipedia should know about. Without knowing the rules, there is a 100% possibility that their page would be deleted.
Another thing that should be brought to notice is that the editors make edits according to Wikipedia: Manual of Style. This is yet another important page to thoroughly read and understand. The Manual of Style is all about guiding its volunteer editors to write and maintain articles with accurate and consistent language and tone, layout, and formatting. They highly emphasize using plain English, which makes reading an encyclopedia easier. Editors should avoid ambiguity, jargon, and vague or unnecessary complex words.
People who wish to publish their pages on Wikipedia must follow the above-mentioned guidelines at all costs to see their pages live. Now that you know the real deal about Wikipedia reviews and why they are so bad, you shouldn’t rely on them. Get your research done, judge the subject on its notability and noteworthy and then decide whether or not to get it published on Wikipedia. Don’t forget to follow the GNG and MOS to be on the right track!