My Own Wikipedia Story
Someone asked me something fairly straightforward about the history of a university. Just out of curiosity, I went to Wikipedia’s page on the school to see if it had the answer. It didn’t. When I found the answer, I went back to the page and added it and some other basic information about the institution. Then I read the rest of the page. The way certain passages were written was misleading. Then I noticed some dates seemed funny. Using the university’s media office, a news database, and some materials on the institution’s Web site, I verified some of the dates and clarified the passages.
I doubt whoever wrote those passages was deliberately trying to mislead the reader. It’s more likely that either the person didn’t really know the full story, misinterpreted certain things, didn’t choose words carefully and reread what s/he wrote, or didn’t realize all of the fine details that made the statements incorrect.
I left citations for the information I added and corrected, so if the author returns, s/he can follow the information trail I did.
I wonder how long it will be before my edits vanish.
