Re: Ed Howdershelt in Wikipedia

> 1. WooHoo, I'm in Wikipedia...
>
> Twice! ...And not only did I *not* make my own entries, I don't  
> know who did make them. If that info is easily available, I'll send  
> someone a thank-you note.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_boxes
> and
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Howdershelt
> Ed

People need to understand Wikipedia's "history" tab. This gives a  
complete description of the history of the article, with the account  
name of everyone who's ever made even the slightest change to it, and  
a tool to see what changes were made between any revisions. Wikipedia  
editors can be reached in two ways: clicking on the word "talk" next  
to their account name, e.g. "Ezra Wax (talk)", brings you to their  
"User Talk page", where you can leave a note. That can always be  
used. Many but by no means all editors can be reached indirectly by  
email; the "email this user" link takes you to a web form that allows  
you to send email to them. It does not disclose their email address  
to you!

In the case of these two articles, the History tab shows us that the  
article was created by a user whose Wikipedia account name is "Ezra  
Wax," but that all he created was a short stub. We can compare any  
two revisions to see what changes were made.

Because the article is tagged "This article may not meet the general  
notability guideline," it's possible that it might get proposed for  
deletion and removed unless, as the notice says, someone adds  
"reliable, secondary sources about the topic."

In practice, the best way to proceed would be to find things in  
"reliable sources" that mention Ed Howdershelt in a context that  
shows that he's of some importance. The bar is _not_ terribly high  
either for "reliable sources" or "importance." A reliable source  
would definitely include a print science fiction magazine. The main  
thing is you can't just say he's known in the science-fiction  
community, you need to cite evidence, and "reliable source" means  
other editors need to be able to verify the citation, and it can't be  
something like a personal web page.

"Four Boxes" was created by a name whose account name is "yvwv,"  
again a short stub not even attributing the quote. The important  
addition was made by an editor with no account, listed only by IP  
address 76.103.154.121.

Editing one's own biography is strongly frowned upon and should be  
avoided.



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