Grants:IdeaLab/Depoliticize historical pages
Project idea
editWhat Wikimedia project(s) and specific areas will you be evaluating?
editIs this project measuring a specific space on a project (e.g. deletion discussions), or the project as a whole?
Project as a whole I suppose?
Describe your idea. How might it be implemented?
editProvide details about the method or process of how you will evaluate your community or collect data. Does your idea involve private or personally identifying information? Take a look at the Privacy Policy for Wikimedia’s guidelines in this area.
I consider verity of content to be paramount in any quasi-open forum medium, and far too often pages that should be dealing only with historical fact are diluted with discussion of modern politics or content added by individuals with the intent of furthering their own political ends in the modern world. Pages of countless figures of history are marred with instances of individual contributors imprinting their own political views on what ought be purely historical fact (from both sides of the aisle!). In today's climate of fake news, the truth should be placed front and center on every wikipedia page. Thus, I suggest isolating specific instances of politically motivated additions and either labelling them as such or simple deletion. Certainly such scale seems vast, but I doubt it would be in any capacity unmanageable given adequate time and effort. It's worth it for the name of Wikipedia.
Are there experienced Wikimedians who can help implement this project?
editIf applicable, please list groups or usernames of individuals who you can work with on this project, and what kind of work they will do.
Nobody yet it's just me for now :( I don't use this forum a lot but I love seeing Wikipedia advertising projects like this and love that we are making this community a better place :)
How will you know if this project is successful? What are some outcomes that you can share after the project is completed?
editI am fluent in excel and would be more than willing to personally quantify findings and results in a relatively concise document
How would your measurement idea help your community make better decisions?
editAfter you are finished measuring or evaluating your Wikimedia project, how do you expect that information to be used to benefit the project?
Better implementation of community guidelines within the community itself
Do you think you can implement this idea? What support do you need?
editDo you need people with specific skills to complete this idea? Are there any financial needs for this project? If you can’t implement this project, can you scale down your project so it is doable?
As many people that have Wikipedia's best interest at heart would be more than welcome to help, I'm just tossing this idea out there to see if anyone else has shared my experience and wants to ameliorate the situation to whatever extent possible.
Get Involved
editAbout the idea creator
editStudent, Historian, anything that interests me
Participants
editEndorsements
edit- I agree there should be no place for revisionist history at Wikipedia. This must be of paramount importance to everyone both within the wiki organization and the public at large. BilltheCatACK (talk) 19:59, 9 August 2018 (UTC)
Expand your idea
editWould a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation help make your idea happen? You can expand this idea into a grant proposal.
No funding needed?
editDoes your idea not require funding, but you're not sure about what to do next? Not sure how to start a proposal on your local project that needs consensus? Contact Chris Schilling on-wiki at I JethroBT (WMF) (talk · contribs) or via e-mail at cschilling
wikimedia.org for help!