Seven Day Log

Day 1 (3/28)

Making a Wikipedia account was way easier than I thought. I would expect some specific verification on who I was, maybe uploading an ID, but it was just as quick and simple as signing up for any website. It really had me thinking that I could add or fix information, knowing I am not an expert or reliable source. I found it pretty exciting creating an account, school has always told us to stay away from this site and now we get to be part of it. I think being an outsider from Wikipedia will be a lot different than making my own edits and doing things within the site. 

Day 2 (3/30)

Since I am a new user, I cannot edit the “Talk” page, but I will be able to after a little bit. For the Main Page, it shows important information on the basics of the site, such as the time zone it runs on, Today’s Featured Article (TFA),  admin instructions, and resolving different problems. I also observed a page on “Gender Bias” that there are so many people who show the reasoning behind why they added information on there. They have added their sources and data to support why they edited and fixed certain things which I believe makes me feel like people on Wikipedia do not always have bad and silly intentions, but may actually be reasonable. 

Day 3 (3/31)

Looking at the “View history” tab for information on sexism, there are many edits. When you hover and click on who made an edit or fix there are silly usernames of people who actually contributed to the information displayed. There is a very long list that shows that there is not one person who writes or edits, it is an endless thread of people fixing each other’s mistakes. The history for Gender Bias shows many of the same Wikipedia users editing and making fixes but it is a continuous pattern that also shows that they do have a continuous pattern. 

Day 4 (4/1)

I tried to begin the “Wikipedia Adventure” game and at first, I thought it would be fun until I kept pressing the buttons. I tried to move ahead after reading the fun facts about Wikipedia as a site itself, but it did not let me move forward. It kept telling me to register or log in, but I was already logged in with the account I already made. I did not get the full experience of the Wikipedia adventure game which was a bummer because i was curious to see how it worked. 

Day 5 (4/2)

I tried to do the adventure game again but I still wasn’t able to get a hold of it. After trying to get the Wikipedia Adventure game to work, I decided to just look at articles and search for gender bias. the first article that I read through was “Abortion Law,” Which gave a lot of background information as well as geographical facts about abortion laws within the entire world. it gave unbiased factual evidence of what goes on in different countries, and it gave a clear understanding of what abortion means Within different parts of the world. when I entered the talk portion of this article, There was a lot of confusion about abortion laws and there were some undertones of misogynistic comments. People within these comments were saying how pregnancy is better / healthier than an abortion, While others argued that pregnancy could be seven times as dangerous as an abortion. It was a very controversial topic as many people were having disagreements and you could see the differences in perspectives. The second article I read was named, “Abortion,” Which was a similar article. It did not speak too much about the geographical features of abortion and aspects of other countries’ laws and thoughts about it as much as the previous article. however, it did speak a lot about What abortion is itself, as well as several types of abortions or firms of birth control, and the history of abortion. Within these comments, they were much more aggressive when explaining their perspective on the context of the article. People were taking some matters as a joke, and others trying to make it seem like it was not an important topic to speak about, and this triggered others. it showed a lot of ignorance amongst topics this sensitive and it showed that there’s not enough attention brought to this topic as much as there should be. 

Day 6 (4/3)

I looked at the very long list of “Women in red,” and saw so many names from a large pool of countries. I was curious to find ones from Mexico but there were a lot that did not have a lot or enough information on them. The writing was short and did not give me too much of a background on some of the women. Then I started looking at painters from all around the world because I have a love for art museums and learning about art. All of the women were from centuries ago so it was going to be hard to get a depth of information on them. I spent a few hours trying to find one woman to focus on in particular, I think I was overthinking it at that point. 

Day 7 (4/5)

It was difficult to choose one of the many women on the “Woman in Red” list. One Mexican actress stood out to me, her stage name was “La Flaca.” it sounded familiar to me as I used to watch this show with my grandma where one of the women was also named “La Flaca.” I was scrolling through one of the articles on this actress when I saw a few minor grammar mistakes. I thought that it would be great to begin editing and practicing how to use my Wikipedia account. I began by editing small grammar mistakes, including spaces, quotations, and where commas needed to go. it was not as complicated as I thought it would be, and I felt a lot more comfortable editing on Wikipedia than I had before even trying to edit. I explained what the edit was, and why I chose to do it which made me feel more comfortable about other people editing on Wikipedia as well.