While it makes perfect sense that Wikipedia reflects the biases of the sources its contributors pull from, I am SMACKED by the disparity in those percentages, both of women represented on Wikipedia and of the gender proportions of the editors. This makes me curious to see what women authors in genres I’m more familiar with (like poetry and nature writing) are as-yet-to-be-included.
Hey y’all, I wanted to note that I suspect there may be some bias in the reviewing process...and that may be contributing to bias in who’s featured on Wikipedia. What’s considered “notable” seems highly subjective...I’d love to hear about other cartoonists/readers’ Wikipedia writing experiences.
Cara, I wonder if you can say a little more about this? Are you getting strange/difficult feedback on your edits and page creations? The only one I have worked on was my attempt to make a page for myself, which was flagged for not being objective enough (I teach a literary magazine course and referred to my students' magazine as "award-winning" before listing the several national awards it has won). I also started getting a lot of emails that appeared to be phishing scams, essentially saying that they could tell I was trying to make a page, and that I could hire them to do it.
The page I attempted to create--and yay, no it’s live!--was declined twice. Both times for not enough “notable secondary sources that were substantially about the individual” or some such wording...and yet, the second time, I included 20+ really robust sources. I looked over the reviewer’s pages and wondered if perhaps it was more a subjective about the subject matter. So I followed up with a wiki help page--and the page was immediately accepted and published.
I tried to create one for Adrienne Hedger. She has published 3 books with Andrew McMeel, het work is shared widely... not notable enough. What kind of changes did you make Cara?
Betje, how many references and what type of references did you add? The type of reference is key--and in that decline message Wikipedia includes some links to explain what they’re looking for. I’d recommend looking at the pages that Amaris linked above for Shay Mirk and Whit Taylor to see how they’re structured to get some ideas. However, if like me, you edit and then add a whole bunch of solid refs and STILL get declined--reach out to one of the Wiki help options in the decline message--and make your concerns known.
Finally circling back to this, thank you for your thoughts! I think there's another issue here. Adrienne Hedger has been creating cartoons for decades, has published a few books with a good publisher, but I can't find any interviews with her that are useful for this. There are some, but they're mostly really short ones that serve as an excuse to share a bunch of her comics. I think with her body of work, she deserves a Wikipedia page, but she hasn't had the media attention to make her notable enough...
That's tough. Maybe if you reach out to her, she can provide some more links to articles online that have more information you can cite? (Sorry to take so long to reply--the semester is in its last push....)
This inspired me to learn to edit Wikipedia. I spent time tonight editing Shay Mirk’s page, and Whit Taylor’s page--and then learned how to make a new page--newsflash 📰 it’s not hard!--and created a page for Teresa Wong that is under review now. This also makes me hope for my own page 😆
This is a hard comment to "like" because you SHOULD be on there! We will amend the list. Also, if you are interested in an interview, please send me an email at ketchama (at) unm (dot) edu--Nora and I would be happy to chat with you.
Cara, you are such a Wikipedia badass!! Thanks for keeping on with it. Theresa's page looks great - what a list of references! Thanks for all your work and keeping us posted.
While it makes perfect sense that Wikipedia reflects the biases of the sources its contributors pull from, I am SMACKED by the disparity in those percentages, both of women represented on Wikipedia and of the gender proportions of the editors. This makes me curious to see what women authors in genres I’m more familiar with (like poetry and nature writing) are as-yet-to-be-included.
Hey y’all, I wanted to note that I suspect there may be some bias in the reviewing process...and that may be contributing to bias in who’s featured on Wikipedia. What’s considered “notable” seems highly subjective...I’d love to hear about other cartoonists/readers’ Wikipedia writing experiences.
Cara, I wonder if you can say a little more about this? Are you getting strange/difficult feedback on your edits and page creations? The only one I have worked on was my attempt to make a page for myself, which was flagged for not being objective enough (I teach a literary magazine course and referred to my students' magazine as "award-winning" before listing the several national awards it has won). I also started getting a lot of emails that appeared to be phishing scams, essentially saying that they could tell I was trying to make a page, and that I could hire them to do it.
The page I attempted to create--and yay, no it’s live!--was declined twice. Both times for not enough “notable secondary sources that were substantially about the individual” or some such wording...and yet, the second time, I included 20+ really robust sources. I looked over the reviewer’s pages and wondered if perhaps it was more a subjective about the subject matter. So I followed up with a wiki help page--and the page was immediately accepted and published.
Just to say--it may be important to be persistent and follow up with the various help mechanisms if an article is declined
I tried to create one for Adrienne Hedger. She has published 3 books with Andrew McMeel, het work is shared widely... not notable enough. What kind of changes did you make Cara?
Betje, how many references and what type of references did you add? The type of reference is key--and in that decline message Wikipedia includes some links to explain what they’re looking for. I’d recommend looking at the pages that Amaris linked above for Shay Mirk and Whit Taylor to see how they’re structured to get some ideas. However, if like me, you edit and then add a whole bunch of solid refs and STILL get declined--reach out to one of the Wiki help options in the decline message--and make your concerns known.
Finally circling back to this, thank you for your thoughts! I think there's another issue here. Adrienne Hedger has been creating cartoons for decades, has published a few books with a good publisher, but I can't find any interviews with her that are useful for this. There are some, but they're mostly really short ones that serve as an excuse to share a bunch of her comics. I think with her body of work, she deserves a Wikipedia page, but she hasn't had the media attention to make her notable enough...
That's tough. Maybe if you reach out to her, she can provide some more links to articles online that have more information you can cite? (Sorry to take so long to reply--the semester is in its last push....)
*now it’s live (not “no” ☺️)
That's great to know about the persistence! And that it was so quick! Is this the page you created? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Wong_(cartoonist)
Yep!
Thank you, Cara!!
Such a great idea, and I am flattered that you included me! I am definitely going to circle back here during winter break!
Wonderful!
Oh wow, I had no idea of this gender disparity! Love your idea of making a change and am flattered you included me in the list!
Someone else who should definitely be on there is Adrienne Hedger. You’re saying you can’t post about friends though, how would they know?
I think they just assume it won't sound objective enough?
Thanks for bringing to this our attention and for offering actionable step.
This inspired me to learn to edit Wikipedia. I spent time tonight editing Shay Mirk’s page, and Whit Taylor’s page--and then learned how to make a new page--newsflash 📰 it’s not hard!--and created a page for Teresa Wong that is under review now. This also makes me hope for my own page 😆
I think it is great that you got up and running so quickly and started making pages!
This is great! Yeah, I'm not there either.
This is a hard comment to "like" because you SHOULD be on there! We will amend the list. Also, if you are interested in an interview, please send me an email at ketchama (at) unm (dot) edu--Nora and I would be happy to chat with you.
Yes, we'd love to feature your thoughts on comics!
Oh, thanks, that would be lovely!
Adding a note so that folks don’t duplicate work--I’ve got a pending review for a wiki page for Kelcey Ervick. This is my new nighttime hobby ☺️
Cara, you are such a Wikipedia badass!! Thanks for keeping on with it. Theresa's page looks great - what a list of references! Thanks for all your work and keeping us posted.
Kelcey’s page is live now ☺️
Looks great! Just updated on our post!
I love this so much! Thank you, Autobiographix!