How to Get a Wikipedia Page Approved
Wikipedia is one of the most highly visited websites in the world. It is a virtual encyclopedia, which allows people across the planet to pool in their efforts to collect, present and share reliable and verifiable information with everyone on the planet without any charges of fees. However, this information about Wikipedia is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many aspects to this website, which most people do not know about.
Now, according to the title of this blog, the focus of this piece will be on how you can create a Wikipedia article or page and all the techniques, which you can use to get it to go live on the official website. See, before getting in to how you can get your wikis approved, you first need to have a better understanding about what this platform is all about. You simply know the basic definition about what Wikipedia is. However, if you want to understand and learn how you can make a Wikipedia page and the way you can get these pages published then you need to have a deeper understanding of this virtual encyclopedia.
Understanding What Wikipedia is and what it is not
Let’s start with a little lesson in history. Wikipedia was actually, an online English encyclopedia, which made its way into this world or was founded in the year 2000 as a complementary project, which fell under the umbrella of Nupedia. Now, even though Wikipedia is the only online encyclopedia, which has gotten success and fame like no other website in the world but it wasn’t the only online encyclopedia, which you know of. There have been many online encyclopedias before Wikipedia, which were following the same collaboration principles as Wikipedia does even now. Now, Wikipedia, the domain we know about today was formally, launched and registered in the year 2001.
So, formally starting its journey under a registered name, Wikipedia was initially taking its contributions from Nupedia, Slashdot and other websites. Nupedia and Wikipedia were going hand in hand until the year 2003 and by the end of the year 2004 all the text, which Nupedia had was formally, shifted under the domain name of Wikipedia.
A Closer Look at Wikipedia
Now, if you wish to comprehend how this virtual platform works, who can make a Wikipedia page and how your pages can get published on Wikipedia, then you need to understand this platform in a much more comprehensive manner.
Now, as mentioned before, Wikipedia is a virtual encyclopedia, it is a collaborative effort by people to collect a pool of reliable and authentic information. This means, that Wikipedia allows everyone on this planet to contribute information on this platform. If you are concerned about whether you need some kind of a license or whether Wikipedia charges for either, contributing information or using information then you need to understand that this is not how things are done at Wikipedia. It is a free platform, which welcomes people from all corners of the world, without any charges to read and get information, which it has collected. Furthermore, anyone with a computer and internet has the liberty to edit and create a page or article on Wikipedia as well.
How big is Wikipedia
As of today, Wikipedia has turned into the biggest pool of reliable and authentic information with more than 6.3 million English articles on the website. The complete number of pages on Wikipedia has now exceeded 53 million and English articles only make up around 11% of the complete pool of information on the website. Wikipedia provides information in more than 300 languages.
As far as number of admins is concerned, Wikipedia has a total number of 1086 admins and its total users has exceeded the figure 41 million. Now, if you talk about the number of contributions, which are made on this platform, then you should know that these days, almost more than 17000 Wikipedia articles are uploaded or published on this online encyclopedia every month. The number of articles being published reached its all-time peak back in 2006, when it went up to 50000 articles per month.
What Wikipedia is not
Now that you have a better understanding of what Wikipedia is, you now need to understand what it is not. Apparently, most of the business community all over the world wants to think of Wikipedia as a tool for marketing. Now, if you look at it from one aspect then yes, you can say that Wikipedia is one of the most amazing marketing tools, which could have ever been created. However, if you look at Wikipedia in the light of the policies and guidelines of Wikipedia then you will realize that it is a platform, which was only intended to create awareness and it has nothing to do with marketing, promotion or advertising.
In order for you to get your articles or pages published on Wikipedia, you must ensure that you have a clear and comprehensive understanding of the platform. According to the guidelines and policies of Wikipedia, which is the best place to find out what Wikipedia is all about, you can learn and ensure the right way to get your wiki articles published on the platform.
A Wikipedia page named “What Wikipedia is not” is the perfect place for fresh Wikipedia page creators and editors to learn about Wikipedia and have a better understanding about the platform. It is highly recommended to visit this page and read up thoroughly. However, the essence of this page is mentioned below in a few pointers, which may be helpful for you to understand.
· Wikipedia is an online Encyclopedia, not a paper encyclopedia.
· Wikipedia is not created to be used as a dictionary.
· Wikipedia is not a platform, where you can share your original ideas or theories.
· Wikipedia is not a platform to share personal essays or inventions.
· Wikipedia is not a platform for advertising or promotion.
· Wikipedia is not a platform, where you can come and discus or debate on different matters.
The Process you can Use to Get Your Wikis Published Easily
You may now have a clear understanding about Wikipedia. Now, let’s focus on providing you with information about the way you can achieve your goal of creating a Wikipedia page and getting it published.
See, according to many experts, there is a tested process, which is used by most of the successful Wikipedia editors and writers around the world for creating wikis, which end up being published. Now, this process is based on a number of steps, which are as follows:
· Step # 1 – Create an Account on Wikipedia
· Step # 2 – Choose a Title for Your Page/Article
· Step # 3 – Thoroughly Conduct Research and Collect Information
· Step # 4 – Write up the Page According to the Content Policies of Wikipedia
· Step # 5 – Submit Your Wikipedia Page for Review
Create an Account on Wikipedia
Account creation on Wikipedia is not really needed to edit or write articles or pages on Wikipedia. However, if you wish to create wikis or edit them then you should certainly go for registering yourself on the platform. The reason for creating an account on Wikipedia does not come from obligation but in fact, it is recommended due to the benefits it brings to the writers or editors.
When you create an account on Wikipedia, then you can make use of advanced editing tools of platform. Along with that you can also create user talk pages, which you can use to collaborate and communicate with other wiki users. Moreover, having an account on Wikipedia also allows you to create a user page as well, which helps you in creating awareness about yourself in the Wikipedia community.
Now, creating an account on Wikipedia is a fairly, simple thing to do. All you need is to simply, visit the website and click on the “create account” option, which can be seen on the top right side of the page. After clicking this option, you simply, fill in the information fields, which Wikipedia presents you with, which is nothing more than signing up on a gmail account.
Choose a Title for Your Page/Article
Now, once you have registered on Wikipedia, you need to start working on the creation of your page. You can use the red link method to create the page, which is by far the simplest page creation method available for everyone out there. However, in order to create a page on Wikipedia, you will be required to take care of two things; firstly, you will need to choose a title for your page or article, which is unique because Wikipedia will only show you the red link if the page does not exist on the platform, when you make a search on Wikipedia. Secondly, you need to make sure that the title of your page is according to the notability criteria set by the virtual encyclopedia.
Thoroughly Conduct Research and Collect Information
You have a page on Wikipedia, with your desired title. What you now need is information, which you need to put in that page. So, you need to collect information from verifiable and reliable sources by conducting a thorough and comprehensive research on your respective topic. While conducting research, you must absolutely, make sure to follow the research policies of Wikipedia, which clearly say that Wikipedia does not allow any original research on the platform.
Write up the Page According to the Content Policies of Wikipedia
Once you have collected the information about your topic, you must now focus on writing your article or page. Now, writing on Wikipedia is unlike writing on any other platform, it will require you to cater to the core content policies of the platform. You will also need to make sure that you are following all the other content policies along with every guideline, which this virtual platform has provided. Some of the most important aspects of Wikipedia writing are that you must always focus on delivering facts rather than opinions. You must always make sure that your writing tone is completely neutral and you must not be inclined towards any ideas, opinions or any schools of thought at any given time while writing on your Wikipedia page or article.
Submit Your Wikipedia Page for Review
Now that you have written you Wikipedia page, it is all ready for you to submit for the final screening process. However, before you submit your pages for the final review and screening, you must make sure that there are no mistakes in your content and page-writing format. It is always a good idea to go through and note down a live Wikipedia page and learn how the formatting works on every Wikipedia page, before you decide to submit your page for review. Once you think and you are absolutely, positive that your wiki page has no errors, only then you should move onto the submission of your Wikipedia page.
FAQs
Who can get a Wikipedia page made?
Well, Wikipedia is a free for website, where everyone and anyone is welcome to create pages. However, as far as the question is about who can get these pages made then you should know that anyone can get these pages made as well. As long as the topic of the page and the page content is according to the guidelines and policies of Wikipedia, then there are no problems about whoever can get these pages made.
Who can make a Wikipedia page?
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia, where anyone, who has access to the internet and a computer and come and contribute. So, anyone can make pages or articles on Wikipedia. However, everyone, who wishes to contribute on this platform must make sure that they are following the guidelines and policies of Wikipedia at all times because without following them, your pages or articles will simply, not be published officially.
How long does it take for a Wikipedia page to be approved?
Typically, it takes around 4 to 6 months for a Wikipedia page to be reviewed and be approved by the official wikipedian community.
