Essay on editing Wikipedia
An article that begins as a featured article will be subjected to vandalism , unhelpful edits , and link rot , which will eventually reduce its quality in a manner similar to radioactive decay .
Congratulations! You just wrote a sweet article on...something. You used reliable sources that satisfy the general notability guideline . All of the facts are verifiable and avoid pushing a point-of-view . The freely licensed or legitimate fair use images illustrate the article. The writing is well-crafted, so well-crafted in fact that the article is probably a good article . If you're really good, the article might even be a featured article some day.
That's not enough. You see, every article has a half-life .
The phrase "Half-life " describes the time it takes for a substance to degrade to half its former quantity. The term is most often used within the context of radioactive decay .
Over time, vandalism , disruptive editing , unhelpful edits , hoaxes , original research and link rot and a lack of updating the article regarding new scholarship and new findings on the topic will all degrade an article's quality. Like radioactive decay , your featured article will degrade into a good article , and then into a poor quality article which then will require serious cleanup and improvement work.
The half-life for every article is different, but every article, no matter what the quality, will eventually degrade.
Often, the big edits like page blanking or joke edits will likely draw attention from even casual editors. It can be the minor edits that cause the most damage. Maybe a new user unintentionally breaks a source url or wikilink , or a careless user adds incorrect information interspersed with correct additions. These edits add up surprisingly quickly.
Remember that the long-term quality of an article depends on your continued effort to update and cleanup over time, not just the initial effort. Keep an eye on articles through your watch list and periodically review them, and while you are there, prune out OR and vandalism and remove unsourced quotations and biased POV additions.
See also
Adminitis
Akin's Laws of Article Writing
Alternatives to edit warring
ANI flu
Anti-Wikipedian
Anti-Wikipedianism
Articlecountitis
Asshole John rule
Assume bad faith
Assume faith
Assume good wraith
Assume stupidity
Assume that everyone's assuming good faith, assuming that you are assuming good faith
Avoid using preview button
Avoid using wikilinks
Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense
Barnstaritis
Before they were notable
BOLD, revert, revert, revert
Boston Tea Party
Butterfly effect
CaPiTaLiZaTiOn MuCh?
Complete bollocks
Counting forks
Counting juntas
Crap
Don't stuff beans up your nose
Don't-give-a-fuckism
Don't abbreviate "Wikipedia" as "Wiki"!
Don't delete the main page
Editcountitis
Edits Per Day
Editsummarisis
Editing Under the Influence
Embrace Stop Signs
Emerson
Fart
Five Fs of Wikipedia
Seven Ages of Editor, by Will E. Spear-Shake
Go ahead, vandalize
How many Wikipedians does it take to change a lightbulb?
How to get away with UPE
How to put up a straight pole by pushing it at an angle
How to vandalize correctly
How to win a citation war
Ignore all essays
Ignore every single rule
Is that even an essay?
Mess with the templates
My local pond
Newcomers are delicious, so go ahead and bite them
Legal vandalism
List of jokes about Wikipedia
LTTAUTMAOK
No climbing the Reichstag dressed as Spider-Man
No one cares about your garage band
No one really cares
No, really
No sorcery threats
Notability is not eternal
Oops Defense
Play the game
Please be a giant dick, so we can ban you
Please bite the newbies
Please do not murder the newcomers
Pledge of Tranquility
R-e-s-p-e-c-t
Requests for medication
Requirements for adminship
Rouge admin
Rouge editor
Sarcasm is really helpful
Sausages for tasting
The Night Before Wikimas
The first rule of Wikipedia
The Five Pillars of Untruth
Things that should not be surprising
The WikiBible
Watchlistitis
Wikipedia is an MMORPG
WTF? OMG! TMD TLA. ARG!
What Wikipedia is not/Outtakes
Why not create an account?
Yes legal threats
You don't have to be mad to work here, but
You should not write meaningless lists
About essays Policies and guidelines