 | This user
participates in WikiProject Germany. |
Me
|
Facts! Facts! Facts!
I started at Wikipedia in late 2021 as a German to English translator, concentrating on German history from 1848 to 1933 with a particular emphasis on the Weimar Republic. Now I spend most of my time correcting factual errors. The number I find is more than a little depressing. I started noticing the extent of the problem when I made it part of my translation process to look at the articles that link to the ones I've translated in order to make sure that there are no factual contradictions. And they're everywhere. I haven't kept count, but I would say that of the linked articles that do more than mention the one I translated in passing, probably half have factual problems. And the errors aren't limited to German history – when they touch other areas, the problems are just as bad. Most of the factual errors are relatively minor (although even those add up), a few are to say the least highly imaginative, and virtually all cite no source. I've also gone through some relatively important Weimar era articles to add sources and found error after error doing that.
I know that there are people who say you can't trust Wikipedia, and I'm starting to wonder how I could answer them. Maybe something like, at the 30,000 foot level it's not at all bad, but when you get down in the weeds, beware? Wikipedia needs a small army of fact checkers. Dot the t's and cross the i's after you're sure the facts are right.
Contributions
Other significant contributions:
1. Weimar Republic: Rewrote the "History" section of the article to make it more coherent, accurate and have more sources.
2. Weimar cabinets: added the 3 articles that were missing (translated from German), expanded the remaining 17 where necessary and standardized the formats of all 20.
3. Soviet Republic of Saxony: Rewrote what had been a highly inaccurate article and renamed it to Saxony in the German Revolution (1918–1919).
4. Dawes Plan: Rewrote the article because it was based on a single 75-year-old and rather biased source.
5. Occupation of the Rhineland: Added new material to an article that had been focused almost entirely on the occupying military units.
6. Timeline of the Weimar Republic: Rewrote from scratch
7. Burgfriedenspolitik: Rewrote from scratch
8. Reichswehr: Added citations covering the whole page
9. Black Reichswehr: Rewrote from scratch
10. German workers' and soldiers' councils 1918–1919: new article
11. German Revolution (1918–1919): Added sources throughout; corrected a number of factual errors; rewrote the lead section; got no thanks (as usual)
|
| This user
participates in WikiProject Germany. |
Me
|
Facts! Facts! Facts!
I started at Wikipedia in late 2021 as a German to English translator, concentrating on German history from 1848 to 1933 with a particular emphasis on the Weimar Republic. Now I spend most of my time correcting factual errors. The number I find is more than a little depressing. I started noticing the extent of the problem when I made it part of my translation process to look at the articles that link to the ones I've translated in order to make sure that there are no factual contradictions. And they're everywhere. I haven't kept count, but I would say that of the linked articles that do more than mention the one I translated in passing, probably half have factual problems. And the errors aren't limited to German history – when they touch other areas, the problems are just as bad. Most of the factual errors are relatively minor (although even those add up), a few are to say the least highly imaginative, and virtually all cite no source. I've also gone through some relatively important Weimar era articles to add sources and found error after error doing that.
I know that there are people who say you can't trust Wikipedia, and I'm starting to wonder how I could answer them. Maybe something like, at the 30,000 foot level it's not at all bad, but when you get down in the weeds, beware? Wikipedia needs a small army of fact checkers. Dot the t's and cross the i's after you're sure the facts are right.
Contributions
Other significant contributions:
1. Weimar Republic: Rewrote the "History" section of the article to make it more coherent, accurate and have more sources.
2. Weimar cabinets: added the 3 articles that were missing (translated from German), expanded the remaining 17 where necessary and standardized the formats of all 20.
3. Soviet Republic of Saxony: Rewrote what had been a highly inaccurate article and renamed it to Saxony in the German Revolution (1918–1919).
4. Dawes Plan: Rewrote the article because it was based on a single 75-year-old and rather biased source.
5. Occupation of the Rhineland: Added new material to an article that had been focused almost entirely on the occupying military units.
6. Timeline of the Weimar Republic: Rewrote from scratch
7. Burgfriedenspolitik: Rewrote from scratch
8. Reichswehr: Added citations covering the whole page
9. Black Reichswehr: Rewrote from scratch
10. German workers' and soldiers' councils 1918–1919: new article
11. German Revolution (1918–1919): Added sources throughout; corrected a number of factual errors; rewrote the lead section; got no thanks (as usual)