Project Adopt a Wiki – A Cyberspace Odyssey

As you might recall, I had a fairly tedious yet brief encounter with Wikipedia trying to stick my nose into the Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Wiki page (read my post from then).

On 25th of January, 2005, the initial page was created with a mere paragraph providing a ridiculously subjective summary of Lord Byron's narrative poem.

It is a poem about masculinity. It deals with the underdog and Military might. Byron uses gothic imagery to get subline nature, representing adventure. Climbing mountains for sport. Previous to this climbing mountains had been thought of as being associated with badness. Engaging and conquering the dark side of nature.

You can see the initial page or its comparison with the latest version. I have to say, it's quite an astonishing experience seeing those two versions side by side, for you can really tell: wow, there are people around the world who care about the same topic, yet holding completely different attitudes towards the subject. A result: these Wiki contributors, myself included, emphasize rather differently what to include in Childe Harold's profile page here.

Joseph Mallord William Turner's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage 1823

A somewhat slap-in-the-face reminder of why you shouldn't use Wikipedia as a credible source: it changes and gets updated so often that you couldn't catch up with it. I revisited the page that I lovingly cultivated, nurtured and trimmed barely a month ago, just to find that wiki vandal Madam A had ripped off Richard Westall's portrait of Ianthe, and wiki vandal Gentleman B had decided that cultural references had been a trivial part and deserves complete demolition.

Thanks to the ever so transparent cyberspace, all Wikipedia editing process is traceable and you can see the complete history of previous editions. In solidarity I clicked undo in those recent editions that offered no apparent reasons, thinking that Asterix in Belgium deserved some spotlights in Wiki-verse. 

At this point I've had an "almost-revelation". A Wikipedia page you created is like your baby. You have to develop it with care and love. Once you decided to abandon it, then forces from outside would start to step in and you would lose complete control over it. Of course you can also adopt the abandoned prodigal son of whatever subject of your interest, like I did with Childe Harold. I've made up my mind that I will now take up to be Harold in Wiki's foster parent, shielding it from all influences without my parental guidance.

And just like what anyone would tell their foster kid: don't let anyone tell you that you're unworthy of redemption. Look how far you've come since the initial shabby state you had been in!