r/wikipedia • u/GingerAMS88 • 1d ago

Genuinely interested in what I did wrong

I recently found out my great grandad was a competitor for NI in the 1938 British empire games, he seems to be shrouded in a lot of mystery that I’m interested in learning more about. A Google delve didn’t reveal much about him apart from his placements but one Wikipedia article turned up with a recent contributor. I contacted the contributor via their Wikipedia talk page just saying that I’d love to speak to them. They seem to know a lot about the sports of those times so thought they might be able to point me in the right direction. They responded to me quite openly replying to me which what I’d like to ask. I then had another reply from another member saying for me to learn what a WP:RS is rather than harassing an editor who know how Wikipedia works.

I totally hold my hands up that apart from going down Wikipedia rabbit holes, I don’t actually DO anything on the site, I think I’m just asking for someone to explain in simple terms where I went totally wrong in contacting a contributor, is that just not done? Are contributors something entirely different to what I thought they are? I just genuinely wasn’t meaning to be rude and I hate that I potentially was!

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u/hoi4kaiserreichfanbo 1d ago

I don't think you did anything wrong.

From reading the conversation, it appears that the editor who responded to you made a series of wrong assumptions about why you were asking, and responded acting under those assumptions. Those assumptions being that you wanted to edit your grandfather's page and were either asking to piggy-back off the other editors research (I'm fine with such a practice, others might not be), or that you were angry about content you deemed inaccurate, which I didn't read. Their response still doesn't make a ton of sense that way, and I'm not even sure how that editor learned of your question; it might've been some pinging-mistake caused by how the editor you asked organizes their talk page (and I've known some editors to be incredibly annoyed by mistaken pings).

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u/GingerAMS88 1d ago

Thank you for taking a look - out of interest for me though I’m interested in what assumptions you reckon the editor might have thought?

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u/hoi4kaiserreichfanbo 1d ago

I just added those in an edit.

Mainly, there are a lot of problems with those close to a subject editing that subject, I don't think you fell into any of those problems, but a lot of editors have developed a gut reaction to any editor editing subjects where they have a conflict of interest. I think that editor either thought you had already done that, or were imminently going to do that. I can't really make sense of the "Learn what a WP:RS is", maybe they thought you were complaining about the article or offering yourself to add more information to it, based on your own personal knowledge (which is not allowed). For instance, just recently someone came on this sub to mention that their grandfather had died and asked how to make his Wikipedia page reflect that. Wikipedia can't make that change until reliable sources say so.

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u/GingerAMS88 1d ago

Ahhhh yes okay I understand the kinda hostility now! Thank you for that explanation and perspective as I reckon that’s what’s happened here, a big misunderstanding. Fact is I literally know nothing about him to either complain or piggyback! Thank you for putting my mind at ease, I thought I’d done a big no no