Wikipedia

I have always used Wikipedia as the first point of call when I want to know a little tid bit about something. I think that the idea behind it is a great, and means that when you want to know the name of Queen Victoria's third daughters (as my Mum and I wanted to know last night, Helena by the way) I could find it out instantly. It's information like that, that I know will probably be correct. 

I have never thought of editing a page, or creating one. I suppose I have never thought I have more knowledge of something than someone else or want to accidentally give out the wrong information. I decided to have a go at editing the biography of Francesco Datini, the husband of the woman I wrote my honours thesis on last year. Margherita doesn't have her own page, and my thinking was that maybe one day I'll write it, but I'd begin by editing one that already exists. 

His biography was pretty sparse, although there is a lot of information out there. I got out my thesis ready to add to the wikipedia page and make it better, adding some of the references that I had used but the original had not. I was excited that I could put something of my thesis into the public domain.... but then I came to referencing. 

Having studied history for five years I know how integral referencing is to legitimising an article and an argument, and how useful it is when there are good references at the end of a Wikipedia page. But I found it so painful and difficult to cite sources in Wikipedia, I made three changes and then gave up. 

I know referencing takes time, but I expected Wikipedia, a site which thrives on public input and knowledge would make it easier to reference, or at least easier to find the templates to add references. 

One day I'll get around to writing Margherita's page- I think she deserves it!