[math-fun] Correcting Wikipedia
This is slightly off-topic, but I know some of you have experience correcting Wikipedia (or trying to!), so this forum seems like the best place to ask: How do I fix mistakes at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Propp? Also, I'm puzzled why entering "jim propp" into Safari on my iPhone brings up a page that says I was born in Yorkton, Canada. This (incorrect) information isn't on my home page or in the Jim Propp Wiki, so where is Safari getting it from? My father (who sometimes googles me from his laptop) brought the problem to my attention. Thanks, Jim Propp
Aha! I just noticed that at the bottom of the window that listed my birthplace as "Yorkton, Canada" there was a little button marked "Feedback", which enabled me to correct the error (and gave me information about the source of the misinformation: it's the folks at Google Search). I gave them two pieces of feedback. The first (ill-considered) message corrected the error and gave the correct city of my birth. The second said "On second thought, I'd rather you didn't give out this information." The folks at Google Search may not be evil (hey, it's against their corporate policy!), but I have less faith in the billions of people who use Google. My question about correcting mistakes in Wikipedia bios stands. Jim Propp On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 9:24 AM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote:
This is slightly off-topic, but I know some of you have experience correcting Wikipedia (or trying to!), so this forum seems like the best place to ask:
How do I fix mistakes at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Propp?
Also, I'm puzzled why entering "jim propp" into Safari on my iPhone brings up a page that says I was born in Yorkton, Canada. This (incorrect) information isn't on my home page or in the Jim Propp Wiki, so where is Safari getting it from? My father (who sometimes googles me from his laptop) brought the problem to my attention.
Thanks,
Jim Propp
Searching Google for [Jim Propp Yorkton] turns up the page https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajpropp, about a different "Dr Jim Propp". So I'd say the right feedback to give is that they have incorrectly clustered together information about two different entities with the same name. Unsurprisingly, over- and under-clustering things with the same name is a very hard problem, when the set of possible things is "everything in the world". --Michael On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 9:30 AM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote:
Aha! I just noticed that at the bottom of the window that listed my birthplace as "Yorkton, Canada" there was a little button marked "Feedback", which enabled me to correct the error (and gave me information about the source of the misinformation: it's the folks at Google Search).
I gave them two pieces of feedback. The first (ill-considered) message corrected the error and gave the correct city of my birth. The second said "On second thought, I'd rather you didn't give out this information." The folks at Google Search may not be evil (hey, it's against their corporate policy!), but I have less faith in the billions of people who use Google.
My question about correcting mistakes in Wikipedia bios stands.
Jim Propp
On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 9:24 AM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote:
This is slightly off-topic, but I know some of you have experience correcting Wikipedia (or trying to!), so this forum seems like the best place to ask:
How do I fix mistakes at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Propp?
Also, I'm puzzled why entering "jim propp" into Safari on my iPhone brings up a page that says I was born in Yorkton, Canada. This (incorrect) information isn't on my home page or in the Jim Propp Wiki, so where is Safari getting it from? My father (who sometimes googles me from his laptop) brought the problem to my attention.
Thanks,
Jim Propp
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
-- Forewarned is worth an octopus in the bush.
Correcting Wikipedia can often be next to impossible: http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/an-open-letter-to-wikipedia Victor Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 18, 2015, at 11:13, Michael Kleber <michael.kleber@gmail.com> wrote:
Searching Google for [Jim Propp Yorkton] turns up the page https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajpropp, about a different "Dr Jim Propp". So I'd say the right feedback to give is that they have incorrectly clustered together information about two different entities with the same name.
Unsurprisingly, over- and under-clustering things with the same name is a very hard problem, when the set of possible things is "everything in the world".
--Michael
On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 9:30 AM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote:
Aha! I just noticed that at the bottom of the window that listed my birthplace as "Yorkton, Canada" there was a little button marked "Feedback", which enabled me to correct the error (and gave me information about the source of the misinformation: it's the folks at Google Search).
I gave them two pieces of feedback. The first (ill-considered) message corrected the error and gave the correct city of my birth. The second said "On second thought, I'd rather you didn't give out this information." The folks at Google Search may not be evil (hey, it's against their corporate policy!), but I have less faith in the billions of people who use Google.
My question about correcting mistakes in Wikipedia bios stands.
Jim Propp
On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 9:24 AM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote:
This is slightly off-topic, but I know some of you have experience correcting Wikipedia (or trying to!), so this forum seems like the best place to ask:
How do I fix mistakes at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Propp?
Also, I'm puzzled why entering "jim propp" into Safari on my iPhone brings up a page that says I was born in Yorkton, Canada. This (incorrect) information isn't on my home page or in the Jim Propp Wiki, so where is Safari getting it from? My father (who sometimes googles me from his laptop) brought the problem to my attention.
Thanks,
Jim Propp
math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
-- Forewarned is worth an octopus in the bush. _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
Your change got reverted by a bot that objected to the link. I'd first make all the changes except for adding the link, and see if that gets changed. As for the link, the policy at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:External_links#Links_normally_to_be_... includes Blogs, personal web pages and most fansites, except those written by a recognized authority. (This exception for blogs, etc., controlled by recognized authorities is meant to be very limited; as a minimum standard, recognized authorities who are individuals always meet Wikipedia's notability criteria for people.) So you may have to persuade someone that you are a "recognized authority" on recreational mathematics. I think the bot is in the right here. You're not putting it in because it's a notable fact about Jim Propp (yet; if the blog becomes notable, things change, but at that point the blog should have its own wikipedia page as well), you're putting it in to publicize your blog, and that's against the link policy. Andy On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 9:24 AM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote:
This is slightly off-topic, but I know some of you have experience correcting Wikipedia (or trying to!), so this forum seems like the best place to ask:
How do I fix mistakes at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Propp?
Also, I'm puzzled why entering "jim propp" into Safari on my iPhone brings up a page that says I was born in Yorkton, Canada. This (incorrect) information isn't on my home page or in the Jim Propp Wiki, so where is Safari getting it from? My father (who sometimes googles me from his laptop) brought the problem to my attention.
Thanks,
Jim Propp _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
-- Andy.Latto@pobox.com
participants (4)
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Andy Latto -
James Propp -
Michael Kleber -
Victor S. Miller