Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Help! I've Been Wikipedia'd!

I never cared about having a Wikipedia page, until I had a Wikipedia page. If fact, even though it's my go-to source for the little bit of research I actually do, I've never really thought about having my own page.

The problem is, I'm so busy with work right now, I'm afraid I don’t have time to figure out how this whole thing works. I can't even figure out who nominated the page in the first place. I see that the page is up for deletion unless they can verify it's a legit entry, or something to that effect.

So I'm asking for a little help from you all. Do you know how this works? Are any of you active editors of Wikipedia? Is that even the right terminology? Can you edit and add info for me (like the awards and honors we've won)?
You can see the page in question here. Thanks in advance for any advice or assistance you can provide!

21 comments:

Kari said...

You're good. The moderators had a problem with the tone of the original article, and its lack of quality references. They're highlighting more notable references, like the articles in the SF Gate and Mercury News.

Looks like it's being edited right now to address the concerns of the moderators. I don't think it's going anywhere. :)

Chef John said...

Thanks!

Asian Malaysian said...

Chef John, please contribute information to the page. Like your birthday. How many people have the opportunity to have Wikipedia inform the Wikiuniverse that "On this day..." they were born? ok, I totally have no idea how wikipedia editing works and how youre going to do that but it would be so cool if you could.

Veronica said...

hahaha congratulations!! Everyone and everything has one - you should too, I guess. :D

Anonymous said...

yay! our famous chef!

Peter said...

The best thing to do about a wikipedia page is nothing at all. Self-editing is super frowned upon, if you wish to add or correct something add it to the discussion page and it will get evaluated and added to the main page.

Had it not been for your wikipedia page, I would not have known you attended Paul Smith College. My father grew up in Saranac Lake and I remember getting lunch with my grandparents at the Hotel Saranac. Neat memories.

Joffre The Giant said...

You're real now! :-)

Anonymous said...

Congrats

Chef John said...

Peter,
Oops! I did make a few edit to clarify a couple things that were there! Is that going to be a big deal? Should someone else go in and delete and re-enter the info?
Thanks!

LDM said...

As Peter said:
DO NOT EDIT IT YOURSELF. Self-edits are highly frowned upon.

If you feel that information is relevant (and cite-able....) add it to the discussion page and let someone else add it in, or add it to your Blogger Profile page here on Food Wishes and hopefully it will trickle up. External sources are always useful, especially if they are in print (for some reason some of the editors tend to frown on digital-only references).

LDM said...

I wouldn't worry about a few small factual edits, but don't make a habit of it & don't add any statements that praise you (or delete statements that are critical of you)

Pantalone said...

Yeah, let other people edit it.

So when's the next tasty treat?

Chris K. said...

Note to self: never, EVER become high-profile enough to merit a Wikipedia page. Nothing but problems.

I like to shoot high and aim low.

Lani said...

Well, at least they didn't say anything bad about you John! Wikipedia is not a credited reference site anyway, because any person can edit it.

I would speak to your attorney to see what his suggestion is. With your personality and profession, I am sure your career will keep climbing.

benoit said...

Hi Chef John!

I've been enjoying your videos and have been cooking some of the dishes you propose. My favorite being the chicken parmesan oven-version that's really easy and delicious.

It also happens that I am a wikipedia contributor. Please can you remove the sentence "Do you know how to ensure the page is not deleted?" from your post because people are starting to flood the deletion debate about your page. This is unnecessary as opinions from non-Wikipedia contributors are not taken into account and the discussion only purpose is to determine if you're admissible or not. This is influenced by the number of articles that talk about you.

All the best.
Benoit.

Chef John said...

Done. Thanks!!

Wikipedian said...

Hi Chef John,

I've tried to comment here twice but I think that the spam filter ate my comment.

Your page has been kept on Wikipedia, the deletion discussion was closed and they decided to keep the page because you've appeared in several newspapers in the past.

If you could take a picture of yourself and post it on your blog under a Creative Commons license, one of us could put it on your Wikipedia page for you! We can't use just any old picture because everything on here right now is copyrighted, so you need to explicitly state that a picture is available for derivative works in order for us to put it on Wikipedia. :)

scallywag said...

Wow, you went to Paul Smith's... I went to ESF, haha those colleges had a great hatred for each other especially when it comes to the woodsmens rivalries. The only thing I'm envious about is that Paul Smith's is located in one of the most prestine, beautifulist places in NY State... The Adirondacks

Brandie said...

My boyfriend introduced me to food wishes. He watches all the time, and so do I now. I always thought your name sounded really familiar. Upon looking at your Wikipedia page, and looking at one of the recent pictures of you, it clicked! You were one of my chef instructors at the CCA!

I still think about making a squash bird all the time!

Thanks for all the great videos and being such a great cooking teacher!

Chef John said...

Thanks! Squash Bird for Life! ;-)

Unknown said...

That's awesome. Congratulations :D