My Wikipedia Article Was Unfairly Deleted

Why Wikipedia Deleted My Article: A Cautionary Tale for Editors

Published on June 15, 2023 | Wikipedia Editing Experience

After spending hours crafting what I believed was a professional, well-researched Wikipedia article, I experienced the frustration of having it deleted under suspicious circumstances. Here's my story and what I learned about the potential pitfalls of Wikipedia's editing ecosystem.

The Editing Process and Technical Errors

I had been working on a Wikipedia article for several days, carefully compiling information from reliable sources and structuring it according to Wikipedia's guidelines. The content was original, properly cited, and met the notability criteria. However, when I tried to save my work, I encountered multiple error messages.

Each time I attempted to save, the system would throw a "Galat" (error in Indonesian) notification. I tried refreshing, using different browsers, and even waiting several hours between attempts, but the problem persisted. Little did I know that these technical issues were connected to something more troubling happening behind the scenes.

Note to fellow editors: If you're experiencing repeated save errors on Wikipedia, it might indicate that your article is being reviewed or reported by other users.

The Sudden Disappearance

After my final unsuccessful save attempt, I returned to check on my article only to find it had completely vanished from Wikipedia. There was no trace of the hours of work I had invested. Confused and frustrated, I began investigating what had happened.

Upon checking the article's history and deletion log, I discovered that my article had been reported - not once, but twice - by the same user. The first report had been canceled and replaced with a new one. Shortly after, another user had taken action to delete my article entirely.

The Suspicious Discovery

What happened next was even more surprising. While searching for my deleted article on Google, I found a mirror of my exact content on a university website. The timing and content match were too precise to be coincidental.

Through further investigation, I discovered that both the user who reported my article and the one who deleted it were students at that same university. This raised serious questions about their motives and whether this constituted coordinated behavior to remove competing content.

Even more concerning, I noticed that several articles with questionable quality remained on Wikipedia, including ones that used personal Instagram accounts as references or contained numerous external links to the same university's resources. These articles appeared to be protected by the same group of users.

The Quality Paradox

The most frustrating aspect of this experience was the stark contrast in content quality. My deleted article was professionally written, properly sourced, and met Wikipedia's standards, while the articles that remained were clearly lower in quality:

• They used personal social media accounts as references
• They contained excessive external links to specific websites
• They showed clear signs of promotional content
• They lacked the depth and proper structure of a quality Wikipedia entry

My article was still a work in progress with plans for additional content, but it was deleted before I could complete these improvements. Meanwhile, the substandard articles continue to exist on Wikipedia, seemingly protected by a group of editors with shared interests.

Lessons Learned and Recommendations

This experience taught me several important lessons about Wikipedia editing:

• Document everything: Keep copies of your work and take screenshots of the editing process.
• Understand the community dynamics: Wikipedia has power users and groups that can influence content decisions.
• Be prepared for disputes: Familiarize yourself with Wikipedia's dispute resolution processes.
• Consider gradual development: Instead of creating a complete article at once, consider building it incrementally.

While Wikipedia remains an invaluable resource, my experience highlights potential vulnerabilities in its content moderation system. When editors with conflicting interests can coordinate to remove competing content while protecting their own lower-quality articles, it undermines the platform's integrity.

I hope sharing this story helps other editors navigate similar challenges and encourages Wikipedia to continue improving its systems to prevent such coordinated behavior.

Wikipedia Editing Content Deletion Online Communities Digital Ethics Content Moderation

© 2023 Wikipedia Editor Experience Blog. This article represents a personal experience and is not affiliated with Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation.