Reader Jeff Cook writes in to suggest that we mention Wikipedia. That’s a good idea. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia which is edited by its readers. For example, if you think that the page on Mormons is inaccurate, you can edit it yourself. Or if you think that something is missing — note the lack of information on Zelph, for instance — you can create such a page yourself. Since a number of people use Wikipedia, updating and expanding its information about church topics seems like a useful (not to mention fun) investment of time.
Wikipedia is great. I go there first for all of my “Huh? What’s that?” moments.
I’ve never thought of contributing though. Too much responsibility.
Well, there’s now a short snippet on Zelph but it looks like it could use a lot more work. And a number of fun Mormon topics remain untouched. Nary a page on Korihor, for instance.
I have posted about Wikipedia before at Doctrinal:net, as I also find it to be a great resource. I recall simply adding the term “Encyclopedia of Mormonism” to the entry on ‘religious encyclopedias’ early this year, and when I went back a month or two later, someone had created a complete entry for the EoM. So if you don’t feel you can contribute an entire article, any small contribution seems to be a good idea. The whole idea of a peer reviewed encyclopedia is a very exciting one, and I even considered starting an LDS version when I first acquired the “Doctrinal.net” URL. As I mentioned in my post, “All About Mormons” is also a great site.
I am a Wikipedia contributor, although I haven’t edited any LDS-related entries because the ones I’ve seen seem pretty accurate and comprehensive as they stand.
Wikipedia is one of my most important resources when doing writing-related research. Because it appears to be accurate on the subjects I am very familiar with (such as the Church) I tend to trust what is said in subjects I don’t know much about.
I’ve long wanted to contribute to the Wikipedia on LDS issues, but frankly the syntax of an article completely escapes me… and I can’t find a good resource to explain how one should go about writing/marking-up an entry.