Wikipedia Editing Task

During our Wednesday morning class of the module EN6009 on February 8th, we were tasked with editing a wikipedia article and live tweeting the process.

When choosing my article I wanted to find something that interested me and that needed editing.

I'm from West Cork and work in the Goleen area. Coming from the Mizen Peninsula, the Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier is very widely known. However, despite the how well known the case is the Wikipedia article on the case had some holes and was lacking information. Given that the case is still unsolved, I think it's important that the article be updated and contain as much accurate information as possible.

I began by adding the name of Catherine "Jules" Thomas to the article. My reasoning behind this was her surname "Thomas" is mentioned in a sentence however, her full name is not listed prior leading to confusion in who this "Thomas" person might be. The assumption would like be made that a man named "Thomas" was involved when that is not the case. Another user undid my edit and wrote in the talk section of the article that I need to "avoid naming people where it adds nothing to the understanding to the event". I disputed this claim with the individual explaining that this information was necessary for clarity purposes but they still said I was wrong to include this information. Catherine "Jules" Thomas is listed in a large number of articles on this case including the official 2018 GSOC report titled "Information Report from the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission at the completion of the investigation into the complaints of Ian Bailey, Catherine “Jules” Thomas and Marie Farrell". Her surname is listed in the article so I cannot understand why her full name is not included.

I added information including Sophie's full name, her date of birth, the names of her parents, her siblings names and her sons name to the victim section of the article. The same user undid my edits stating that the article "is about an event, not a bio". I disagree, especially considering the edits were made to the "Victim" section which is all about Sophie, meaning it is inherently biographical. Moreover, when you look at other Wikipedia pages about true crime cases, for example the Killing of Gabby Petito page, there is information in the victim section about Gabby Petito such as her full name, date of birth, the number of siblings she has, where she went to college etc. If these pages were supposed to be solely about the criminal events that took place all pf this information included in the Gabby Petito page should be removed, right? Similarly, in the article about the Disappearance of Alissa Turney, her half sister, Sarah Turney's, name is listed since she is one of the main people who has fought for justice for Alyssa in the same way Sophie's family fight for her. The victim section of Sophie's page should be about her. This is the bio section of the article meaning information about Sophie and her family is relevant. I think the information about her family is especially relevant since they are the ones who are still campaigning for justice for Sophie to this day. They are incredibly relevant to the victim and the case. The user who corrected my edits disagreed.

I added some citations that were needed, clarified the location of the cottage and expanded on the True Crime Accounts section of the article. The above anonymous user that had undid all my previous edits, fortunately, had no problem with these edits and so they remained untouched and are still present in the article. There were a number of books missing from the list which I added along with accompanying citations. I attempted to add a picture of Sophie to the article but couldn't find any that met the copyright restrictions attached to Wikipedia. I ended by adding one or two more citations to the article.

I did not take a before and after screenshot but here is a screenshot of some of the edits I made during our class time, though a number of them are now no longer present in the article. I had planned to make further edits to the article, especially to the "Victim" section which is supposed to be biographical and about the victim. However, since there is a Wikipedian who disagrees with this I won't be wasting my time making edits that I think are important but that will automatically be undone. The article is titled the "Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier" therefore, information about Sophie should be prioritised and shared but clearly, not everyone agrees with this sentiment.

There are various articles from The Examiner and The Irish Times with information concerning the case that ought to be added. Additionally, the GSOC report titled "Information Report from the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission at the completion of the investigation into the complaints of Ian Bailey, Catherine “Jules” Thomas and Marie Farrell" that was issued on 30/07/2018 contains an abundance of information that could be added to the article. While I did enjoy editing the article during class, I was disappointed in the overall outcome of the activity. It's edivent that some other Wiki users don't follow the Wiki etiquette tutorials and don't bother reading the reasoning behind edits and blindly delete information. I adhered to the five pillars of Wikipedia and the information I included was indeed neutral and relevant to the article. I felt that the other Wikipedian who took issue with my edits was not respectful or civil.

The live tweeting can be found under the hashtag #EditWikiLit. Here are screenshots of some of my tweets.

Click here to view the wikipedia article:

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