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Out of sheer curiosity, I was wondering if any of you guys knew who is responsible for all the info to be found on Wikipedia about Wilco and Jeff. I've always been surprised by how well-informed they are, replete with quotes from interviews on the individual albums' pages, footnotes, and an abundance of references to the Kot book. It's almost gushing with admiration, so I feel like the person (people?) who writes these is a fan of the band. I mean, there's even a picture of Jeff as a kid! It says it's from the Sue Miller archive, I'm thinking that at least means whoever put that up there had her, and probably Jeff's, permission.

I know that Wikipedia is not the most authoritative of sources, but all of this info seems to be relatively factual. I'm impressed, it gives a degree of integrity to their pages to have so much information. Granted, the writing isn't top-notch, but it least seems like the author really wanted to jam-pack the page with as many Jeff Tweedy tidbits as possible. And for that, I feel that props are due. 58 footnotes on Jeff's page alone? That's borderline overkill.

Anyways, I was just wondering. I usually don't expect to find much valuable information on Wikipedia that I don't already know, but I saw a lot of things (Jeff's anecdotal life history) that I hadn't even heard of.

 

Also, this is my first real post. Hello everyone! Be kind, I'm new to this whole "forum" thing. You kids today and your crazy digital communication!

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Welcome to VC, I have no idea who wrote the wiki and I think I only once skimmed over it out of curiosity.

 

I haven't read the Kot book yet, I just haven't found the desire to get around to it.

 

The Wilco Book, despite cracking my cd...luckily after I had ripped it to computer ( :realmad ) I thought had some really cool quotes from Jeff and co. about music and Wilco's philosophy. Nothing revolutionary or hyper-brilliant, but interesting and well put together.

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Melissa -

 

Wikipedia is a wiki encyclopedia. A wiki is essentially a website that allows visitors to edit any of the content. Everyone and anyone can edit the content on a wiki. You don't even have to register to edit the content of it.

 

So to answer your question, there is not one author of the wikipedia entry, rather a LARGE group of random anonymous authors (mostly fans) who know a lot about wilco and are interested in making sure the information is accurate. The power of wikipedia is that it has the whole world to be its authors. Now, since everyone can change it, there is a danger of lots of misinformation and bias getting in from people, but they have ways of making sure this doesn't happen.

 

There are moderators who are in charge of locking and unlocking certain entries if they feel people are likely to try and "vandalize" the page. For example, Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central told his viewers to change information on the wikipedia entry of elephants, and all of a sudden, the page did not make sense at all. So, the moderators locked the page and changed it back to a useful site until the publicity died down.

 

It's a great site because it is the sum total of everyones knowledge. If you see something on wilco's page that is wrong: you can change it yourself, no questions asked.

 

Hope this helps

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Thanks, but I know what Wikipedia is and I am familiar with the concept of a "wiki." I'm not that computer illiterate, as a matter of fact, I think I know a fair amount about the internet (although there certainly is a lot to know.) I've edited Wikipedia pages myself, but just for grammar and spelling because I'm one of those people who can't stand improper English.

I was just wondering if anyone here has written for that specific article or knows who has. It seems to be significantly more informed than a lot of other music-related articles, as though one person had spent a fair amount of time writing up about Jeff and the band. I thought that person would deserve some kudos and that it might be that the author is a member of this forum, being that this is the internet watering hole for Wilco fans, so to speak.

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Thanks, but I know what Wikipedia is and I am familiar with the concept of a "wiki." I'm not that computer illiterate, as a matter of fact, I think I know a fair amount about the internet (although there certainly is a lot to know.) I've edited Wikipedia pages myself, but just for grammar and spelling because I'm one of those people who can't stand improper English.

I was just wondering if anyone here has written for that specific article or knows who has. It seems to be significantly more informed than a lot of other music-related articles, as though one person had spent a fair amount of time writing up about Jeff and the band. I thought that person would deserve some kudos and that it might be that the author is a member of this forum, being that this is the internet watering hole for Wilco fans, so to speak.

 

:blush oops, sorry!

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> there's even a picture of Jeff as a kid! It says it's from the Sue Miller archive

 

that photo is basically scanned straight out of greg kot's book.. its the first one on the images pages. whoever put it probably didnt get permission from anyone

 

the wilco wiki version is pretty good, but i've seen some real weird ones

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I tried editing "They are, in fact, the only band that matters" into the Wilco entry in Wikipedia once. I couldn't find it the next day.

 

Ha! Yes! Brilliant!

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