Wikipedia entry on masters track debated for inclusion
I finally got around to creating a Wikipedia entry for masters track. I labeled it “masters athletics (track and field)” and, like an idiot, began typing away without reading Wikipedia’s rules. Among the edicts: Keep the entry “neutral” in tone and state your references. My first draft started out with a remark about masters’ sense of humor, so one of the Wikipolice flagged the entry for possible “speedy deletion.” Then my second mistake: I deleted the “speedy deletion” warning.
Well, that resulted in the entry being added to the AFD discussion forum, or “Articles for Deletion.” Fortunately, some Wikipolice and my Canadian hurdler friend Jess Brewer leaped to my defense. Now it appears that a consensus is building to let the entry stay.
The debate over its fate will last five days, and then it’s either spiked or allowed to join the million-plus articles in its archive.
I also added a reference to masters track on Wikipedia’s “Track and field” entry — also a first. And, amazingly, Wikipedia had no reference to the Age-Graded Tables either. So I added that to the masters track section. I also added a photo of Payton Jordan at the 1997 San Jose nationals.
Now the charm of Wikipedia is that a community of experts keep adding and modifying an entry to make sure it’s as good as it can get. So y’all get yourselves on the page and make any additions or fixes you deem fit.
I got the ball rolling by cobbling together information on the history of masters track. But the entry could stand to include subsections on world age-group records, the top athletes in our sport, the USA National Masters Hall of Fame, summaries of all the WMA world championships and even a list of worldwide publications that cover masters track.
If you’re not too familiar with Wikipedia, The New Yorker ran a good article on it recently.
One Response
Mt hat goes off to you. Since reading your post I have identified an article that I would like to post to Wikepedia, I have written it, edited it, cited it, and am ready to post it. But I can’t for the life of me seem to be able to navigate through the posting process. I’m afraid the world is going to have to do without my little contribution.
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