User blog:Ryoung122/Gerontology Wiki-noticed on Wikipedia

Greetings,

If it hasn't been clear yet, the main purpose of the Gerontology Wiki is to allow editors to cover material on the topic of gerontology. Wikipedia initially began as a "one-size-fits-all" open-source encyclopedia, where "Wikipedia is not paper" and, as long as material is appropriately sourced and encyclopedic, coverage was allowed.

Perhaps because Wikipedia is reliant on donations and the English Wikipedia, in particular, has become overly burdened with 5+ million articles, there has been a push in many topic areas (Pokemon, beauty pageants, war veterans, etc.) to move individual biographies and lists to Wikia, a for-profit entity.

It is no coincidence that, when on August 15, 2015, it was decided on Wikipedia to begin deleting an enormous amount of gerontologic information in the so-called "Walled Garden" area of individual human longevity and extreme longevity tracking that it was decided by the Gerontology Wiki to ramp up coverage of supercentenarian lists, supercentenarian bigraphies, and material associated with the validation process regarding extreme longevity...including national lists, longevity claims, longevity myths, etc.

The key here is that Wikia projects still show up rather high in Google search results.

While Wikia is not, technically, a "reliable source" according to Wikipedia's definition, it is a place where there is an opportunity to educate the public further about gerontology, the biology of aging, the records of aging, etc. It is also true that Wikia allows the Wikia owners to decide what kind of Wikia they will be operating. Wikias can be more "fan-based", for children, or take on a more "encyclopedic" format, for adults.

The Gerontology Wiki has chosen to take on a more encyclopedic format, for adults.

Please understand that your contributions to the Gerontology Wiki should be viewed as "onstage" material: it's public, it's open, and people are watching.Ryoung122 (talk) 20:50, February 8, 2016 (UTC)