Web Essay Part III

My Personal Experience with Wikipedia When Updating their Information on Pro Ana Websites.

In March of 2008, I attempted to update the entry that Wikipedia had in reference to websites that promote eating disorders. This was the entry that I posted:

== Promotional Websites ==
There are also independent "thinspo" promotional websites that have surfaced the internet over the past decade. These domains are specifically created to promote eating disorders (though sometimes are disguised as "anti-ana" and "anti-mia" with disclaimers written in the main pages) and often include the following:

*gossip about thin celebrities followed by pictures of them at different weights in their life

*links to websites of various diets and weight control products such as "Hoodia Lollipops"*starvation tips

*products that are sold to promote anorexia and bulimia, such as a "pro thinspo piggy bank" (every time a person wants to eat, they put their money in the piggy bank as a reminder to diet)

*links to music, lyrics and musicians that relate to body image and encourage weight loss*poetry and stories related to anorexia and bulimia

*pictures of not only celebrities, but men and women from different countries that suffer from eating disorders

*pictures of food and obesity to discourage people from eating.Such websites are not affiliated with online groups such as [[Xanga]], [[LiveJournal]], [[Facebook]] and [[Myspace]].

I soon found out that Wikipedia allows people to delete your entries if they disagree with what you are saying. Some contributors of Wikipedia closely monitor what is written on the sites. I also found out that my entries were banned and my IP address was banned from making any further changes to their content. I could no longer create a user name and no longer write anymore entries.

Wikipedia is strict when it comes to censorship. They viewed my reference to diet tips as promotional fluff and believed that I was advertising for other websites. I felt that this was unfair because the reality of these websites had to be exposed. Later on, I found out that someone contributed a similar entry to Wikipedia as the one I wrote. Their entry was saved and not edited or taken down.

Maybe this was because I was a new user. Maybe this was because they felt I was promoting Anorexia . In realilty, I was trying to expose some of the content found within Pro Anorexic Websites.