User:DZ-NYU-2020
Daisy Zhang is a journalism student in NYC and has a strong interest in the following areas: journalism, history, politics, science, the environment, science-fiction, comic books (Marvel), Vivaldi, and mini-schnauzers. She is a long-time reader/consumer of information on Wikipedia but a very new user/editor. She looks forward to working with everyone on articles of mutual interest.
Daisy Zhang Talk Page - please leave comments and/or advice for Daisy at her Talk Page. She takes ALL opinions/advice seriously!
Quick Reference Section[edit]
Citing: English / Non-English Sources
The Daisy Project: Bringing Order to Asia's Lists of Newspapers
The Daisy Project is an effort to bring consistency and standardization of information offered and formatting, across all of the Wikipedia articles on Asia's various newspapers. Whether the newspaper is located in Japan or Bangladesh, whether it is a large national newspaper or a small regional newspaper, the information about the publication should be standardized and consistent. The formatting and layout should be standardized and consistent. In all cases, the articles on Asia’s various newspapers should be held to the same and high standards of their counterparts in the rest of the world. In other words, the Daisy Project is about consistency, standardization, and quality
The Wikipedia Project is about accumulating all of human knowledge in one place. The Daisy Project firmly believes in this mission. Asia’s newspapers, whether individual articles, or the various lists containing Asia’s newspapers, cannot be seen as a haphazard list of links, poorly edited information, and lacking in standardization and consistency. The current state of affairs risks Wikipedia as not being seen as a legitimate source of information on this subject matter area.
The Daisy Project: Phases of Work
It is envisioned that the Daisy Project will move in phases. Those phases are:
1) Go through the existing “lists” of newspapers. For articles that have already been created, fill in any missing information, correct basic formatting issues, and correct grammatical errors. Create “Info Boxes” for each publication that does not already have one, to offer consistency and standardization in the look of the article as compared to its peers.
2) Go through the existing “lists” of newspapers and for those papers that exist on the list but do not yet have an article, at least create stub-articles containing the bare bones information for these newspapers. Stub articles will be filled in with all information that can be fully cited to independent and credible sources, per Wikipedia requirements.
3) Flag for attention/deletion to the Wikipedia Admins, any “newspapers” that appear to be newspapers in name only but are really advertisements for unrelated products/web design services/graphic design services, etc.
4) Add to the various lists of newspapers so that the lists are “complete”. These lists will never be truly complete as new publications are created all the time, and other publications go out of business. These lists will need constant maintenance and will require the help and assistance of other interested editors. I welcome anyone and everyone to join me in this effort.
5) Create stub-articles/articles for any new publications added to the “lists of newspapers”. This cannot possibly be maintained by any single editor, there are just too many newspapers, magazines, and other publications published across the vast continent of Asia. One person cannot possibly do it all. Again, I welcome anyone and everyone to please help me on this going forward.
6) Interested editors (myself included) should always be editing, always be going through the lists of newspapers, always be reviewing changes to existing and future articles, to protect the quality, consistency, and standardization of the articles on Wikipedia pertaining to Asia’s newspapers. Unfortunately, this will be a never-ending process. Human society is always changing, governments change, owners change, editorial staff change, new publications are created, and old publications cease operations. It will be never-ending. But that doesn’t mean we cannot and should not try. We can at least try to get it started.
Lists of Asia’s Newspapers (Wikipedia)
Below are links to the Wikipedia “Lists of newspapers" in Asia's various countries. It is my intention to start at the top and work my way down this list. I have no preference for any one country, no preference for any one publication. I am just going to start at the top of the list and work down the list, and it will take me as long as it takes me. The goal is filling in missing information, standardizing format, and creating consistency among the various newspapers of Asia, as well as between the papers of Asia and their counterparts located elsewhere in the world. Completeness, standardization, and consistency. I certainly welcome anyone else to join me.
Wikipedia "Lists of Newspapers"
Usefulness of Information Collected by the Daisy Project
Is the information provided by this Daisy Project “useful”? I have no idea. The information was useful to me, when I did a past project a few months ago. But I am admittedly a small minority. The information collected by the Daisy Project is likely to be useful to few. So, why do this at all?
The Wikipedia Project is an attempt to catalog all of the vast amount of information collected by humanity, from across the globe, into onto one place. The Wikipedia Project does not attempt, and should never attempt to determine the “usefulness” of this information. To do otherwise is hubris. What would be considered useful and/or interesting information to one person could be seen as useless and thoroughly uninteresting information to another. Wikipedia and its editors simply catalog the information, and try their best, to determine relevancy and verify the correctness/truthfulness of the information through independent verification of 3rd party sources.
The Daisy Project assumes that ALL information collected about the newspapers, publication, founding dates, places of publication, formats of publication, and other information regarding the newspapers throughout Asia... is useful to someone, somewhere on earth, at some current or future point in time. In any case, these are already the most basic pieces of information that Wikipedia attempts to offer on publications. I am just trying to fill in the missing pieces.
Message to Fellow Editors
I am a New User attempting to bring standardization, consistency, and completeness to the lists of Asia’s newspapers in the English language. I have no particular political affiliation or political axe to grind. I speak English and passable Chinese. I do not speak Hindi, Uzbek, Pashtun, Tajik, Thai, Japanese, Korean or any of the hundreds of languages spoken across Asia. I do not claim to be an expert on all Asian countries, their internal politics and history, and do not claim to speak any language other than English and some mandarin Chinese.
But I am a MORE than competent researcher. I am very good at finding information, no matter how hard to find. And I know how to use Google Translate. And I know how to draw conclusions and inferences. I may not be an expert in all matters, in all languages, in all countries in Asia…but I know enough to get this project started.
That being said, I do not wish to step on anyone’s toes or offend anyone. I have no intention to get anything wrong or offend anyone. If you disagree with anything I have published on Wikipedia regarding any specific publication, feel free to correct (reverse) my entry. Feel free to reach out to me on my Talk Page. Chances are, I will not have a particularly strong opinion on any given piece of data for any given news publication.
Sometimes things can be miss-typed. Sometimes there may be transposition errors. Sometimes, I will simply (with all best intentions) get something wrong. Just point it out and correct the entry. There will be no reason for trolling or harassment. I am a reasonable person doing the best I can. So, lets keep things civil.
If you can't keep things civil...going to sick my schnauzer on you.....
Message to Wikipedia Administrators
I am a New User. I have made some mistakes, some very serious (see Talk page). And I will continue to make more mistakes. I have spent a lot of time over the past few days going the User Guides so that I have a much better understanding of Wikipedia standards, etiquette, and what is expected of editors. But even when I have read the standards and have the best of intentions, I am likely to make more mistakes in the future. Its not by design or bad intent or not caring. Sometimes, people just make mistakes when they are attempting something new, and they need those mistakes pointed out. Please just be patient and leave me any comments (even angry comments) at my Talk page. I will take everything you say seriously, stop any behavior that you deem damaging or harmful to the Wikipedia Project, and stick to the rules as best I can. I am a new user with a lot to learn, and I do welcome all the help, advice and yes…even criticism, that you have to offer.
The Name of the “Daisy Project”
The “Daisy Project” is probably NOT the best and most descriptive name for this project and its goal. But right now, I seem to be the only member, its my name, and I like flowers. But I am really not that narcissistic. If anyone else wishes to join (ALL other editors are welcome!) we can give this a more suitable, descriptive, and much more “professional” name. And I absolutely do welcome anyone and everyone to join me on this project.
Disclaimer
In the interest of full disclosure, I am making the following declarations.
I am not doing this project for any class. I am not getting course credit for this and will not receive any kind of grade for this. This in no way contributes towards the granting of my future degree.
I am not affiliated with any country or political party in any country. I do not have particularly strong political beliefs, and even if I did, you would never know because I would not let it affect my editing. Facts are facts, data is data. There is no such thing as "alternative facts".
I am not paid by, or affiliated with any company, newspaper, or any government in Asia. I am on no one’s payroll. I am a student with an academic interest.
I, like so many other Wikipedia Editors, do this for fun. I do it as a hobby. I do it for personal satisfaction. I do it for academic interest. That’s all I get out of this.
So, lets keep this fun. Like minded Editors, please join me on this project.
Daisy Zhang (DZ-NYU-2020)