Film information on Wikipedia

People might moan that it's lightweight but most people use the online encyclopedia at some time. I've been adding movie and actor information when I get around to it. It's a slow job and wiki is to copyright of photos what a virgin is to a wedding night. They are very touchy.

Among other things this afternoon, I started a page for O B Clarence. Who he? Born 1870, or is it 1868, he was in films as diverse as Great Expectations and Formby's: Turned Out Nice Again as well as doing a lot of stage work.

Hardly anything is known about him now though he must have been big in his day. There are so many people like him who have vanished without trace. I'm doing my bit to try and honour these forgotten people and forgotten films. If you have information (and time), why not get it down on the wikipedia for posterity?

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All secrets are safe with this man, because none are as deadly to him as his own. His secret is that he is Richard Kimble. (The Fugitive - Conspiracy of Silence)

Nobel cause. How is wikipedia these days on checking their sources? I know there's many books out there about Hollywood new and old that could be used as sources and can have the photos scanned in. Are they picky with proving what is listed is factual?

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Member since Fall 2002
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They sometimes add "citation needed" to a sourceless claim, but I think that's usually as far as it goes. Still tons of problems.

At this point, I think savvy users understand that Wikipedia is good as a starting point; good for rough overviews and for finding actual sources, but obviously not as a source itself.

Mods on the wiki do ask for citations (even when the source is obvious), but a year or two later, the sign asking for them is sometimes still there so i don't think many take it seriously.

Many would use screen shots if they could but they are a lot of hassle and the mods who one would think were there to help you just threaten to delete them. I have been posting photos from 1938 and earlier so before the 70 year UK copyright deadline, so OK though a clueless mod originally tried to stop me (he's a teacher as well).

There are lots of reference works about but not many copies left of older ones and even fewer in the hands of anyone who is willing to spend time putting info on the wiki. There is so much that could be put on the wiki but it would be a full time job rather than a hobby. It works best if everyone contributes a bit.

I love Wikipedia its a great site and I get allot of my info from there.

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~In the event of a Zombie Uprising, remember to sever the head or destroy the brain!~

Wikipedia is one of the 10 best websites on the net. I spend a lot of time on it reading up mainly on history, wars and battles as well as historical figures.

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"Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and like it, never really care for anything else thereafter." - Ernest Hemingway