Science, Technology & the Future | Susan Gerbic - Guerrilla Skepticism @scfu | Uploaded February 2020 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
"The mission of the Guerrilla Skepticism editing team is to improve skeptical content of Wikipedia. We do this by improving pages of our skeptic spokespeople, providing noteworthy citations, and removing the unsourced claims from paranormal and pseudoscientific pages. Why? Because evidence is cool. We train – We mentor – Join us."
—GSoW slogan
Gerbic is the founder and leader of "Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia" (GSoW), an organization dedicated to improving the content on Wikipedia by improving and creating articles that reflect the ideals of scientific naturalism and scientific skepticism. As of August 2018, the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia project had written or fully rewritten over 600 Wikipedia pages in multiple languages, which had collectively received over 30 million views.
Gerbic and Mark Edward came up with the name "Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia" (GSoW) to describe skeptical activism that is "more underground, more grass-roots, more mole-like". The idea for an organized effort came from Tim Farley after Gerbic was frustrated by typical WikiProjects, finding them either dormant or not user-friendly, especially for new editors. Instead, she started communicating and training other Wikipedia editors directly on Facebook or using email. She stated that the formal beginning of GSoW is May 2010, yet its birthday is celebrated in June.
Interest in the project grew after Gerbic made presentations at SkeptiCalcon, did a Sunday paper presentation at The Amaz!ng Meeting, and also created a blog on the subject. In an interview with Richard Saunders, she states that this kind of project is "a perfect storm, we would never have been able to do this without [the Internet]".
Gerbic spends much of her time training the new members of the expanding team to perform basic tasks required to effectively edit the encyclopedia, tackling topics as diverse as Scientology, UFOs, and vaccines. Since its inception, the GSoW team has grown, with Wired reporting in July 2018 that the project had more than 120 international editors.
Members of GSoW are encouraged to identify noteworthy skeptical or science articles in the general media that could serve as significant references, and then cite these in any applicable Wikipedia pages. Gerbic calls such edits "backwards editing", which is the reverse of the more typical process where an editor will work on a single Wikipedia article, enhancing it with references from many sources. GSoW editors seek out skepticism-related articles that are in need of improvement by the addition of references from popular writing, podcast, and other citations. They will share research and otherwise collaborate amongst the team. Sometimes they will directly interview notable persons to improve the citations and resources. Gerbic used the example of psychic Sylvia Browne's Wikipedia page during the Amaz!ng Meeting lecture, suggesting that people looking for information might prefer Wikipedia as a neutral, virus free, user-friendly site. She calls this the Goldilocks effect.
GSoW have written or improved a number of Wikipedia pages about skeptics, science educators, and science-based medicine proponents who push back against pseudoscience and the paranormal in the media, such as Ken Feder, Sara Mayhew, Indre Viskontes, Kiki Sanford, Bryan & Baxter, Jennifer Ouellette, Tim Farley, Alan Melikdjanian, William B. Davis, Mary Roach, and Sikivu Hutchinson. They also try to make sure all claims on paranormal themed pages are balanced and have citations to notable secondary sources. (For example, lots of obscure psychics have Wikipedia pages full of nutty claims that often turn out to be written by the psychics themselves.) GSoW also assists with translations of high-importance skeptical articles from English into other languages, such as Arabic, Dutch, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Portuguese.
Susan Marie Gerbic is an American skeptical activist living in Salinas, California. Gerbic is the co-founder of Monterey County Skeptics, founder and leader of the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) project, a regular contributor to Skeptical Inquirer, The Skeptic Zone podcast, and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Gerbic has focused much of her skeptical activism on people claiming to be clairvoyant mediums, such as Sylvia Browne, Tyler Henry, and Thomas John, whom she calls "grief vampires"
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"The mission of the Guerrilla Skepticism editing team is to improve skeptical content of Wikipedia. We do this by improving pages of our skeptic spokespeople, providing noteworthy citations, and removing the unsourced claims from paranormal and pseudoscientific pages. Why? Because evidence is cool. We train – We mentor – Join us."
—GSoW slogan
Gerbic is the founder and leader of "Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia" (GSoW), an organization dedicated to improving the content on Wikipedia by improving and creating articles that reflect the ideals of scientific naturalism and scientific skepticism. As of August 2018, the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia project had written or fully rewritten over 600 Wikipedia pages in multiple languages, which had collectively received over 30 million views.
Gerbic and Mark Edward came up with the name "Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia" (GSoW) to describe skeptical activism that is "more underground, more grass-roots, more mole-like". The idea for an organized effort came from Tim Farley after Gerbic was frustrated by typical WikiProjects, finding them either dormant or not user-friendly, especially for new editors. Instead, she started communicating and training other Wikipedia editors directly on Facebook or using email. She stated that the formal beginning of GSoW is May 2010, yet its birthday is celebrated in June.
Interest in the project grew after Gerbic made presentations at SkeptiCalcon, did a Sunday paper presentation at The Amaz!ng Meeting, and also created a blog on the subject. In an interview with Richard Saunders, she states that this kind of project is "a perfect storm, we would never have been able to do this without [the Internet]".
Gerbic spends much of her time training the new members of the expanding team to perform basic tasks required to effectively edit the encyclopedia, tackling topics as diverse as Scientology, UFOs, and vaccines. Since its inception, the GSoW team has grown, with Wired reporting in July 2018 that the project had more than 120 international editors.
Members of GSoW are encouraged to identify noteworthy skeptical or science articles in the general media that could serve as significant references, and then cite these in any applicable Wikipedia pages. Gerbic calls such edits "backwards editing", which is the reverse of the more typical process where an editor will work on a single Wikipedia article, enhancing it with references from many sources. GSoW editors seek out skepticism-related articles that are in need of improvement by the addition of references from popular writing, podcast, and other citations. They will share research and otherwise collaborate amongst the team. Sometimes they will directly interview notable persons to improve the citations and resources. Gerbic used the example of psychic Sylvia Browne's Wikipedia page during the Amaz!ng Meeting lecture, suggesting that people looking for information might prefer Wikipedia as a neutral, virus free, user-friendly site. She calls this the Goldilocks effect.
GSoW have written or improved a number of Wikipedia pages about skeptics, science educators, and science-based medicine proponents who push back against pseudoscience and the paranormal in the media, such as Ken Feder, Sara Mayhew, Indre Viskontes, Kiki Sanford, Bryan & Baxter, Jennifer Ouellette, Tim Farley, Alan Melikdjanian, William B. Davis, Mary Roach, and Sikivu Hutchinson. They also try to make sure all claims on paranormal themed pages are balanced and have citations to notable secondary sources. (For example, lots of obscure psychics have Wikipedia pages full of nutty claims that often turn out to be written by the psychics themselves.) GSoW also assists with translations of high-importance skeptical articles from English into other languages, such as Arabic, Dutch, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Portuguese.
Susan Marie Gerbic is an American skeptical activist living in Salinas, California. Gerbic is the co-founder of Monterey County Skeptics, founder and leader of the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) project, a regular contributor to Skeptical Inquirer, The Skeptic Zone podcast, and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Gerbic has focused much of her skeptical activism on people claiming to be clairvoyant mediums, such as Sylvia Browne, Tyler Henry, and Thomas John, whom she calls "grief vampires"
Many thanks for watching!
Consider supporting SciFuture by:
a) Subscribing to the SciFuture YouTube channel: youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=TheRationalFuture
b) Donating
- Bitcoin: 1BxusYmpynJsH4i8681aBuw9ZTxbKoUi22
- Ethereum: 0xd46a6e88c4fe179d04464caf42626d0c9cab1c6b
- Patreon: patreon.com/scifuture
c) Sharing the media SciFuture creates: scifuture.org
Kind regards,
Adam Ford
- Science, Technology & the Future
