My first attempts of STEMM writing in the English Wikipedia through The World Destubathon

It starts with an invitation by one person in the English Wikipedia by the username of Dr. Bloefeld. It’s a simple, amicable letter:

Hello. You’re invited to participate in The World Destubathon. We’re aiming to destub a lot of articles and also improve longer stale articles. It started today on Monday June 16 and will run until Sunday July 13. There is over $3300 going into it, with $500 the top prize. If you are interested in winning something to save you money in buying books for future content, or just see it as a good editathon opportunity to see a lot of articles improved for subjects which interest you, sign up on the page in the participants section if interested. Even if you can only manage a few articles they would be very much appreciated and help make the content produced as diverse and broad as possible!

I checked upon the main page and it seemed interesting. US$500 for the top price, another US$500 for the top STEMM editor, plus some others. Everyone agrees that all that glitters there is gold, but being in my obligatory internship right now, it seems a bit far-fetched to have any chance to gain those prizes. Perhaps, I can get it if I push myself to gear six and “no-life” my entire spare time throughout the period, but I have many other things to do. Nevertheless, I decided to join, but only by the weekend of the third week, after I had completed some of my other matters.

The first article I expanded is Melicope sororia, an endemic Borneo shrub. A short backstory, back in the previous day before I officially joined, I was in a presentation during my internship work about an another Melicope species, M. pteleifolia, a more common species usually eaten as a herb, with extensive pharmacological research (which is the main topic of the aforementioned presentation). However, M. pteleifolia do not have an article in the English Wikipedia (at the moment of this article’s writing), so I decided to adopt another Melicope article and decided with M. sororia.

Definitely, I do not have trouble of bio-writing; I have my biochemistry degree background with academic writing experience. The main experience that I did not have however is bio-writing for the English Wikipedia, or any STEMM writing in particular. Although I have extensive writing experience back in my native language (Malay) Wikipedia, which I am an administrator of, the robust writing manners of the English Wikipedia can intimidate many non-native English speakers. However, verily the bigger trouble is to not obtain the experience rather than the inexperience itself. As what the typical saying goes, “be bold“, which is also reiterated by Dr. Bloefeld himself.

Indeed, some articles were easier to be worked upon than others. Articles of Melicope species from Hawaii for example is easier to expand due to extensive reference material given its position in a first-world region, such as Hawaii’s own Department of Lands and Natural Resources, and Bishop Museum’s Plants of Hawaii. However, some plants were more obscure on references, such as M. jugosa from Borneo. Two plants, M. madagascariensis and Sarcomelicope glauca from Madagascar and New Caledonia respectively, have references in French that I have to translate and understood. Despite that, a silver lining exists for both plants, as analyses find out possible medical-worthy bio-molecules from both plants, for which I am glad to give light onto through the de-stubs.

Throughout the four remaining weekend days (and others), I managed to successfully expand 26 articles, mostly about individual plant species, which many of them are endangered or possibly even extinct by now. One Melicope from Hawaii was thought to be extinct but rediscovered in 1993, while an orchid species from Mount Kinabalu of Borneo, known only from a single locality, was thought to be gone since 2015.

For those 26 articles, I was recognized by Dr. Bloefeld as the leading STEMM writer for the two latter weeks in the de-stubathon. Indeed, 26 is far from the hundreds or articles expanded by the top editors (the top winner managed to pull out 451 expansions); as what I said, time was my main limit. However, the ultimate prize for me is the experience I procured from STEM writing in the English Wikipedia, which can become the bridge that I finally seek between my Wikipedia participation to my formal background.

So, what now? Simple, more de-stubbing. The competition itself is a part of Dr. Bloefeld’s ambitious decade-long 50,000 Destubbing Challenge. As of writing, over 14 thousand articles are expanded, with many of them are from Dr. Bloefeld’s competitions, which is shy of the supposed half-point milestone expected for the end of 2025. Of course, this is not my current Wikipedia priority, but I’ll try to expand one or two articles about every day or two. You can track my progress in my project page, now named as “D-Stu(r)b”. To conclude, my deepest appreciations to Dr. Bloefeld as the main organizer, and Wikimedia UK and the Open Knowledge Association (OKA) as the main partners, with the latter responsible for the prize pool.