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I have used Wikipedia since high school, and it is always the go to place for a lot of my research when I begin my studies. I am sure this is the case for a lot of other people, and it wont be a stretch to suggest that most people don't go beyond Wikipedia.
With that being said, I am not sure if you all have noticed, but the English Wikipedia is dominated by Bulgarians (and others?) writing the narrative for a lot of Macedonian topics, with the classic example being that Goce Delcev and Dame Gruev are Bulgarians, as is VMRO, and whenever the Macedonian point of view gets mentioned, it is written in the sense of propaganda (oh, Macedonian nationalists are rewriting the truth to make Dame Gruev Macedonian, when everyone in the West and Bulgaria know him as Bulgarians).
I can imagine this as nonsense, and it is easy to just ignore it and say Wikipedia is irrelevant. But I want to disagree with that statement. As I said above the average person who doesn't read journal articles or is an academic wouldn't look further (who reads books anymore?). 18 Billion page views occur on Wikipedia every month, and that would include a lot of people looking at Macedonian topics for the first time (whatever their background may be). I recently began researching Macedonian topics for fun, and was shocked to see nearly every Macedonian topic has a Bulgarian point of view. It makes me wonder why our "Bulgarian" ancestors fought so hard for a "Macedonia" if it would have been easier to just be Bulgarians.
Secondly, I am not sure how much experience you have had with Wikipedia, but note there is a lot of discussion in the background (click on the talk pages of each article for example) and you will see a lot of Macedonians complaining and providing evidence and documents and showing sources. To which there is a lot of opposition and you see Bulgarians and others saying that the source is not valid, its primary source vs secondary, etc.
I guess what I am saying is, I believe we need to accept the Wikipedia rules, but I do believe the Macedonian side of the story can be given prominence if not more so then equal amounts over the Bulgarian point of view, in regards to the evidence (documents, sources, second as opposed to primary etc.). And at the moment, what I think is happening is, you have for every 1 Macedonian writing on Wikipedia the Macedonian version, 10 Bulgarians come in, 1 reverting the original edit, 2 to say how this person has no idea what he is doing, 3 to replace the text with the Bulgarian version, and 4 people add in images and pictures from Bulgarian archives proving their point or version of events. I believe there needs to be a community effort by the Macedonians, in gathering the evidence, asking the academics and experts, using the right sources, and getting our message across.
I will give you all a few examples I picked semi randomly of these Bulgarian vs. Macedonia conflicts:
-Goce Delcev, Dame Gruev and VMRO (as said already)
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Sarafov (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:B...ly_Macedonians.)
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hristo_Tatarchev#References
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todor_Aleksandrov
-https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D1%83%D0%BA%D0%B0_%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%B5%D1%80% D0%BE%D0%B2 (Bulgarian) vs. https://mk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B...80%D0%BE%D0%B2 (Macedonian) - I couldn't find an English version of this person
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Karev
-https://mk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D%D0%B0%D1%83%D0%BC_%D0%97%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%82% D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2 (Macedonian) vs. https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D...80%D0%B5%D0%B2 (Bulgarian)
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krste_Misirkov
See also:
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiography_in_North_Macedonia
I have been looking through some of the forum here and I see a lot of documents or letters posted going contrary against the Bulgarian position (very little of which I could see on Wikipedia). It would be great if the Macedonians can beat the Bulgarians at their own game by providing the evidence, and updating Wikipedia accordingly.
With that being said, I am not sure if you all have noticed, but the English Wikipedia is dominated by Bulgarians (and others?) writing the narrative for a lot of Macedonian topics, with the classic example being that Goce Delcev and Dame Gruev are Bulgarians, as is VMRO, and whenever the Macedonian point of view gets mentioned, it is written in the sense of propaganda (oh, Macedonian nationalists are rewriting the truth to make Dame Gruev Macedonian, when everyone in the West and Bulgaria know him as Bulgarians).
I can imagine this as nonsense, and it is easy to just ignore it and say Wikipedia is irrelevant. But I want to disagree with that statement. As I said above the average person who doesn't read journal articles or is an academic wouldn't look further (who reads books anymore?). 18 Billion page views occur on Wikipedia every month, and that would include a lot of people looking at Macedonian topics for the first time (whatever their background may be). I recently began researching Macedonian topics for fun, and was shocked to see nearly every Macedonian topic has a Bulgarian point of view. It makes me wonder why our "Bulgarian" ancestors fought so hard for a "Macedonia" if it would have been easier to just be Bulgarians.
Secondly, I am not sure how much experience you have had with Wikipedia, but note there is a lot of discussion in the background (click on the talk pages of each article for example) and you will see a lot of Macedonians complaining and providing evidence and documents and showing sources. To which there is a lot of opposition and you see Bulgarians and others saying that the source is not valid, its primary source vs secondary, etc.
I guess what I am saying is, I believe we need to accept the Wikipedia rules, but I do believe the Macedonian side of the story can be given prominence if not more so then equal amounts over the Bulgarian point of view, in regards to the evidence (documents, sources, second as opposed to primary etc.). And at the moment, what I think is happening is, you have for every 1 Macedonian writing on Wikipedia the Macedonian version, 10 Bulgarians come in, 1 reverting the original edit, 2 to say how this person has no idea what he is doing, 3 to replace the text with the Bulgarian version, and 4 people add in images and pictures from Bulgarian archives proving their point or version of events. I believe there needs to be a community effort by the Macedonians, in gathering the evidence, asking the academics and experts, using the right sources, and getting our message across.
I will give you all a few examples I picked semi randomly of these Bulgarian vs. Macedonia conflicts:
-Goce Delcev, Dame Gruev and VMRO (as said already)
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Sarafov (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:B...ly_Macedonians.)
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hristo_Tatarchev#References
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todor_Aleksandrov
-https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D1%83%D0%BA%D0%B0_%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%B5%D1%80% D0%BE%D0%B2 (Bulgarian) vs. https://mk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B...80%D0%BE%D0%B2 (Macedonian) - I couldn't find an English version of this person
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Karev
-https://mk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D%D0%B0%D1%83%D0%BC_%D0%97%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%82% D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2 (Macedonian) vs. https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D...80%D0%B5%D0%B2 (Bulgarian)
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krste_Misirkov
See also:
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiography_in_North_Macedonia
I have been looking through some of the forum here and I see a lot of documents or letters posted going contrary against the Bulgarian position (very little of which I could see on Wikipedia). It would be great if the Macedonians can beat the Bulgarians at their own game by providing the evidence, and updating Wikipedia accordingly.
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