User:Claymeg18/Report

Throughout my involvement in this course so far, not only have I learned about online communities, I have gained a first-hand experience becoming familiar with the unique community that Wikipedia is. After continuously interacting with the community, I have become sufficient in understanding the processes behind what makes Wikipedia what it is and how users interact with it. Starting with WikiEd, I became familiar with the rules and guidelines that Wikipedia explicitly states for users to successfully participate. Moving forward, I applied the skills I learned to an article I selected and edited within my sandbox called ‘Immersive design’. Throughout this experience of learning the ins and outs of Wikipedia, I’ve learned that it takes time to be fully immersed in online communities. Due to my understanding of Wikipedia, and the correlation this community has with course materials, I have evaluated what I learned, connected it with the course, and provided advice to the Wikipedia community on what could improve.

Considering the experience I now have interacting with Wikipedia, I have learned a remarkable amount about what makes this community unique. Over the course of this project, I developed an understanding of the basic principles Wikipedia emphasizes and applied them to my article on Immersive design. While starting my sandbox edits for the existing article, I noticed that a majority of the content was centered around a man named Alex McDowell and displayed problems such as neologism and protologism. Although McDowell did play a part, I noticed during my research process that he is not as involved with immersive design as the article claimed him to be. While beginning my edits, I brainstormed ways I could include the underlying content while adding validity in accordance with Wikipedia policies. A majority of the information included did not have references, which was a key issue that required adjustments during my editing process. While furthering my research, I discovered that the first sentence describing Immersive design, was identical to the definition from an article that wasn’t cited. By using my collective research to advance the content, I edited the entire article to represent a range of content not specific to any singular source. This meant making major adjustments such as taking out most of the content and externally discovering what sources the content originated to apply more intricate explanations on the subject. This process taught me many things about how Wikipedia users interact and function in order to present information that is most helpful and accurate to readers. I was able to add 9 reliable references that discuss immersive design in various contexts and alter the nature of the article to represent an unbiased tone. My experience with Wikipedia, however, wouldn’t have been as vital without the dynamic connection this community has with our class materials.

Through analyzing motivation, norms, and regulation, I was able to make a series of connections that furthered my ability to generate a successful article which adheres to Wikipedia standards. Considering motivation, Wikipedia’s WikiEd courses are inherently motivating participation by making norms easily understood. One of the main traits of WikiEd that I found especially helpful was how in-depth the training modules went to assure understanding for potential editors. Through my experience, I was able to learn a variety of important aspects of the community including, but not limited to, what makes a good Wikipedia article, what the tone should look like, how to interact with other users on Talk pages, and the best way to implement your edits and suggestions. By engaging with this process, I was able to consume and implement these strategies while editing ‘Immersive design’. I found myself more motivated to generate edits to help reduce problems of neologism and protologism as I understood the reasons behind why the rules are stated as they are. Another topic we learned about in this course, norms, applies directly to my experience with Wikipedia. Through WikiEd, norms are stated in a clear manner that users of many educational backgrounds can understand. As norms are difficult to comprehend right off the bat through observing a new community, this resource provides a great experience for those who hope to interact with Wikipedia. The norms of Wikipedia including “Assume Good Faith, Neutrality, Be Bold, Neutrality, and Signing messages with four tildes” allow users to understand the value behind Wikipedia’s goal in creating this platform, and how to participate successfully.

While jumping into a new online community is often difficult, resources and learning opportunities are crucial in understanding how a community operates. Although the resources available to me, such as WikiEd, provide advanced strategies on how to fully immerse yourself with the community right off the bat, I was able to make connections with the course material that would be beneficial to users who aren’t educated on the community through a university course. Wikipedia is a very unique community because of how well known it is to provide information to its readers. This differs from other well-known communities such as Reddit, because of its educational background, and inclusivity of many cultural backgrounds. In order to be fully inclusive of all audiences who want to participate in the community, there needs to be a visible opportunity to access additional resources that instruct new users on how to make helpful edits. By implementing an accessible WikiEd on the homepage of Wikipedia, users who want to enhance the material found throughout the site will have the ability to without worrying about interrupting the current environment. Due to the concern this holds, users will have the opportunity to become educated if their intentions are true to enhancing the information available on Wikipedia. By making this information available on the home page of Wikipedia and emphasizing how it will benefit user expertise on the community, members will be able to avoid the uncertainty of becoming more associated and be confident in their abilities when interacting with the community. One concrete piece of advice I would give to Wikipedia to fulfill this understanding and avoid phishing or scammers with negative intentions, is to require the WikiEd learning prior to having the ability to edit real-time pages. By implementing this education, users will be more likely to adhere to Wikipedia standards, and develop a universal awareness that all Wikipedians are knowledgeable in how to interact with the community.