User:Erick.merc/Report

Some feedback that the Wikipedia community should be doing includes how fast they are looking through articles with their moderators. There should be an option on Wikipedia that states that an article is new and being worked on currently so that the people reading the information know to proceed with caution as they read information on Wikipedia. This could also help stop the spread of misinformation. I do understand that Wikipedia has their own guidelines and notability requirements when it comes to posting to Wikipedia but adding a feature like this could go a long way to helping people who are new to Wikipedia. They will be able to edit and post new articles without fear of having their account banned from the Wikipedia site. This online community seems a little harsh for new comers and the strict guidelines do in fact intimidate new comers to contributing to this online community.

This makes me think that there are very limited people who are Wikipedia approved to be moderators and or trusted article developers. I also understand that there are a handful of moderators and trusted editors on Wikipedia, though I do see the potential for even more article creators and new moderators to the community. New comers can have the potential to be like those people who are known to be notable article creators and moderators if Wikipedia made it less strict for those who are new.

An agreement that can be made with someone creating a new article and or editing something for the first time should have a grace period where the article can be refined and corrected before it goes live. For example, if someone was wanting to create a nonexistent article about a specific socks brand that person should be able to publish that article. Though the person publishes the article the article cannot go live until a grace period of 7 days. During that time frame the person can be making changes and refining their article before it goes live. Making it easier for new comers in the online community. That way their work does not get deleted immediately and they do not risk getting banned from the site just because they are learning how to navigate it. Ultimately, if the person has enough time to learn within that time frame of 7 days, then more people would be involved in the community. I would like to add that within the 7 day time frame moderators would be able to look into the new article and bring new edits and or suggestions to the new comer in the community. This will bring more opportunities for people to grow the online community and bring more article to Wikipedia.

My experience with Wikipedia was intimidating and confusing at first. It is still currently confusing as I feel like I am barely getting comfortable to navigating this online community. I went through the training modules and did the assignments that were assigned to me. As the training modules did appear easy and were in fact super quick, it was a much different story putting those training modules to use. This reminded me of my first time working at age sixteen at my local Starbucks back home. I showed up, they briefly trained me and within a short time frame I was expected to close the store and run the store alone like an experienced employee. This did not work out properly and there was a ton of mistakes being made and there was a lot of unhappy customers. That is how I looked at Wikipedia. This whole experience felt like I was just thrown into something and expected to make it work. Though when I ran into adversity such as my article getting deleted, I felt like I could do nothing to make it right as I was afraid to make any changes and have the article deleted. I was making an article for my friend who is excited to see the article be live, but it is hard right now since Wikipedia has such strict guidelines even towards people who truly do deserve a Wikipedia article.

Trying to make my Wikipedia article look as good as Drake (musician) and Tyler, the Creator’s seemed like a long shot at making it possible with all these Wikipedia requirements. I am fairly new to the community and hope to grow and make more mistakes, so I can get to a point of actually getting good at making articles on Wikipedia. I learned that there are various ways of gaining Wikipedia notability for an article and I must do extensive research on what I am writing about. This whole process made me feel like I was a journalist.

My recommendations should be taken more seriously as we have discussed in class that some online communities fail because there are so many new members joining that they make it difficult for people to keep up with the newcomers. That is why adding a grace period of 7 days and having a list of things created by the date can make it easier for moderators to identify what needs work. Wikipedia does have something like this, but it can be improved. Too much strict guidelines can only work if everyone in the community understands what they must do. So making Wikipedia more friendly to new commers can definitely help.

Based on my experience I would change the time frame we have for completing Wikipedia assignments. Writing a notable article for Wikipedia seems really challenging, but it is a fun challenge that I would recommend others to try as well. Just making the time frame to complete Wikipedia assignments longer would go a long way at improving everybody’s work