User:Gaoy53/Report

As one of the largest and most successful online encyclopedias, Wikipedia has no problem getting people into the door. However, the number of people contributing to Wikipedia is declining every year, and my personal experience interacting with the platform offers some insights into how Wikipedia can improve to attract more valuable and committed contributors and to teach them the norms of the community.

People join online communities for a variety of reasons and multiple reasons, so site designers should incorporate features that integrate the multidimensionality of their motivations. Although I have been accessing information from Wikipedia for years, I have never considered becoming a contributor partly because I was never asked to contribute. Therefore, forming structural and persuasive messages that request contributions from Wikipedia users would be useful in recruiting these potential contributors. The likelihood that people will contribute increases if requests are sent to specific people, asking them to perform appropriate tasks. It is important for Wikipedia administers to identify the users who are more likely to contribute and the topics of their interests prior to creating and sending the requests. For example, whereas administrators can select frequent users of Wikipedia to be the receivers of these request, disseminating a diagnostic test to them, as well as data that reveals their viewing history on Wikipedia, serve to identify potential projects or articles that they may wish to work on or have expertise in. Forming requests that guide Wikipedia users to specific articles are more effective than broadcasting recruitment needs because these requests are targeted and designate responsibility to individuals.

Moreover, the language of the requests for content contribution should be framed in ways that facilitate normative commitment. By highlighting the opportunity to edit Wikipedia articles as a means to benefit the public or to reciprocate what one has received from the community, the requests motivate users to give back to Wikipedia. A request sent to a frequent viewer of the pages within the scope of WikiProject Law can say, “Thank you for visiting Wikipedia for the hundredth time this year. Millions of people research about legal knowledge on Wikipedia every day. We would like to invite you to pay it forward by sharing your knowledge on the law” with links to the stub articles in the legal field. The message not only stresses the support that the user has gained from Wikipedia but also the potential benefits of contribution by announcing a large number of people seeking to acquire specific information.

In addition to the lack of strategic requests, the Wikipedia community should promote social contact to attract more contributors. My major reflection from editing is that the process of contributing to Wikipedia is isolating without the support of other contributors or editors. Although every article has a talk page, it is hard to get into contact with past contributors or have real-time conversations with them, which could be beneficial to improving the quality of articles. If contributors and editors can get to know one another and form interpersonal relationships, bonds-based commitment would enhance, resulting in an increase of members who contribute to Wikipedia for more extended periods, produce better content, and are more compliant with the codes of conduct. There are multiple approaches that Wikipedia designers can take to increase the amount and quality of social contact, including requiring contributors to write and display personal profiles and designating editors who can be contacted by contributors to specific articles. More importantly, newcomers need more positive social contact with old-timers because they lack knowledge of their roles, self-efficacy, and social acceptance from old-timers. When I signed up for a Wikipedia account, I received a generic message from an editor responsible for supporting students who are editing as a part of their class assignments. Rather than a standard, non-individualized message, one that tailors explicitly to me is more likely to make me and other newcomers feel welcomed and accepted by the community and consequently have desires to be committed to it. Feedback is another essential component of social contact for newcomers and all contributors who are relatively new to Wikipedia since it is a chance to interact with experienced editors. Beyond giving constructive advice in feedback so that contributors can make improvements, I would recommend publicly displaying positive feedback. Positive feedback encourages the contributor being praised and acts as social proof for other contributors, proving that they are not the only individuals putting in hard work and affirming the vigor of Wikipedia as an online community. Since people do not want to be taken advantage of or contribute to a failure, evidence that demonstrates the solidarity of its members can retain existing contributors while recruiting new ones. However, for an online community to succeed, a continual source of active contributors is not sufficient, the socialization of community members so that they adhere to the norms is imperative to sustain the well-being of the community.

Wikipedia has installed many technological tools to prevent bad behaviors and lessen the adverse effects of bad behaviors. Still, socialization, or teaching participants the norms of the community, remains to be the optimal solution to resolve potential disruptions caused by non-normative behaviors. Although institutionalized socialization is not common for online communities, Wikieducation provides an example, where the use of institutionalized tactics, can effectively teach new participants the norms of Wikipedia. Wikipedia has long and tedious codes of conduct, which can deter people, suggest that violations are prevalent, or be misinterpreted as that problematic behaviors are rampant. However, the tutorials from Wikieducation demonstrate the rules of Wikipedia with clarity and salience and thus should be mandatory for all new editors. To improve the users’ engagement with Wikieducation, its quizzes can be gamified and allow people to compete, giving those that answer correctly more reputations points. Additionally, reminders of prominent provisions from the code of conduct should be offered again at the time an editor publishes an article, such as “Be careful not to plagiarize or present biased information.” It can prevent people from disregarding community norms after they graduate from Wikieducation. By adopting these approaches to recruit and retain active contributors and encourage normative behaviors, Wikipedia has the potential to become a stronger and more extensive online community for collective knowledge construction.