User:Georgiabdj/wikipediareflection

A community is defined as a unified body of individuals, oftentimes living within close demographics, who share commonalities, and are linked together by defining factors. An online community, however, is not necessarily bound by demographics, but refers to people with similar interests and intentions an online platform. Because of the worldwide interconnectedness of the internet, online communities have the ability to surpass demographic borders, linking people with similar interests at a higher degree than in-person interactions can. Accessibility to interactive technologies allow people to merge their lives into the online space, with these technologies becoming tools for their everyday lives which work toward fulfilling the six basic human needs of reciprocity, social validation, consistency, liking, authority, and scarcity. With the internet’s heightened accessibility toward becoming a part of an online group, individuals engaging in and seeking to become a part of an online community has become a socially accepted norm in today’s day and age. The concept of behaviorism, which is “best understood as a function of incentives and rewards”, is oftentimes a key component of what motivates users toward using interactive technologies, engaging with their communities, and making contributions, as rewards such as engagement and positive feedback subsequently reaffirm and strengthen their place in the community. However, the socially accepted norms and compliances between active members in online communities can largely differ depending on the specific uses, types of interactivity, and intended outcomes that are expected of the specific online service or group. Popular social networking platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Facebook largely differentiate in user interactivity and culture in comparison to online communities such as Wikipedia or Reddit, to name a few. Information-based online communities are likely to hold different standards for their users if their site is a public resource, whereas social networking sites often are representative of the individual themselves, which are likely to change the user experience.

Upon becoming a part of and making contributions to the Wikipedia community for the first time throughout the past few months, I have been able to inform and further build upon my knowledge regarding online communities and how they function, govern communities, and manage newcomers. With Wikipedia being the first online encyclopedia community I have joined and contributed to, my initial expectations were to struggle with acclimating to the newness of the functionality and interactivity within the platform. Throughout my exploration, I hypothesized that the interactions within Wikipedia would differ from the interactions I witnessed on social media sites - in that my adjustment to becoming comfortable maneuvering the site would be more extensive, my communication with users would be more formal  and constructive, and the indication that I was a newcomer would likely be more distinct. Seeing as Wikipedia is used as an online encyclopedia for many, I theorized that my presence within the community would be assessed more rigorously, but that I would experience a heightened sense of social validation and reciprocity in my interactions as a result of the effort put into my contributions.

At the beginning of my user experience, I ran into numerous difficulties navigating the site, instantly noticing the complexity of the Wikipedia platform in comparison to any other social networking site I had previously used. After I had created an account, there were various Wikipedia training modules I completed and passed covering the Wikipedia policies, functionalities, and copyright rules before I was able to properly maneuver the site. Enrolling into my classes’ Wikipedia dashboard, introducing myself publicly to the community on my page, and adding user boxes were all a part of my newcomer experience as I prepared myself to become an active participant. Upon creating my page, I received a welcoming message from another Wikipedian, User:Ian_(Wiki_Ed), who had left a message on my Talk page outlining his role as a Wiki Educator for students using the site as a class assignment, linking more resources on how to use Wikipedia should I need them. Based on the preparatory measures I took as a newcomer, I found that I was further encouraged to participate and pursue my membership on the site despite the initial difficulties I endured in setting up and becoming more familiar with using my account. User:Ian_(Wiki_Ed) also sent me a link to the Teahouse, a page noted as “a friendly place where you can ask questions to get help with using and editing Wikipedia”, which I found particularly beneficial as a newcomer. As mentioned in Building Successful Online Communities by Robert Kraut and Paul Resnick, entry barriers can often cause newcomers “to be more committed to be in the group and contribute more to it” especially after having “friendly interactions with existing members”, which was reaffirmed in my attitudes toward moving forward with my user engagement after a somewhat complicated start.

After establishing myself as a member on Wikipedia, I progressed toward engaging deeper within the community through my contributions. I chose to write an article on Micro-Trends in Fashion, a topic that I had yet to see coverage on on Wikipedia, and one I had known was a notable enough topic that would be of interest to a wide audience. Before I began building my article, I familiarized myself with interactions between Wikipedians on other pages to get a better sense of the culture and of Wikipedia’s specific moderations. Defined as the “governance mechanisms that structure participation in a community to facilitate cooperation and prevent abuse”, moderation on the internet can oftentimes be difficult to mandate in comparison to their enforcement in in-person communities. Learning about the way a community functions toward mandating harassment, vandalism, and general bigotry indicates how the platform chooses to govern its users, and whether this is something that is left in the hands of the community or not. Platforms such as Front Porch Forum (FPF), an online networking site meant to help individuals connect with their neighbors, have a “team of moderators review each post and make sure it adheres to the sites code of conduct before it is posted”, taking the proactive effort to stop harmful posts from being shared to begin with, and in order to uphold friendly and respectful communication. However, with platforms such as Nextdoor - an online networking site with the same purposes as FPF - problems are handled by the community, resulting in a number of issues and backlash, people deeming it a “twitter for old people” and a “home for racial profiling” as a result of the lack of moderation on the site. Additionally, providing individuals with the option for anonymity can also inflict behavioral changes, which is why enforcing proper moderation can be difficult in online spaces with varying levels of interactivity and subsequent norms. Based on Wikimedia’s 2018 Gender Equity Report, 14% of women reported feeling a lack of support for harassment on Wikipedia, experiencing “having porn posted to their userpage '' or “aggression when discussing Wikipedia biographies of women”. Thus, based on the anonymity of users on Wikipedia and the popularity of the site, I expected a fairly moderated approach to governance and compliance with the site’s rules, but theorized that most of the comments and interactivity I would receive enforcing moderation would be from other Wikipedians.

Once I had established a better sense of the Wikipedia community, I began drafting my article on a subpage of my user page, User:Georgiabdj/draft. During this experience, I ran into some trouble maintaining a neutral tone throughout my delivery of information, trying to keep the persuasive and argumentative approach at bay. I noted that most of the comments I was receiving on the article I began to build were from fellow Wikipedians, all of whom were more experienced than I was. My article began to gain more attention once it had been moved onto the mainspace, before it was moved back to the drafting page due to a User noting that it wasn’t ready for the mainspace yet. I was provided extensive and constructive feedback on my Talk page, (diff), where I was urged to refine the informality of my tone, seek out more reliable sources, and fine-tune the structure and flow of my article. I then sent this user WikiThanks for their contribution and comments to my page. Another user then proceeded to correct a link on my article from Environment to Natural Environment, claiming it was a disambiguating link (diff).

Based on this interaction, I felt a heightened sense of reciprocity by interacting with another user, and felt encouraged to further improve my article. This could be further explained in a theory by Zhu et al, where they discovered that negative feedback towards the work of newcomers either reaffirmed their efforts and urged them to work harder, or completely diminished their motivation to continue. Once I had finalized the edits I received, I confidently moved my final article, Micro-Trends in Fashion, back to the mainspace, where another Wikipedia User quickly labeled it as an orphan (diff). Once I had added the article to the ‘See Also’ section of the umbrella topic of Fast Fashion, it was then merged and overwritten by another User with a redirect to Wikipedia’s Fast Fashion article, stating that there was “nothing really to merge, since these concepts are all covered in target” (diff).

On the whole, my experience as a member of the Wikipedia space generally aligned with my initial expectations. My hypothesis that I would feel further encouraged to improve my article as a newcomer was correct, seeing as I had taken up the corrections and comments that fellow Wikipedians had left for me, and was able to move away from my initial struggles with tone and neutrality. My presence within the community was indeed assessed rigorously, as I noticed a new correction for every update I made on my page - however, the level of constructive commentary varied depending on the User I was interacting with. Maneuvering and getting comfortable with Wikipedia's functions and uses took me an extensive amount of time, but once I had finalized my article, I was confident in my ability to contribute to the community and be an active member.