User:Iriszhou99/Report

Question 1: Thoughts on Wikipedia
One feature Wikipedia should think about doing is to provide explicit instruction to new users; from knowing what types of articles need attention to how to edit and makes it live at the end. With the wide variety of articles available on this source, newcomers may find it challenging to find the correct section they would like to edit due to the limited visibility of sub-sections. By having a separate column or clear direction to users who wants to edit unfinished articles, it would help to lessen the time spent on finding what to do on Wikipedia. As to one feature, they should consider changing is the source editing feature. It would especially confuse the newcomers because it sorts of resembles coding. Not everyone is familiar with what each notation means; this increases the chances of messing the live article to worsen the improvement. One solution to that problem might be highlighting the code that does not seem to be connected to another article or automatically deleted sources that are deemed unreliable. Considering the most time spent on the site is editing, it might be helpful to implement a walk-through on all the coding aspects and meanings of each symbol.

Question 2: Personal experience in Wikipedia
During my Wikipedia experience, I learned how to find an article that needs further polish and how to edit appropriately. In the beginning, I tried to contribute to an article called ‘Street food’. However, I learned that what I have contributed fits better with the sub-section of ‘Regional street food’. There are many sub-sections to the main topic and often ignored due to amount of traffic intersected in each issue. Within each article, there are hyperlinks to other topics that can be described under the main one. Another problem that I encountered was about copyright. It was challenging to find the most accurate image that was already in Wikipedia or the Wiki Commons. Many of the photos did not correctly represent what I was trying to describe in my paragraphs. Through my mistakes and errors, I fixed the image issues and the correct code for each of my sections. Therefore, I had to find the closest one that resembles what I wanted to say. Overall, once I got the basic on how Wikipedia works, the rest was simple to navigate. I made many small mistakes, and I learned I need to slow down to close extra attention to each step.

Question 3: Wikipedia to course material connection
One recommendation on improving the site for newcomers is by laying out all the directions and goals of this Wikipedia community when they first join. When they have the freedom to select their actions, it tends to attract the right newcomers because it increases the chance of being bonded to this community by normative connection. When they are aware of their own goal and the goal of the community, it gave them a sense of purpose and to contribute to a greater good for public knowledge. As for interrupting community norms, a voting system should be in place for the talk page. With the tremendous increase in newcomers, it is hard for every comment that violates the code to be deleted by the admins. By having other members, the right to vote on the talk page, it creates an injunctive norm from the public’s opinion. It would limit adverse effects within each sub-group and decrease polarization or extremality. The socialization aspect within each community can allow self-regulation while growing at its own pace. This advice has worked for other thriving communities; like Reddit. They incorporated clear goal and conduct on the top of the page to remind users when commenting on specific topics. Their voting system allows users to regulate newcomers from posting that violates the code. The success rate demonstrated on an actual site proven to be useful and could be used to increase quality and quantity on Wikipedia.

Question 4: Reflection
The unique part about Wikipedia is the amount of control and freedom that users have. They do not have a code of conduct except groups of people who come together to work on a similar topic of their choice. The self-regulation aspect keeps the user in check because people can freely comment on each of the talk pages. When building critical mass, the user joins Wikipedia because there is no cost when first entering the community. As they increase their time spent on the site editing and commenting, their status and power increase their motivation to stay. However, due to its freedom and lack of code of conduct, the protection and retention of newcomers seems more fragile. The turnover rate for newcomers would also decrease because of the lack of direction and goal at the start. If those were laid out for newcomers, the process would be smoother for new people to join this community without violating their code of conduct.