User:Kilabs/reflections

Entering into a new community is a task that has its own set of challenges and rewards and no doubt, challenges each new member to learn the ways of the group and fit in. Before this class, I had never really thought about the way that this description as a community was reflected online. I was aware that different online sites had their own set of rules and norms but this class, and specifically this project expanded my thinking and enlightened me on the complexity of online communities. When it was first announced that we would be doing our project and community integration on Wikipedia, I was a little shocked. All of my life I had been told by teachers that Wikipedia was an unreliable source and not to be used, and now here I was with a whole class centered around the site. Over the last few weeks, I have had my struggles and some great surprises and have seen the course material come alive through each task and I now believe that I have a better feel as to what it means to be a Wikipedian.

Our first assignment for Wikipedia was to pick the topic of our article and besides drafting the actual article, I found this to be the most difficult task. On a web community as extensive and unique as Wikipedia, I had a hard time even finding something that did not already exist on the site that I was excited to research and write about. However, as soon as I thought of Flor og Fjaere, I knew I had struck gold and finally overcome my writer’s block. Feeling very accomplished with my new topic, I felt confident and ready to move on to drafting in my sandbox. However, I learned quite quickly that writing in a neutral and encyclopedic tone was not my forte. I have always loved to write and embellish with my words, so I really struggled to get the right tone that Wikipedia calls for. In addition to tone, I found that my topic, although perfect because it was not on Wikipedia, was also difficult because it was hardly mentioned anywhere online. Finding sources to properly establish credibility also came as one of the larger challenges of this assignment. After receiving your feedback and doing more research on the rules and regulations of Wikipedia, I was able to edit my article into something fit for the live site. Once I moved the article from my sandbox to the main space, I got to experience the community aspect of Wikipedia. Almost immediately after posting my article, other Wikipedians were coming in and making edits to my page. They helped with formatting, grammar edits, as well referencing, linking, and categorizing my article. As a newcomer, I really felt welcomed in by the community and appreciated outside help on areas I did not understand as well.

Out of all the topics we discussed in class, I felt the most relevant to my experience was our section on newcomers. Specifically, I felt that Wikipedia did a great job with explaining the rules and regulations to new members. With the training game at the beginning, it made learning about the norms of this community more entertaining and easier to remember. Their integration process, especially the protection aspect is really well done. One of my biggest fears was that I was going to put up my article and that someone was going to see things wrong with it and tag it for deletion. Instead, Wikipedians assumed good faith and helped me out when I needed it and made me feel welcomed and accepted into the community as well as encouraged to participate more. Commitment is another aspect that I felt was prominent and I believe other Wikipedian’s are encouraged to participate more due to the fact that the site works as both an identity based and bonds based community. There are Wikipedia groups and pages for any interest and people are able to find something they personally identify with as well as bond with others who share the same passions, as we talked about in regards to our case study on groups like WikiWomen. Another topic that was extremely relevant in my experience was norms and regulations. Wikipedia is a site with a lot of regulations and complex ways to follow them. However, these edits and rules are made extremely clear to members and help is easily accessible. I believe that these rules help Wikipedia to remain focused and to avoid conflict between members. Because the rules are so specific, it leads little room for interpretation which keeps the community on a common, neutral ground between members. In addition to this coherence, Wikipedia’s regulations work hard to ensure that bad behavior goes unrewarded and is protected against on the site.

The only topics I did not see really reflected in our assignments was that of incentives as also forming new communities, the latter simply because it was not relevant. Wikipedia, in my opinion, could work to better create incentive for new and less active members. As a new member, the recruiting and welcoming was great but since that time, I have felt little incentive to dive deeper into Wikipedia and edit more articles. In order to maintain the site in the future, they will have to improve their retention through better incentives. At this point in time, Wikipedia is based almost solely on intrinsic motivation and hardly by extrinsic, at least for a newcomer who has not received any barn stars. I understand the worry about hoping to not crowd out the intrinsic motivation and lose the fun involved for many editors, but if Wikipedia could find a way to add extrinsic motivations for newer members whose activity seems to be dwindling, they could really improve their retention. For example, if they sent out suggested articles to edit based on the ones Wikipedians have edited before or based on what they have searched, it could increase the participation of many members. Overall, I felt that I learned so much about Wikipedia over these last few weeks and that I better understand what it means to be involved in an extensive and thoughtful online community.