User:Kingleothethird/Report

My experience contributing to Wikipedia was really exciting and something I would have never considered to do myself, mostly due to fear of the whole world seeing it, judgement, and not knowing where to begin. I was wary when the assignment was announced as I’ve never written something that anyone had access to. I didn’t know what it would be like yet I was curious, as I have used and referred to Wikipedia often.

My introduction to the other side of Wikipedia was through the Wiki Edu Dashboard which was very easy to navigate. I felt as though each lesson and exercise was arranged in a way that made the most sense and taught the potential participant in the right way. The system was user friendly and not overwhelming. The Dashboard was self explanatory and had all the resources organized neatly to guide someone in how to successfully contribute to Wikipedia.

I found the collaborative aspect to be my favorite part of Wikipedia, after diving into the back end of the site. I contributed to the article on Bumbershoot. I continued where someone else had left off. In this case, some time had gone by since its last major update, and the festival had gone through some major changes. I think it is pretty cool that as time goes on and things change, one can update the page to reflect current events and the changing world.

It’s fun to feel like you are a part of something and that your addition will help someone in the future. The heavily paraphrased content allows the reader to trust the information as a citation follows almost every line. I think paraphrasing in this situation is great because you are translating information that might be dense, to make it more digestible and accessible to everyone.

I really enjoyed the freedom we had in choosing what we wanted to work on. I think this is how you get the best work as you are given the ability to write about something you are passionate about or just interested in. This gives you an added drive.

One concept we discussed in class was how to welcome and maintain newcomers. We looked at subreddit page Nosleep and its success during the usually rocky and destructive period when newcomers flood to join the site. This online community took on and maintained a healthy site with these new users. To make this possible, there was a team of leads who were diligent and dedicated to the group, a strong community who was active in helping monitor activity, and built in technology that lessened the load for the admin (Kiene, et al. 1152). In my class's experience of using Wikipedia, several students had other users comment on their pages or make edits outside of the class. These people are clearly dedicated to the community and work to ensure that only accurate and positive changes are made. I have never had to go through a series of instructions on how to behave in an online community before Wikipedia. Every other one I’ve experienced,  throws you in the mix and forces you to “figure it out”. I think having the lesson series guides participants in the correct direction and encourages them to succeed. I noticed a welcome on my talk page immediately when signing up which was assuring, as I had an immediate person of contact if I was in need.

Like I said above citing Kiene, et al, a big part of successfully welcoming newcomers is having a dedicated group of existing users working to maintain the space. Wikipedians are likely motivated primarily to contribute because they are informed or passionate about the topic as (I believe) no one is paid.

In class we talked about Twitch and why someone might stream, and though money doesn’t seem to be in the picture for Wikipedia, writing on the site allows you to have status as a writer or an editor or just having some sort of contributing role. Your information is being shown to the world and can be very useful to people by making hard to chew topics, concepts, or events, etc. digestible. I would assume that many of the writers, like me, have benefitted from Wikipedia and understand the impact it can have.

I think much of a user's motivation to use Wikipedia lies in the idea of wanting to help and inform others. I find the desire to contribute to Wikipedia very similar to Yelp. Parikh, et al wrote that people who contributed to Yelp did so to “help other consumers make informer purchase decisions” (14). They continue to say that users “felt as though they belonged to a community” when writing a review (14-15). I think this idea is central to why people contribute to Wikipedia as you are inevitably going to be helping someone else by providing information and resources, through citations, on the topic.

The question and answer segment on a Yelp page “can help people find the information that’s important to them” (Ha). It is likely that someone is not going to write a review on Yelp if they do not have a connection to it, or some sort of experience. In the same way I would imagine that most people contributing to Wikipedia have a connection to their topic whether it be interest or extensive knowledge.

If I were to critique my Wikipedia experience I would say that the use of video tutorials might be helpful in the lessons. There were a few moments, when learning about the citations and Bibliography, for example, that I was a little lost and could have benefitted from someone demonstrating it by sharing their screen. I also would recommend that each new user be put into some sort of talk page with a mentor and a few other new-ish users. This intimate support group would help guide new users. You could share experiences, edit each other's articles, and navigate through the early stages of joining Wikipedia together. I think I would have been really lost without my class as a resource. We communicated outside of Wikipedia for the most part and I enjoyed experiencing everything with others. Ian from Wiki Education had commented on my talk page when I first joined which was great. I’m not sure if everyone would be given that kind of contact or if it was because of the education program. Finally, I think the addition of giving users a similar tool to queue an article or edit, similar to Nosleep, would allow members to feel like they are a vital part of the community as they help monitor new additions to ensure Wikipedia’s integrity.