User:Patmarr/Reflections

Throughout this course, I’ve learned a lot about Wikipedia as an online community. For this project, I decided to expand on the stub forSurface Magazine, a design, architecture, and fashion magazine. I chose to make this contribution because according to our class text, Wikipedia is one of many online communities that don’t receive important contributions, as two thirds of existing articles are underdeveloped and have limited meaningful information. (23)

I took on the editing process after completing the orientation, and I quickly learned that I was still unaware of some important guidelines. I found myself going through the Help section many times to make sure I knew what I was doing. An issue I had was misunderstanding the guidelines for expanding on stubs. I accidently ended up creating a new article called Surface Mag, although the correctly titled article already existed. But with the help of professor Mako and other editors, I was able to merge my edits to the correctly titled Surface magazine article. I was also really insecure when it came to editing existing information I couldn’t find sources for. Although I know Wikipedia is open for anyone to edit as long as the aim is to create better quality content, and dialogue between new and previous editors is crucial, I felt a little uneasy deleting or reformatting information that someone else had put together. As I navigated through the site, I learned the importance of writing clear edit summaries and maintaining positive dialogue with other Wikipedians.

Learning how to participate in an online community that encourages user interaction to facilitate a common goal was a unique experience for me. According to the text, contribution in online communities like Facebook is based on shared content between users, but on Wikipedia, contribution is based on content that’s produced by users for external use. Throughout my experience, I learned to not be intimidated by the openness of Wikipedia and use it as a tool. When I looked through my classmate’s articles and the feedback they received, I was able to apply some of the feedback to my own article. Peer reviewers, other Wikipedians, and professor Mako also provided constructive feedback that guided me through the editing process. Using the writing guide for magazine articles was also a great tool that taught me how to format a magazine article, what to include and what not to include, and other important guidelines.

In class, we covered many theories that are applicable to building successful online communities. The incentives, motivation, and commitment theories were some of the most prevalent in this experience. The text states that online communities can increase user contribution by framing requests for contribution with a strong “fear appeal”. Doing so can motivate users to take the request seriously and make a meaningful contribution. Wikipedia does this by monitoring article content that doesn’t meet standards with tags like “this article has insufficient inline citations,” or “this article is an orphan, no links to it.”  Soon after I posted my article, an editor tagged it with “This article has multiple issues: this article is written like an advertisement.” Seeing this in bold letters at the top of my article, motivated me to take action fast and edit my article until it had a neutral tone. Another motivation concept that I demonstrated throughout this course is intrinsic motivation. Instead of assigning everyone a specific topic, professor Mako allowed us to choose a topic that we found interesting. Because I chose a topic I personally value, I was more attentive and enthusiastic about creating a notable article.

In class, we also discussed different types of commitment people develop when they participate in online communities. I developed bonds based commitment, which is commitment based on an attachment to people in the group. As a newcomer to the Wikipedia community, who joined because it was a requirement for a class, it was hard to develop identity based commitment, which is an attachment to the community as a whole. If others in this class were to leave Wikipedia once the class is over, I would not feel inclined to keep contributing to Wikipedia. It was easier to create a bond with classmates within the community because of the similarities we share. We are all newcomers to this online community, and we all contributed because it was a requirement for this class.

As a newcomer, I believe the orientation and tutorial do not provide clear guidelines for newcomers, which in turn created less incentive for me to contribute. The visual editor tool and its limitations also made the editing process difficult sometimes. In general, the cost of creating an article that’s up to par with Wikipedia’s standards was greater than the benefits I got from contributing. Regardless of all the issues I faced, I have learned a tremendous amount about how human needs drive successful online communities.