User:Simonek0929/report

Simone Kao

COM 481 Online Community

Wikipedia Reflection Essay

02/13/22

When I need to understand a topic, Wikipedia is where I go most of the time because I like how Wikipedia summarizes the information for me. It is more concise than other web pages. I’ve been a reader in the Wikipedia community for years, and this is my first time being an editor. My first Wikipedia article is ATEEZ’s most recent album “ZERO: FEVER EPILOGUE”. At first, I thought it would be simple because I know a lot about ATEEZ and their recent albums. However, after reading the rules, I feel constrained by all the rules and violations of editing Wikipedia articles. All the rules make me feel less fun editing my article because I am afraid that I might violate them. Moreover, Wikipedia lacks interactions between readers and editors making the community less lively. I have some advice for Wikipedia based on my own experience that can make all users, especially new users, feel more comfortable being in this community and increase the quality of Wikipedia articles.

First, having a comment section under each Wikipedia article can make the article itself and the community more interactive. When I was working on my Wikipedia article, I realized that receiving feedback is how I continue to edit my article. I found it hard to improve my article when I didn't receive feedback because I would not know where I need to change. In “Building Successful Online Communities: Evidence-Based Social Design”, Kraut and Resnick discuss that feedback enhances intrinsic motivation that increases users’ contributions to the work (Kraut, Resnick, 2012). When I received feedback from peer reviews, either positive or negative, it made me want to work on my article more. It gave me motivation on editing instead of just editing without knowing what to do next. Similarly, if other editors receive feedback from readers, they would have greater motivation to polish their articles. Kraut and Resnick discuss that creating good content can increase bootstrapping, but having metadata, such as tags and comments, enhances the quality of the content (Kraut, Resnick, 2012). The comment section not only allows editors to get feedback from the readers but also increases readers’ contributions to the community by interacting with editors. In addition, it also brings readers and editors who have the same interests together. For example, I went through some articles of ATEEZ’s previous albums to see what they’ve included in their articles. If there was a comment section under those articles, I could interact with users who also like ATEEZ to get further information about the album for editing. As a result, adding the comment section not only makes the community more active but also narrows down the distance between Wikipedia users.

Next, I think it would be helpful if there was a chatroom for members in the subgroup to have conversations about the topic. Now, Wikipedia has features that help newcomers to learn about the community, such as sandbox, Wikipedia Expert, and WikiProject. The sandbox lets newcomers draft their articles before they go public. This speeds up their learning process and prevents harm to the community. Next, the Wikipedia Expert allows newcomers to ask expert questions when they face issues while editing. This is an awesome feature because newcomers are more committed to the community when old users provide mentorship (Kraut, Resnick, 2012). The WikiProject also allows users to find people who are interested in the same topics. The subgroups that are formed in WikiProject increase users' identity-based commitment to the community. If users are being placed in a named group in a community, they are more likely to contribute to the community, especially when there are shared interests among the users(Kraut, Resnick, 2012). However, I think it would be better if there was a chatroom for each subgroup. As a first-time editor, I would like to have a place for me to interact with other people besides my Wikipedia Expert. I learned how to contact other editors through the talk page, but I think the talk page is formal where users cannot casually chat with others. I would prefer something like a Discord chatroom for users in each subgroup to communicate with others, either ask questions, work on a new article together, or just have casual conversations about the topic. These chatrooms would make me feel more involved in the community and feel less stressed about editing. This also encourages me to stay in this community because I can meet people who have the same interests as me in these chatrooms. It is more likely for a newcomer to stay longer and contribute more if they have interactions with other users in the community.

In conclusion, Wikipedia has been a welcoming community for everyone. Anyone can edit or create articles and publish them in the community, and this is also what makes Wikipedia unique. Wikipedia has guidelines that help newcomers to understand what they should or should not do in this community. It also provides editors sandbox to practice their skills before their articles go public. Even though Wikipedia already has clear guidelines for new editors, it still lacks something that could make the whole community more lively. My advice for Wikipedia is to add a comment section under each article and create a chatroom for users to interact with others. The comment section and chatroom both bring users together, and they can form more subgroups after meeting others. Subgroups not only help users feel more involved in this community but also create more articles. Users in each subgroup can discuss which articles they want to work on together in the chatroom. Most importantly, comment sections, chatrooms, and subgroups all make newcomers feel more comfortable and involved in the community. The result of this is that newcomers will more likely to continue staying in and contributing to the Wikipedia community.

Citation

Kraut, Robert E., et al. Building Successful Online Communities: Evidence-Based Social Design. MIT Press, 2011.