User:Sundance20/Report

My personal experience with online communities has mostly been limited to Facebook groups, Discord channels and Reddit pages. These were communities with little to no barriers of entry, the rules and norms were clear upon the first visit, and the level of effort needed to participate was reasonably low. On occasion, I would scour a subreddit and come away impressed at the level of commitment by certain members of a particular subreddit. One example would be the buying guide for a specific brand of flashlights a user created for r/flashlights. The user would have almost certainly committed a significant amount of time and effort into a project that may easily go unnoticed. Wikipedia is a platform full of these contributors providing valuable work for everyone to use.

Over the course of the Wikipedia assignment, I got familiar with the community and the system behind Wikipedia and eventually researched and helped contribute to a Wikipedia article of my choosing. A significant part of this assignment was getting used to the user interface and tools as well as rules and norms that help facilitate the editing process. My introduction into the world of Wikipedia editing was from the Wiki education course, which I found to be a different experience from the general Wikipedia user sign-up and tutorial process. I found the orientation/tutorial process for the general Wikipedia user to be much quicker and approachable, both in terms of UX design and structure. Each approach was designed with a specific type of user in mind to encourage commitment. It would be interesting to see if data supports one approach over the other in terms of both user registration and user retention. Or perhaps certain aspects of one method have more success but other parts less so. With this knowledge in mind, Wikipedia may have greater success marketing towards potential members.

One of the obstacles in recruiting for a community such as Wikipedia is that not only are a small percentage of the general population willing to contribute, only a small percentage of the population are suitable. Blindly recruiting users in bulk may hurt the existing community. Having enough barriers to deter certain people but still maintain or grow an active user base is the goal. For these reasons, the Wiki education program currently in place is an excellent opportunity to get people started in the community. These users are usually involved in some academic institution or program, which means they are perhaps a little more likely to be aligned with Wikipedia’s mission of “unlocking the world’s knowledge.” They are also under some level of supervision and guidance, which could help introduce the norms and smoothen the initiation process, making the overall experience less intimidating and encourage new members to participate regularly. It would be interesting to see whether this aspect could be incorporated into the regular tutorial to users outside of the Wiki education orientation. Real-life users designated to new users as a chaperone on their Wikipedia journey. Another perhaps less cost-effective way would be to adopt a virtual assistant, not unlike Microsoft’s Clippy. However, virtual assistants and chatbots often miss the mark in striking a balance between usefulness and connection to the user. Generally speaking, a well-designed UX experience negates the need for such a feature.

The success of smaller online communities that focus on a niche such as those found on Reddit or other forums could possibly be another way to encourage commitment among users. The Wikiprojects page is almost hidden on the community portal page. Similar to how people can fall down the Wikipedia rabbit hole, Wikiprojects could be a way for people to make their first step as they click on one of their interests and discover other things. Making the list of Wikiprojects more accessible or even featuring a couple on the community portal might have a better chance of attracting committed users than a list of what may appear to users as randomly generated articles with a title most wouldn’t recognize.

Incentivizing active participation in a community such as Wikipedia is difficult for many reasons, most of which are a result of Wikipedia as a non-profit and editors working as volunteers. Wikipedia already has a system of awards and privileges, but it could be tinkered to encourage participation. Experimenting with user access levels and the user interface for viewing a user’s resume of awards, recognition and stats could help users set goals for themselves. Based on my experience on Wikipedia, it also seems that a disproportionate number of edits are made by a small number of editors. While motivations within a community are always complex, it would be difficult to argue that these particular members that have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours are motivated by digital awards. These users find enjoyment in their work; by finding ways to expand that experience for other users, Wikipedia could increase the number of active editors and overall improve the experience for users and visitors alike.