User:Sunishka134/subpage

Wikipedia Reflection

With over 55 million articles in multiple languages Wikipedia is one of the largest and most accessible sources of information on the internet. Prior to taking this class, I assumed that Wikipedia was not the most "reliable" source of information. However, understanding more about the moderating process and having my own article edited and regulated made me realize just how much work goes into making this community a credible source of information. Furthermore, I was surprised with the vast number of members who contribute to this website without expecting anything in return. Wikipedia is indicative of an online community that is intrinsically motivated towards educating the general population in an extensive and unbiased manner.

Wikipedia also places a lot of emphasis on its community members complying with the community rules and guidelines. In class, we discussed four factors that have been demonstrated to promote compliance within an online community. These include commitment to the community, legitimacy of the norms, the capacity to save face, and expectations regarding rewards for compliance or penalties for noncompliance. As a student who joined Wikipedia for a course I was taking this semester, I believe the factor that had the largest influence on my behavior in the community is the anticipation of penalties for noncompliance. For example, if I did not follow the rules and guidelines on Wikipedia, I risked being banned or having my article deleted, which could have compromised my academic performance in this class. However, this also meant that my motivations to succeed were more extrinsically motivated than the other Wikipedia users as I was doing this for a grade while majority of the community members do not expect a reward for their contributions to the community.

We also discussed concepts of consensus and I believe the Wikipedia community heavily relies on community members coming to agreement on the decisions being made. For example, I noticed some comments on my article being repeated by other members to show agreement and emphasize the point the other Wikipedia member was making. Furthermore, they aim to achieve this consensus by deliberating on the article over a period of time. If we go to my article "Instapoetry", there is a notice at the top informing me that my article still has some issues that need to remedied and guides me to the talk page to discuss these issues. This form of deliberation and consensus is beneficial in demonstrating that community members value each other's perspectives and are prepared to listen to one another.

The intrinsic motivation of community members and the use of democratic arbitration processes confirmed what we learnt about the "good faith" paradigm on Wikipedia. I got the impression that the majority of the people on this site were truly interested in improving it. Therefore, this was a positive educational experience as a part of an online community and I intend to use my account on Wikipedia to hopefully improve my skill as an editor.