User:VANESSAzyy/Report

For this Wiki assignment, I chose a stub article with only one short paragraph and two references, and developed it into a long one with divided section and citations throughout the article. From this experience, I learned how to divide all the content into several related sections which may help readers understand it more easily and how to choose what content should be presented in what ways. Furthermore, I learned how to cite things properly and how to avoid plagiarism on Wikipedia. I also got to know how to leave something in the talk so I can participate into the process of improving articles as a member of the large Wiki online community. I think it is a really meaningful experience for me because first of all, I never thought of editing Wikipedia articles before although I did think lots of the articles should be improved. I now find it quite interesting and may continue to do it. I also learned Wikipedia rules and norms to write a proper article which can regulate my future participation in Wiki as well.

However, through this experience, I also realized something that Wikipedia may improve. The most important one I think is to attract newcomers, to motivate more people to participate. As mentioned above, I did think some articles should be improved but didn’t take any actions, mostly because I thought it needed to be improved but not so urgent so I could wait for others to do it. I think one thing Wikipedia do is to show how this article is rated at the bottom of the article page, briefly showing if it is a stub or a class-B, etc, whether it is of high-importance, and how many people have viewed it in a certain time period. So that anyone views this page may realize if they improve this article, they would help so many people, and how it is a pity that such an important article hasn’t been polished. The second thing is that on the main page, it can be said more directly and explicitly that “you” can edit the article in addition to “anyone”, so potential participants may feel encouraged to participate rather than waiting for other people of the “anyone” to improve. It maybe also helpful if it is stated on the main page that Wikipedia is a place where people get things they like better-known, so in this way, they contribute for what they like, which is an intrinsic motivation. When I was doing the assignment, to find a suitable article to work on was very challenging. The later a user join Wikipedia, it is more and more difficult to find an article to work on. So the last one is that, when a user created a new account, Wikipedia can ask the new user to do a short questionnaire to identify what topics they are interested in, so next time when they visit the home page, instead of just showing featured ones, Wikipedia can list some stub articles under those topics, so the users may find out something interesting that he/she can work on.

After these newcomers join Wikipedia community, it is important to inform them norms and rules. So far while clicking on “anyone can edit”, there will be a very complicated page with lots of words introducing all the components of Wikipedia, while if a person just clicked on “new account” and created a new one, not much information or rules will be given, and the newcomer can begin editing real articles immediately after he/she joined. In addition to that, I think Wikipedia can offer an interactive tutorial as it is doing now, but with more details and links to related regulations through the process. Newcomers can edit and evaluate a model article during the process, but not a real one when they are not familiar with the rules. At the end of the tutorial, a small quiz can be given to test on basic standard of a Wikipedia article. A sandbox may be a good place for newcomers to practise, but is doesn’t take much effort to move an article from sandbox and make it live. As a result, just like the original “I-novel” article I work on, lots of information is given without proper citation and some information is inaccurate. To avoid such problems, Wikipedia can set policies that for newcomers who join the community less than certain period of time, their contribution will be published while going through review by early users. If their contribution violates Wikipedia rules, Wikipedia can undo that part rather than waiting for another user find the mistake and correct it. As the newcomers stay longer in this community and make more proper contributions, they can get their contribution published without the review.

The last aspect is about building commitment. Based on the nature of Wikipedia, I think the commitment that is most likely to be formed are identity-based. I think most of Wikipedia’s active participants are born, which means they like doing research on things they like. So their identities may be research-lover, or (the things they like)-lover. So Wikipedia can emphasize these elements on the user page. For example, show users that the articles they are currently working on belong to a certain project and it is possible to participate in a general discussion where people who are interested in the same topic gather. So far this section is in the Talk page, but since people may easily consider that is just a page to talk, and if they don’t find problems in the article, they may not go to that page which actually contains lots of information about the article. In addition, it can be also stated somewhere that Wikipedia is a place where you can extend your interest and meet people with that same interest. (996)