User:VanillaPumpkin/reflection

Wikipedia reflection

Overall, the Wikipedia project experience was a positive one that taught me about newcomer isolation, gratitude within a community, and the importance of outside knowledge for context. Initially, I wanted to create a Wikipedia page on the art movement ‘etherealism’, but quickly realized that there simply weren’t enough trustworthy sources out there to rely on. After scrolling through the requested topics page, I settled on flame retardant cotton. Despite being a communications major with little to no chemistry background, the process of finding sources was straightforward. I wrote up a short page, cited my sources, and sent it off into the void of the internet. I wasn’t expecting to learn as much as I did about this corner of the internet.

Joining Wikipedia and beginning to edit feels very isolated and interacting with the community is a calculated risk. Editing can feel very daunting at first, especially without guidance. I felt very uncomfortable making edits until it was time to start completing assignments, and even then, I was terrified I was going to mess up. The syntax editing made me uncomfortable as a person without any coding background. Dr. Reagle and my classmates were my lifeline into a system I didn’t understand. This class was an initiation into the community, and after multiple assignments and practice editing and using Wikipedia’s tools, I became a more confident editor. One person reached out to me through what I assume is an automated system, but Wikipedia as a community feels much more isolated than something like Reddit. The focus is on knowledge and the products Wikipedians can create instead of the comradery and interactions valued on social media communities online. The rules are not bendable, and the community can feel very cold to an unintegrated newcomer.

Wikipedia has a concrete system in place for showing gratitude, but it seems to be mostly used by the top contributors to show gratitude to other top contributors. You can immediately tell whether someone is active on Wikipedia by seeing what ‘barn stars’ they have on their profile, or whether they’ve been thanked via WikiLove. The concept of WikiLove is an excellent one, because it crosses cultural and language barriers to express the universal sentiment of gratitude. Sending a kitten, baklava, or a hot cup of tea all show the same thankfulness in different ways. I would love to see this system applied to other online communities where user interaction is more frequent and less topical (like Twitter, Reddit, or Instagram). I think it could be an excellent addition to the current system of ‘likes’, ‘upvotes’ and ‘faves’ on other social media sites. A personalized gratitude system could make these sites less toxic and create more connected communities.

The most difficult thing during my Wikipedia experience was receiving a plagiarism flag on my page. I don’t have a chemistry background but assumed that with the right sources I could feign knowledge and write an accurate page anyways. What ended up happening was I used my sources too closely and ended up copying down sections of studies and articles without realizing it. I take academic dishonesty seriously, as does Northeastern and the general world of academia, so I was nervous right off the bat. Despite being unintentional, I had copied someone else’s work because I didn’t understand my topic. I had to fix my mistake, so I sent an apology to the page’s talk space and rephrased everything I’d written. However, the lesson that stuck with me was that in order to write about something, you really do need to understand the context of that topic. In hindsight, writing an article about a chemistry-heavy topic as a communications major with no STEM interest was not the best idea. It worked out in the end and I’m proud of the page I created but writing about a topic I didn’t understand created unnecessary difficulties. If I were to do this project again, I would study up on chemistry a little so I could accurately paraphrase without plagiarizing unintentionally.

The Wikipedia project taught me a lot about niche online communities, and helped me gain a stronger understanding of the resource I’ve been using since grade school. I also learned a lot about newcomer initiation and isolation, the role of gratitude in online communities, and that understanding context is necessary when writing anything. Overall, I’m proud of the work I did and, despite multiple hurdles, I created a page that might help people.