User:Xuming Li/Report

Xuming Li

Benjamin Mako Hill

COM 481

Feb 13th, 2022

Communities are groups of people who share similarities among them, and there are a variety of forms of communities, such as physically and online. The internet has become the most popular and convenient way to communicate in the twenty-first century. Wikipedia plays the most extraordinary effect in online communities. The experiences of joining Wikipedia also impressed me from many different perspectives. However, Wikipedia should change some ideas, such as reputation systems, to cultivate credibility and user editing experiences.

First of all, Wikipedia should work on building its reputation. It is essential to hire a supervising team to better oversee the platform because of the uniqueness of this community. The supervising team on Weibo could be an example for Wikipedia. Weibo has a strong supervising team that keeps the platform in order. Once they have seen something that hurts their reputation, they will automatically take it down. Wikipedia is not the same online community as Weibo, but it can also consider its example. They are hiring part-time subject expertise to evaluate users' editions or any form of adult supervision, which is a type of proactive moderation because the goal is to prevent harmful content from the public. They can remove contributions, flag content, and move content to a different place as approaches. They can also use warnings as another type of regulating method because it effectively limits and prevents negative behaviors. A graduated warning can be adequate because it involves different punishments, from temporary limiting to banning, allowing users to fix their work and destructive behaviors. After all, they are not trying to do those negative behaviors purposefully.

In the words of these experts, they could be rewarded by extrinsic motivations, such as special privileges and status. Their profiles can be noted with stars or some special characters. These extrinsic motivations also increase their intrinsic motivations, such as the benefits of having privileges that other users do not have.

Based on the previous recommendation for reputation systems, it could increase the community's credibility. Having a supervising team helps the community keep everything in order, increasing credibility and attracting newcomers. Hiring subject expertise can also increase the cost of entering such a community, including higher education level or identity confirmation, which can be a barrier to contribution due to selection. This helps the Wiki Community start at a more reasonable level instead of quickly registering and changing the article. Still, it might keep more motivated individuals joining and keeping a branch of random users away from the community, which is an obvious threat. At the same time, this can be contradictory to the primary establishing purpose of Wikipedia.

In addition, the user editing experiences could be what the Wikipedia community is thinking about changing because users' experiences always play as one of the most significant factors for the users. For instance, the media setting seems complex for the users to edit. There are many limitations and requirements for the users to add images to the article. They only can upload photos they took by themselves or find the pictures on cc search, a creative website for pictures. Both ideas do not fully satisfy the users. When I was thinking about adding a historical image of the school's building in the article, those images from the registry of historical places cannot be added. Adding a snapshot will provide a better understanding of the description of the school, which is helpful for the audience. I understand the importance of copyrights, but these limitations might decrease users' editing experiences in the community. The goal of editing an article is to better understand valuable information for the readers. I suggest that maybe a more effortless requirement of uploading media might be helpful, such as an MLA citation. A better user editing experience will attract more people to join the community.

I contributed to the Wikipedia community in the past month as a newcomer. At first, I only had heard others discuss the experience of editing Wikipedia articles, but this was my first time editing an article on Wikipedia. The article I chose was from my high school, Stuart Hall School. There was not much information in the previous version, and the article was rated as stub level. I thought it would be nice to have additional information for the readers interested in the school. A complete history, some traditions, and the organization of the school would be helpful as the additional information to be added. On the other hand, I reviewed two articles of my peers and provided some practical evaluations and advice for them.

I have learned so much during the contribution process and gained new knowledge about the Wikipedia community. I learned how to edit on Wikipedia, like the sandbox for drafts before publishing and other kinds of editing tools. I also found out that the signing method is interesting because we only have to type "~," and the page will automatically sign with username and date. I learned that the users communicate through a talk page to leave messages for the article or the person, which is a perfect design because it provides a place for communication and separates the page from the actual user page. In addition, I learned how to upload images in the Wikipedia community, which can be a complex process because of the copyrights. Another helpful tool that I knew was reusing the in-text citation, which saves time while citing the same sources many times. I also learned how to compare the edited version. It is a great design that makes the users easier because it provides current and past versions next to each other for a better and easier way to compare the difference.

All in all, this is the advice I give to the Wikipedia community. My recommendations should be taken seriously because I am the user himself who experienced the community and had this advice after deep consideration. I hope this will help to improve the community.