User:Ykzhao91/report

Reflection
I would like to use this report as a reflection of my recent experience with Wikipedia and make some suggestions out of the materials covered in the course ‘building successful online communities’ to help build Wikipedia a better encyclopedia with the support from people around the world.

Writing an article has always been a difficult thing for me. So it is kind of surprising for me that I ended up enjoying editing and publishing article in Wikipedia. After finished my article on a fashion brand, I even thought about writing another article in this category. I would credit this success to Wikipedia’s well-designed method to welcome newcomers and guided them through the rules and policies. What makes it very clear is that Wikipedia values the copyright protection and neutral tone in developing an article. It feels to me like writing a literature review, which I have done a lot before. Wikipedia also provides a sandbox let the new editor practice before they make their articles live, which makes it less intimidating, and help new editors to blend themselves in this environment. Maintaining a neutral tone is the part that I feel a little bit tricky, and I guess that’s the reason why our professor suggested we choose a topic that is less relevant to us. After researching a lot of the fashion brand I am working on, I found a connection with it and I would have to refrain myself to add any puffery content into it. As a result, I was only able to write a short article on this subject.

My passion to continuously contributing to editing died away somehow since my article received little attention from other Wikipedians. Besides my cohort’s peer review, only two Wikipedians made some edits on my article. It makes much more sense to me after we discussed in the class about the WikiWomen’s community. They want to increase the participation of women in Wikipedia since a lot of topics related to women are not covered. I watched a campaign on Youtube which some people described their experience with Wikipedia and saying it’s like open a whole new world once you clicked the edit button. However, I did not feel the same way. I don’t feel a strong bond with the community as there are not enough conversations happening.

Suggestion
We learned that Wikipedia has been experienced a drop in editors, so I would like to offer several suggestions based on my observation, concepts drawn from the book Building Successful Online Communities - Evidence-Based Social Design, and other supporting material on the internet.

Enhance shared interest
As a newcomer, people may get a little bit overwhelmed by a large number of articles and feel very hesitated to start. I would suggest that Wikipedia can encourage newcomers to select several categories that interest them most once they signed up, like what Pinterest and some other news feed community do. After that, the newcomer should be able to check out any subgroups or requested articles within their interests or location. It is a good sign that there are already some subgroups within Wikipedia where members were sharing similar interests to collaborate. It is an excellent way to enhance identity-based commitment to a community.

Replace redundant information
From my personal experience, it’s really hard to move a step forward after I decided on the topic of my article. I was told that I have to ensure the topic I choose can establish notability and I should find reliable resources to support. There are a lot of pages on Wikipedia discussing the notability and resources which are not very effective to give a hint. I would say couple straightforward dos and don'ts example can form a simple request, which members are more likely to comply.

Rewarding or feedback
We learned in the book that frequent feedback can enhance motivation. I am not sure whether it is a good suggestion to assign resident Wikipedians to live in different categories and provide expert advice on each new articles. However, I do feel it is important to have someone in charge to create timely conversation and engage new contributors. Besides, a reward is the best candy for new editors. I saw a message that welcomed me when I made my first edit. However, I feel that's not warm or sufficient enough. I would even feel better if they recommended several different articles for me to review, although it took a little bit more work, I would still feel the way that I was accepted and trusted to continue.