User:Yuweij/Report

Becoming a Wikipedia Editor for a month, I successfully contributed to an article, Kunming Lake. From knowing nothing about Wikipedia editing to being familiar with it, I’m glad to follow the instruction of professor Kaylea Champion and the training of Wiki Education. Through my experiences, I can say my motivation is extrinsic: wanting to get a good grade in the class, following the timeline of the class, and gaining compliments from others. At first, my commitment is Identity-based and Normative. I felt like a member of this class once I participated and my obligation to edit and finish the tasks. However, once gradually got familiar with it, my commitment turned into Need-based: I gain a sense of accomplishment from editing on Wikipedia.

In the process of being a Wikipedia editor, I discovered some pros and cons. One thing Wikipedia does well is a strict and strong data protection system/firewall. While editing, I never saw any spam or distractive advertisements. This gives me, a user, a secure and clean space to focus on my work. Moreover, every time I tried to add an image or other references, Wikipedia would automatically check the reliability of the sources and require specific details about each source, which ensure the data validity and eliminate misinformation at the beginning. Besides, Wikipedia doesn’t allow editors to be anonymous so the data can be tracked easily and users can have a clear idea about everyone’s contribution, protecting the copyrights in a certain extent. As for the cons, I found there are so many rules to follow. And these rules came up gradually and were hard to be found when needed. Every time learning from the instruction in Wikipedia Education, it taught me some rules. But when I practiced what I learn by editing in the sandbox, I faced more operational difficulties due to my insufficient knowledge of regulations. When I tried to find the rules to make sure my operation is correct, I had to go through every lesson I took because there is no one place that collects all the rules of editing in Wikipedia. In addition, it’s hard for a newcomer to get familiar with editing in Wikipedia at the start. In other words, newcomers may easily give up. I’m fortunate to join institutionalized socialization: I’m in a class where everyone shares the same level of editing experience. We follow the instructions step by step within a fixed period, which allows us easier to insist on it. However, for free new Wikipedia editors without this kind of systematic learning, they may need more time to learn how to publish information on it properly and the process in a short time. And, the design of the user page contains many buttons/options that can easily confuse a newcomer. For instance, I tried to edit the Kunming Lake article in my sandbox for the first time, and I accidentally put it on the main page without knowing it. Thanks to another editor who helped me move the article back to the user page. But until now I don't know what I clicked incorrectly to put the article in the wrong place.

Given the above, I suggest that Wikipedia can put more effort into developing newcomers by reducing the cost of joining the community. Since newcomers would spend too much time figuring out the rules, the community can put all the rules in one place to help them track rules when needed. And, making the design more user-friendly or giving a clear idea about each button's function.