User:Lin2525/Report

Wikipedia Reflection Essay

Contributing to the Wikipedia community by editing an existing article and learning what is the norm in the community and how I can help to improve the community has increased the sense of cooperation. At first, my motivation for contributing to a Wikipedia community was extrinsic that I was obligated to do because the task was assigned. However, I started to learn that the Wikipedia community’s main motivation is to help people as an online encyclopedia where people can easily access and get information immediately. Also, contributors are motivated to participate in this community because of an intrinsic motivation that they wanted to contribute in their field of expertise and they enjoy doing so. Therefore, from extrinsic motivation, my motivation shifted to intrinsic motivation by contributing to the topic of the article familiar to me.

While intrinsic motivation guides us to contribute to the Wikipedia community, I think it is difficult for people to navigate through where to start. Even though there are frequently asked question pages on how to start editing, it’s just a long text listed and it’s hard to follow through the process from just the texts. It’s easy to miss the line when going back and forth through the instruction page and the user’s editing page. As I was a new user, I found Wikipedia different from other websites because it introduced me to many new and complicated terms that I was unfamiliar with, it felt like it was just a bunch of texts being presented, which left me in confusion. Although the newcomers came with strong motivation, when the website is difficult to navigate and tasks are unclear for them, this might be a trade-off for newcomers to actually, start contributing. Therefore, I think if there’s a video tutorial or images to navigate users through the process as if they are real, it would go smoother and be easy to follow because it’s visualized. That way, users don’t have to go back in forth to find where they left off and barriers will be moved. Making the site familiar and easy-to-follow for newcomers encourages them to start contributing. Since we started this project through WikiEdu and it walked us through the process like copying from the sandbox and pasting it to the existing article, it was easy to navigate one step by one step. However, if other new users were not taking this class, it would’ve been harder for them to solve on their own. Therefore, as in Zooniverse, where each project offers education and practice quizzes, and as in StackExchange, where there’s a detailed and complicated process to finally create successful projects, quizzes and course modules like WikiEdu can help newcomers to fully understand the steps and be well-prepared to confidently start contributing. I think introducing these quizzes and course modules can make the task intrinsically interesting because newcomers can learn it like a game, which can lead to more active contributions (BSOC Ch2, §4). Especially, when learning about copyrights, where it’s a difficult subject, making quizzes that is multiple questions can interest newcomers as something like a game and practice it at the same time. To create an accessible environment, Wikipedia should make modules and quizzes like WikiEdu open to anyone for people who wants to start contributing but are not familiar with the rules.

Another thing is that because Wikipedia editors can contribute to any article even if it’s an unfamiliar topic for them, it could lead up to aggressive arguments between the contributor of the article. Users have to find reliable and credible sources that can support statements, but it is up to the editors to set those boundaries between whether it’s reliable enough or not. Because every person has different preferences, it can lead to deletion of the editing that the users have done or perhaps get flagged by moderators. In order to avoid these conflicts, I think it’s important to have self-assessment modules on what type of source is considered reliable and thinking about how to present it in a neutral tone. Especially, when the topic is controversial, people who are interested in that topic have different perspectives and their stances on the topic have been built. Therefore, like in Wikiedu, a series of questions of letting users think about the source they are using, and a pop-up of reminders for users to keep a neutral tone will be helpful. Sometimes, presenting all the rules and norms can be intimidating, but by using pop-up style and putting it at a particular point, it won’t be overwhelming (DC 20). As we discussed in class, talk page can be aggressive and harmful. For example, older users can be irritated when the newcomers came by not knowing any rules. Also, when newcomers get warnings from Wikipedia, it can decrease newcomers’ motivation to keep committing. In order to avoid those situations and to sustain newcomers, there should be a guide that navigates them through successfully finding credible information and editing. In this way, users are held accountable for their actions, and it could foster a safer community.

Through WikiEdu, I’ve learned to proactively communicate on the talk page after editing and signing it after posting on others’ article’s talk page. In addition, I noticed that you could thank contributors on the history page. I think this can boost a sense of working as a community and trying to foster a more positive environment. It’s just a small thing but because we are not working on our own but rather working with other people towards the same goal, showing some respect and gratitude to other contributors can be a key to success as one community.