User:Jinnyjin123/reflection

Introduction

Before taking the "Online Communities" course, my perception of Wikipedia was that it was a useful and global online encyclopedia, but not an authoritative or reliable source for academic research due to its open editing model that allows anyone to contribute content. The idea that information could be added or changed by anonymous users without credentials seemed to undermine Wikipedia's credibility. Growing up, I was told by several teachers that Wikipedia was only helpful in introducing a topic of area. It was a place to start. Wikipedia was not an appropriate resource for academic and research purposes.

Through my experiences contributing to Wikipedia as part of the “Online Communities” course, I gained a newfound appreciation for Wikipedia’s collaborative, open-space, community-driven design. Wikipedia exemplifies key principles for fostering a successful collaborative online community. By enabling anyone to edit and add content, it creates a shared space where knowledge is collectively constructed and iteratively improved upon. Reagle claims, “Wikipedia is known as the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”.^[1] As a free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia became one of the most popular sites on the Web.

Clear policies and guidelines exist to maintain quality standards and positive behavior norms. At the same time, my experience highlighted areas where Wikipedia's community design could be strengthened to better welcome, retain, and motivate new contributors. While Wikipedia has structures and regulations in place to regulate positive and healthy community behavior, it still lacks guidance and consistent strategies to effectively onboard newcomers, encourage newcomers to join, keep users engaged long-term, and provide the support needed to confidently make substantive edits. According to Wikipedia:Who writes Wikipedia?, English Wikipedia “currently has 47,286,362 users who have a registered username” and only a minority of users contribute regularly and participate in community discussions. If new users don’t feel a sense of belonging within the community and cannot actively contribute and engage with other users, their motivation to continue engaging is likely to diminish quickly. If Wikipedia provides a more welcoming process for new users, then newcomers will be more motivated to contribute consistently and engage in positive online behavior within the community. As I will further describe, my journey into the Wikipedia community felt isolating at times, lacking the collaborative interactions and mentorship opportunities that could have helped me become an active, integrated user within Wikipedia.

My Wikipedia Experience

It was a challenging process deciding what and how I wanted to contribute to Wikipedia for the first time. Firstly, I browsed through Wikipedia's various categories of articles to find areas I was interested in; specifically, within the realm of psychology and pop culture. I wanted to contribute to an article I was highly interested in and felt more passionate in wanting to learn more about. I browsed through Wikipedia: Requested articles to see which topics of articles were highly suggested by Wikipedia. Within the psychology requested articles, I found that Snapchat dysmorphia was a Wikipedia article which had not been made yet. In order to see how relevant this article topic would be for the community, I explored around articles related to Snapchat dysmorphia, such as body image, selfies, Snapchat, body dysmorphic disorder, and plastic surgery. After observing that several of these articles mentioned Snapchat dysmorphia in their contents, I decided that writing about this topic would be a good idea. Once I created my first article and put it into the mainspace for the Wikipedia world to see, I was pleased to see the quick turnaround in responses and views. I edited several articles related to Snapchat dysmorphia so I could link my article within these pages and improve visibility around my newly written article. While I was happy that several users had made edits to my article, I was disappointed in the lack of opportunities to interact with users on the talk pages as several users ignored or didn't notice my messages on their talk pages. After a week of observing my article within the mainspace, I realized that my article was rated a C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale and it was linked to WikiProjects under Psychology and Internet culture as "low-importance". While disappointed but the irrelevancy of my article within these categories, I was happy that my Wikipedia article was recognized as an established article which can contribute knowledge to a casual reader. Based on Wikipedia:Content assessment, the rank of my article proved that this article may be useful to readers, however it would not provide a complete picture of the topic as the article is in need of substantial cleanup with more important content and less irrelevant information.

My initial journey into Wikipedia editing began with the Wiki Education tutorials, which provided a thorough introduction to the site's norms, policies, guidelines, and basic editing functionality. Guidelines around neutral tone, reliable sources, and how to properly format content gave me a strong foundation. As a WikiChild, I had just discovered and began to learn using the editing tools within Wikipedia as I previously treated Wikipedia like any other online encyclopedia and did not understand that the site could be edited by anyone, including myself. I created my first account User: Jinnyjin123 and began testing the waters within the editing world of Wikipedia – introducing myself on classmate’s talk pages and editing my user page. At this Wikipedia age, although I was highly enthusiastic about editing, I still lacked an in-depth knowledge of the Wikipedia policies and norms. According to Wikipedia:Seven Ages of Wikipedians, “WikiChildren have some similarities to WikiOgres, who also focus extensively on topics that catch their eye” and contributing to articles that intrigued me was a strong motivation for me to engage with the community. With the support of my professor who knowledgeable in Wikipedia, as well as the guidance of the Wiki Education tutorials, I was able to quickly understand and adapt to the basic norms, policies, and rules of Wikipedia.

However, despite much effort and time that I spent engaging within the Wikipedia community, I still felt like an outsider rather than part of the editing community itself. The openness and complexity of Wikipedia's platform were overwhelming. Simple tasks like posting to a Talk page for feedback felt formalized and daunting as there are no platform dedicated to newcomers to engage in friendly interactions with other existing users to seek support or guidance. As a WikiChild who lacked knowledge and experience within the community, I was scared to make any mistakes or be disruptive to other community members. As Wikipedia:Seven Ages of Wikipedians writes, “edits made by WikiChildren may be disruptive, but this is largely due to a lack of knowledge, rather than mischievous intent”; therefore, it is crucial that new users, like WikiChildren, are welcomed and encouraged by other experienced users as it is more productive to educate and guide WikiChildren, rather than to treat them as vandals. However, despite multiple outreach attempts, I did not have a single constructive interaction with an experienced Wikipedian during my writing process. The lack of welcoming community engagements made the editing process feel like an isolated endeavor. Fortunately, I had the support of my professor and classmates. But without being enrolled in a course providing that specific Wikipedia guidance, I likely would have struggled to even access the basic tutorial resources laying out how Wikipedia works. For newcomers exploring Wikipedia on their own, effectively navigating the labyrinth of Wikipedia’s features, norms, and collaborative editing processes is incredibly challenging without formal onboarding processes and guidance. If I did not have access to Wiki Education tutorials as a student enrolled in the “Online Communities” course, I do not think I would be able navigate the Wikipedia community and its numerous resources which allowed me to learn how to edit pages, access the talk pages, and understand the Wikipedia policies. It is impossible to learn all the features of Wikipedia and find all the relevant information about the community without proper resources or guidance.

What Surprised and Frustrated Me?

Several aspects of my Wikipedia experience left me feeling surprised and, at times, frustrated with the realities of participating in such a large-scale online community:

The isolation of the editing process was startling and intimidating. Although in theory Wikipedia is centered around collaborative knowledge building, the actual experience of working on articles and leaving feedback often felt like individual efforts taking place in siloed spaces. There was minimal engagement or dialogue occurring around the articles I edited.

The lack of welcoming interactions from experienced community members was disheartening. As a newcomer, I proactively reached out via multiple talk pages to ask for feedback and try making connections, but these outreach attempts went completely unanswered. This silence was demotivating and made me feel like my edits didn't really matter to the broader community.

The onboarding process, while extremely informative from a policy perspective, felt clinical and impersonal. The tutorials educated me on Wikipedia's various rules and processes, but provided no guidance for how to actually integrate into the cultural fabric of the editing community itself. There was a real lack of warmth or engagement in helping foster participatory identity and interpersonal collaborations.

Overall, my experience highlighted how Wikipedia successfully creates a collaborative culture through aggregated crowdsourced efforts but doesn't always deliver a cohesive sense of community or clear pathways for feeling like a valued and supported contributor. By implementing targeted programs for mentor insight, collaborative editing opportunities, motivational incentives, and personal community connections, Wikipedia's design could go from merely facilitating content contributions to truly fostering an engaged, vibrant, and self-sustaining editorial community. Properly channeling social motivators and rapport-building would help Wikipedia retain engaged editors and continue evolving as the "sum of all human knowledge."

Opportunities for Improvement

While Wikipedia has an incredible depth of resources and features, the new user experience and formal onboarding processes for new users could be vastly improved by implementing the following strategies:

Welcoming Newcomers

Wikipedia should provide a dedicated landing space for new users who are learning the basics of editing and engaging with the Wikipedia community. This platform can allow users to easily access onboarding resources, ask questions, and receive encouragement and guidance from existing users who can relay useful advice and tips on navigating the Wikipedia space. By providing a specific safe space for new users to seek out for support, it allows these users to feel a greater sense of belonging within the community as it allows for greater opportunities of interaction and mentorship between new and existing users – building genuine online relationships with other members of the community. According to Kraut et al. (2012), “when newcomers have friendly interactions with existing community members soon after joining a community, they are more likely to stay longer and contribute more” (p. 208).^[2] When joining Wikipedia as a new registered user, there is a lack of opportunity in engaging with other existing users on Wikipedia unless you actively seek out an interaction through talk pages. However, if Wikipedia were to prioritize a more thorough, formalized, and consistent initiation and onboarding processes for newcomers, they are more likely to feel welcomed and encouraged to stay active within the community as they would feel more hopeful regarding the rewards they’d receive from being a member of the Wikipedia community. With a highly distributed welcoming mechanism in place, Wikipedia users would not need to put too much energy and time into seeking out for interaction and engagement with other Wikipedia users. For instance, Wikipedia could develop a mentorship program in which new users are paired with experienced Wikipedia users who are willing to advise these users during their initial onboarding processes. The knowledgeable and experienced users could volunteer to support new users in learning editing norms, finding collaborative opportunities with other users, building community connections, and overall guiding them through the intricacies of Wikipedia’s editing culture and its community. “When old-timers provide newcomers formal mentorship, the newcomers become more committed to the community, learn how to behave in it, and contribute more” (p. 217).^[2] By providing formal, sequential, and collective socialization tactics, experienced users can help newcomers smoothly transition into the community with the proper resources and support. As a new Wikipedian, I would also suggest that the Wiki Education tutorial modules be made available for all new registered users to ensure a more user-friendly onboarding process for new users – providing them with clear, concise, step-by-step guidance on how to contribute and engage with the Wikipedia community appropriately, effectively, and creatively.

Fostering Contributions and Sustaining User Motivation

“Wikipedia is acknowledged to have been home to some bitter disputes, which arise easily in the online context and sometimes escalate into flame wars that are counter-productive and make Wikipedia a less pleasant project for everyone”.^[1] To persuade more users to contribute or donate to Wikipedia, Wikipedia users needs to provide more positive and social feedback for other users, so they are more inclined to continue contributing based on the feedback provided. If majority of the feedback received are negative or directive, then users, especially newcomers, are less inclined to contribute or engage with the community due to fears of rejection, exclusion, or disputes. The main issue I was facing was not a matter of the quality of feedback, but rather the fact that no one responded or engaged with my request for feedback. I reached out to several articles’ talk pages (which were related to Snapchat dysmorphia) and requested users provide feedback on my article. I even reached out to WikiProjects related to selfies, body image, internet culture, psychological effects, and social media effects. While some users were generous enough to provide minor feedback by editing grammar mistakes and typos within my article, no one engaged in a conversation with me regarding how I can improve my article via the talk pages. Users like @Doomhope and @DrowssapSMM added category links under my article, and @Coldbolt linked my “Snapchat dysmorphia” article under the ‘Facial distortion effect’ section within the “Selfie” article. All these minor engagement with users within my writing process were more individualistic effort to provide support and it did not feel like it was a collaborative effort as there were no interactions on the talk page.

The Wikipedia community consists of millions of articles, projects, and users who are constantly working on various tasks within the community and it can become a complicated labyrinth to navigate, especially as a newcomer.^{[needs copy edit]} According to Kohn (1993), "some people do not get the rewards they were hoping to get, and the effect of this is, in practice, indistinguishable from punishment" (p. 52).^[3] If newcomers feel that they are not receiving the rewards they anticipated receiving from joining a community, they are more inclined to withdraw from contributing. As a WikiChild, I felt that I was unable to contribute and engage with fellow contributors, and if anything, felt rejected by the community. Therefore, there are several things that Wikipedia should implement to foster more contributions from users. Wikipedia should create instant messaging systems or collaborative editing features which provides more synchronous and private communication. Most of the interactions among Wikipedia users occur within talk pages which are formalized and asynchronous. Communicating through public talk pages can be intimidating and inefficient for users so these features could allow for greater collaboration and interaction between users in a more private and synchronous manner. As Kraut wrote, “face-saving ways to correct norm violations increases compliance” (p. 217)^[2] and a private messaging feature may allow new users to feel more comfortable in making mistakes and learning the editing norms and rules of Wikipedia.^{[needs copy edit]} Also, in order to provide more incentive for users to contribute to Wikipedia articles and projects, it is crucial to implement reward systems that visibly shares recognition and appreciation for users. Recognition and reputation systems incentivizes constructive participation, editorship, and community-building behaviors within the community. For example, Wikipedia could incorporate achievement milestones for users in which they receive a celebratory notification or badge on their user page for achieving a certain task within Wikipedia for the first time – from creating their first article to participating in WikiProjects. Through the simple means of recognizing users’ achievement and contribution within Wikipedia, users may feel more motivated and incentivized to continue staying active within the community so they can receive even more rewards for their efforts. Finally, Wikipedia should provide clearer pathways for new users to find articles and projects that are suitable and appropriate for their interests and skill levels, with suggestions on how to start making productive edits.

Conclusion

As I ended my experience as a new Wikipedia user during this semester, I realized the beauty of Wikipedia and its unique, collaborative culture. I sent Wiki thanks to the very few users who helped provide minor feedback on my article, although no one has properly provided feedback and engagement with my article and my request for feedback. Leaving the community with a mixed feeling of appreciation and frustration, I hope that Wikipedia can continue to improve the specific experiences for newcomers so that they can continue to attract more users to not just engage with Wikipedia contents, but also contribute to the editing world of Wikipedia. Although I do not have much experience interacting with Wikipedians, I am now confident in making small contributions within Wikipedia as I move forward. After this assignment, I have gained a whole new level of respect and admiration for the Wikipedians who actively engage, contribute, and support the Wikipedia community in providing information on endless number of topics. Wikipedia has taught me lessons in conflict negotiation, social conformity, community building, prosocial behavior, and collaboration, which I will take with me in my personal and professional life as I enter various communities in the real-world.