Wikipedia Contribution
What first sparked my interests in taking the Online Communities Capstone was that we were going to directly contribute to Wikipedia by creating a wiki page on a topic that hasn’t been made yet. My initial reaction to reading this brought me back to grade school. I remember teachers always telling us that Wikipedia was not considered an academic or scholarly source. Wikipedia was the best resource tool that I religiously visited when I wasn’t familiar with a topic. When first hearing about this assignment, during the first couple of classes, I thought it was going to be a stroll in the park. This was everything but true. After going through the Wikipedia Essentials and the Editing Basics that was assigned to us early on in the semester, I knew that Wikipedia was not just a simple encyclopedia that people use to obtain information. What I started to understand was how complex Wikipedia was and that the power and reputation of it, depended on the volunteers who contribute to a website where all contributors can edit information. I believe that Wikipedia is a prime example of a thriving online community because of the inclusive and supportive culture that many Wikipedians obey and exemplify while contributing to the website.
As we discussed both in class and also in the Resnick readings, online communities are most successful when their members have something in common or are striving for the same goal or results. I believe that our class as a whole was successful because we were given all of the necessary tools to become a good Wikipedian. What I found most important was sticking to the Wikimedia Foundation’s Mission Statement. Some of the key phrases that stood out to me were “to engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content” and to “disseminate it effectively and globally”. What I took from this was to make sure the material that I contributed to the page was educational. This meant that the information wasn’t bias or from a certain point of view. I had to stick to the facts and only the facts. I learned first hand what would happen if I didn’t stick to the facts. On my wiki page about Olive production in Canada, I stated that Andrew Butt was recognized as the first person to produce olives in Canada. Although I read some articles that would agree with my statement, it was changed by another Wikipedian to say “Farm owner Andrew Butt has been recognized as the first person to plant olive trees on his Pender Island farmland, Waterlea Farm”. The correction that was made followed the Wiki guidelines more accurately than my statement. It is a fact that Butt planted the first olive trees on Pender Island, but it isn’t necessarily a fact that he was the first one to plant an olive tree over the entire country. What is important about this is that Wikipedia is a public space. It is used by millions of people to obtain information and it is essential that the information on the website is accurate.
After creating a user page, I began to understand how Wikipedia is an online community. The first notification I received after creating a user page was from Wikipedia. They greeted me and provided me with a help page that walked me through the steps of becoming a contributor. Shortly after, I received a notification from the user: HostBot, inviting me to join “The Teahouse”. This gave me a sense of being apart of the community and that I was actually a valued contributor. Wikipedia’s ability to make newcomers feel welcomed and respected, contributes to why it is so successful. Wikipedia does a great job addressing the 5 problems in attracting newcomers, which we discussed during a class lecture. Wikipedia does an exceptional job addressing problems of retention and socialization. The first notifications that help new users understand the group’s culture and how to contribute to the system addresses the socialization problem. Wikipedia maintains obedience and proper use from the contributors by thoroughly teaching newcomers the rules and guidelines. The creation of the community portal and The Teahouse encourage newcomers engage with others in the community and help them develop strong ties and relationships. This helps combat the retention problem Wikipedia has in keeping their contributors from leaving.
Throughout the semester I went through some ups and downs, while completing and working on my Wikipedia page. Most of my difficulties came from not understanding the Wikipedia lingo and not knowing where a certain tool or function was located. The good thing was that reading the help page or simply googling the issue could solve every problem I had faced. I thought that the time we had in class to work on our pages was very beneficial, not just for me, but for most of the class. I felt that there was a common uncertainty when completing some of the assignments. This stemmed from the complexity of Wikipedia and it vast amount of functions and tools that are provided to the contributors. Class time was the perfect opportunity to ask you or another classmate questions. I thought that Brooke Williams did a great job answering any questions that I had. By simply observing our class periods where we could work on our page, I saw classmates interacting and helping each other. One of our assignments was to comment on two classmate’s Wikipedia page. This assignment was very helpful to me because I got to see what worked and didn’t work on other people’s pages. Receiving feedback and constructive recommendations helped me think from a different perspective and aligned my page more closely to the website’s guidelines. For example, when I first started to create my wiki-page, I mainly focused on getting all of my research up. I received notifications from other Wikpedians saying that my page was an Orphan, meaning that my article wasn’t linked to other pages in the main article space. After de-orphaning my page, I understood why it was so important to do so. My article would have been difficult to find because it lacked a link or connection to other pages. The only way someone would have stumbled on my page would be if they directly searched for my article. This causes fewer readerships and less contribution from other contributors, decreasing the page’s accuracy and potential.
Once I began to get comfortable with the templates, shortcuts and lingo, everything else started to make more sense and furthered my overall understanding of Wikipedia’s functions and the importance that they have. Recently in class, we created a permalink and diff link for our article. At first I had no idea about how to obtain the links and didn’t understand it’s functionality. I quickly learned how to create a permalink and diff. What I learned after doing so was why it was necessary to use a permalink and a diff. Permalinks offers more consistent information because the page is intended to be unchanged and left how the contributor intended it to be. So if the page is edited, changed or moved, the permalink remains unaltered and how it was when the user first stumbled on it. This can provide the user with the information that they initially wanted and are especially important when citing the article. The diff function was very helpful in tracking the changes and revisions that were made to the article. It was very useful in comparing the revisions and made it easier to locate an edit that I made on my page. The diff function also included who made the revisions. This was very useful if you had any questions about the revisions and needed to reach out to the contributor for a better understanding on why the changes were made.
My overall experience with contributing to Wikipedia was positive. It opened my mind to an entirely different part of Wikipedia. To be honest, I probably would have never become a contributor to Wikipedia if it weren’t for taking this class. After learning about online communities and spending a semester using Wikipedia, I finally understand why Wikipedia is a prime example of a successful online community. From the introduction and greetings from other Wikipedians and receiving insight and recommendations from the rest of the community, I felt a sense of respect and belonging to the online community. Wikipedia’s success in doing so is partly because of the culture that they created. From the mission statement that is deeply understood by all contributors, to the endless resources for help and support, Wikipedia has transformed itself into more than just an encyclopedia. It has become a community where its members for the most part, are looking to help other members in reaching a common goal; providing educational content to the public and disseminating it globally so all can gain knowledge from the content.