This semester, I made my first attempt at writing a Wikipedia article. After conducting research, gathering reliable sources, and spending weeks writing and editing, my article was ready to be published in the main namespace. I chose to write about the Washington Football Team's game against the New York Giants from Week 2 of the 2021 National Football League season. Just a few days after I published my article, it was proposed for deletion by another Wikipedia user. By the time the article was deleted in mid-November, a total of 15 editors had voted for my article to be deleted based on the fact that it was not a notable enough topic to merit its own article. Though I am disappointed that my first real contribution to Wikipedia only lasted a few weeks, I learned a lot about the Wikipedia community and am grateful that I had the opportunity to interact with other users on the site. These interactions allowed me to better understand how the Wikipedia community functions, attracts and retains users, and why editors respect the site's various guidelines.
In Chapter 4 of "Building Successful Online Communities", the authors argue that rules in online communities are more likely to be followed if they are accepted and regulated by the community itself. [1] On Wikipedia, editors and administrators have control over published articles and public edits. However, there are rules that keep editors from being able to change and delete whatever they want, whenever they want. For example, Wikipedia's article deletion policy states that any editor can propose any article for the deletion, but the page can only be deleted if users unanimously agree. "Once there is an objection or a deletion discussion, a page may not be proposed for deletion again" (Wikipedia:Deletion policy). This policy emphasizes collaboration and discussion rather than one person having the power to control content. When my own page was proposed for deletion, editors came to offer their opinions and vote on whether or not my page should remain published. Though I was disappointed in the end result, I was able to witness how editors collaborate on and discuss deletion proposals seriously before allowing action to be taken. While some editors only left short comments like "per nom et al" or "nothing special about this game", others took the time to offer advice on where I went wrong and how I can add to other articles in the future. The discussion remained civil and polite, and some editors even reached out to me personally to encourage me to continue contributing to Wikipedia.
One user went to my user talk page just after my article was deleted and wrote: "Hey, just wanted to say that the article you have made is well-written. I know it's disappointing that the article is being deleted (one of my first ones was as well, much to my chagrin), but I hope that you stick around. There's a lot you'd be able to contribute, and if you're into sports, it's relatively easy to satisfy the requirements of notability for professional athletes." This message made me feel like someone was looking out for me, and it was nice to have my work appreciated by another user. It showed me that Wikipedia users care about newcomer retention, and want other users to feel comfortable in the community. With such a wide variety of goals and interests, it can be difficult for editors to find common ground, especially with newcomers. Being able to find other people who share interests in similar topics can be validating because it allows you to collaborate and create new things.
The experience of having my article deleted showed me how much editors care about Wikipedia, and why they choose to respect its various rules and guidelines. Wikipedia is a unique community that attracts a wide variety of people with a diverse collection of skills and interests. Still, all editors are held to the same set of rules and are expected to interact with other users respectfully no matter what. The WIRED Magazine article titled "One Woman's Mission to Rewrite Nazi History on Wikipedia" we read for class describes how User:K.e.coffman edits articles on Wikipedia she feels glorify Nazi officials and misrepresent history during and after the Holocaust. [2]Though she made edits and changes that other editors thought were radical, she always acted within the bounds of the Wikipedia guidelines and used them to argue in favor of her choices. While editors come from diverse backgrounds and hold different opinions on every topic, the community guidelines serve as a universal and objective system for all editors to respect. These guidelines, accepted and regulated by the community itself, allow Wikipedia users to understand why decisions are made and how they can contribute to these decisions.
As a newcomer on Wikipedia, it was important that I did not violate norms and respected all guidelines, especially when interacting with other editors. Personally, when my article went into the main namespace for the first time, I wanted other users to know that it was my first article and that I was a newbie on the site. I hoped sharing my newbie status would make other editors go easy on me when suggesting edits to my article. Though I never went through a formal socialization process on the site, we had discussed newcomer initiation extensively in class and I knew how important my first interactions with other users were. In Chapter 5 of "Building Successful Online Communities", the authors discuss how initiation into a community can bond newcomers together in shared status, or in trauma [1]. They state that "entry barriers for newcomers may cause those who join to be more committed to the group and contribute more" (Kraut and Resnick, ch 5). In a community like Wikipedia with little-to-no entry barriers, newcomers are instead invited to join newcomer communities, like Teahouse (Wikipedia:Teahouse). Teahouse is just one of the ways newcomers are initiated and socialized into the Wikipedia community. Outside of spaces like Teahouse, Wikipedia's socialization process is fairly individual, informal, and disjunctive. While I never joined any newcomer pages on Wikipedia, it gave me peace of mind knowing there were other newbies on the site who were learning how to be a part of the community like I was.
Overall, my experience joining Wikipedia and creating my first article was very positive. I learned a lot about what it means to be a newcomer in an online community, and how community guidelines help community members interact with each other. I am looking forward to contributing more to Wikipedia in the future, and will be careful to follow notability guidelines with any future articles.
- ^ a b Kraut, Robert (2012-03-23). Building Successful Online Communities. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262298315.
- ^ Cohen, Noam (2021-09-07). "One Woman's Mission to Rewrite Nazi History on Wikipedia". WIRED.com. Retrieved 2021-12-03.