User:EH9890/Reflection

Article: Modern Lovers

I'll admit it. I'm a WikiChild, barely more than a WikiInfant and certainly far off from being a WikiAdult; however, joining Wikipedia as a newcomer has allowed me to experience several of the central themes we have discussed in class over the course of the semester. Having never edited Wikipedia before, I was not certain what to expect from the experience, and began the journey of crafting my own Wikipedia article, publishing it in the public sphere, and interacting with the community a mere three months ago with trepidation and no small amount of anxiety. After engaging with the community for three months, I can gladly report this anxiety has mostly waned. Most of the edits to my page were from those in our class, or a few individuals who made small edits without commenting on my talk page. A full history can be found here. The most page visits my page, Modern Lovers, received was 32, on March 31, 2017, indicating that not a lot of people have seen the article yet. The moment I actually found most engaging, and would like to spend the majority of this reflection on, was an encounter with an individual named rnddude concerning Wikilove. In the following reflection, I argue that my experience with rnddude and providing Wikilove exhibited Wikipedia’s social norms concerning newcomers to the community, specifically Don't Bite the Newcomers, while simultaneously showcasing the power of gratitude within an online community.

According to Robert Kraut and Paul Resnick in chapter five of their book, “Building Successful Online Communities,” communities have five main problems to solve when dealing with newcomers: recruitment, selection, retention, socialization, and protection. Kraut and Resnick define these terms as follows: recruitment refers to growing the community by adding members; selection refers to choosing new members that would fit will within the community; retention refers to keeping newcomers engaged with the community so that they remain within it; socialization refers to helping newcomers learn the basics of how a community functions; and protection refers to protecting the community from any damage created by the newcomers' explorations within the community.

Having been recruited and specifically selected by my professor, a member of the Wikipedia community, to join, and initially retained due to my enrollment in my Online Communities course, I believed that most of the problems I would pose for the Wikipedia community would stem from my socialization and from protection from any destruction I might wreak as a new member of the community. While I certainly learned a great deal about socialization and protection on Wikipedia, I also witnessed a seasoned veteran of the Wikipedia community exhibiting retention design claims posited by Kraut and Resnick, and reflected in Wikipedia’s social norms, or accepted behavior, concerning the treatment of newcomers: Don’t Bite the Newcomers.

Kraut and Resnick suggest several design claims in order to retain newcomers: one such design claim, design claim 17, concerns creating better relations between newcomers and old-timers by encouraging an environment free from hostility toward newcomers that make mistakes. In fact, Kraut and Resnick use Wikipedia’s Don’t Bite the Newcomers policy as an example of this design claim. The page specifically says, “…nothing scares potentially valuable contributors away faster than hostility,” plainly making it clear that in order to retain users, seasoned Wikipedians should be as patient as they can be with newcomers just learning the ropes. Newcomers are needed for the community, and suggests behaviors that Wikipedians can use to better socialize and retain newcomers to the community. In addition, the page outlines behaviors that would identify someone as a “biter” of newcomers, or a Wikipedia vampire, i.e., someone that can be very hostile to newcomers.

While others in my class had experiences that seemed to violate this policy, I had an experience that fell closely in line with what the policy encourages. While learning about gratitude, I was tasked to share some Wikilove on Wikipedia. I was not entirely sure how to do so, or who I should choose to engage with; I used "WikiLove: An experiment in appreciation," as a small guiding light to assess who to provide Wikilove to. In order to make my selection, I visited the front page of the site, and clicked on an article that was listed there. From this point, I visited the talk page of that article, and identified rnddude as an active contributor on Wikipedia, based upon a comment he had left earlier that day. On his user page, I noticed that he had written a lot about ancient history. Having taken my fair share of history courses, I know how much time and energy go into collecting the facts of a historical event, and could only imagine how much time and effort had gone into creating a Wikipedia article on a subject that is far removed from the present day. I decided that rnddude would be a great recipient of Wikilove based upon my perception and appreciation of his work on Wikipedia.

When I went to post a barnstar, however, I made a mistake: I accidentally posted twice, as can be seen in the following link. When I had originally saved my edit, it had not appeared, so I did another; however, both then appeared on rnddude's talk page, as can be seen in the following link. I attempted to delete the second barnstar, which can be seen here. Unfortunately, I did not do so fast enough, and Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi commented, "2??" as can be seen here. What followed exhibited some of the kind correcting that is advocated for by Wikipedia in their Don't Bite the Newcomers policy. Essentially, rnddude commented on my barnstar award, thanking me for providing him with some Wikilove, and then proceeded to correct my behavior, kindly, on how to provide barnstars. For example, rnddude, replied asking which of his contributions led me to his page, which I viewed as a way to suggest I add more into my barnstar award description, which had originally just been a generic expression of thanks. Rnddude also offered to answer any questions I had about editing on Wikipedia, provide me with some resources to explore to improve my own page, and then responded to Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi's comment in a joking fashion.

I believe this is a wonderful example of Wikipedia's Don't Bite the Newcomer policy, and also Wikipedia's general policy of acting in good faith. By gently correcting me instead of being outwardly hostile or rude, rnddude made me feel more confident in "being bold" and more willing to make edits in the future. In addition, by providing me with additional resources to use to improve my editing skills, rnddude was guiding me on how to become a better member of the Wikipedia editing community, and also protecting the community from any damage I might do. In this way, rnddude was using Kraut and Resnick's methods of retention, in acting kindly toward a newcomer; socialization, by helping to guide me as I became a fully formed member of the community; and protection, in guiding and correcting me he was protecting the community from further damage, if I had by chance chosen to repeat my actions.

My interaction with rnddude was a positive experience, and did make me want to become more involved with the Wikipedia community. I also believe it was an example of the power of gratitude. By providing rnddude with a barnstar, I was engaging in a reciprocal exchange, which, according to Airi Lampinen, Vilma Lehtinen, Coye Cheshire, and Emmi Suhonen in their paper, "Indebtedness and Reciprocity in Local Online Exchange," includes direct reciprocity, which is focused on providing a recipient with a gift of some sort, that may or may not be reciprocated. This appears to be the type of exchange I encounted with rnddude. Lampinen, Lehtinen, Cheshire, and Suhonen discuss how reciprocity often goes hand in hand with indebtedness, whether the original action was invited or not, and found in their study that individuals in online communities, when confronted with the feeling of indebtedness, often attempt to find a way to ease this feeling through the expression of gratitude. One common way to express gratitude is to offer a small gift or token to the original party. Therefore, rnddude may have felt indebted by my gift of a barnstar, and reciprocated by providing me with a small token, an offer of assistance while I work in the Wikipedia sphere, as a form of gratitude to ease his feelings of indebtedness.

Regardless of rnddude's motivations, i.e., to abide by Wikipedia's policy of Don't Bite the Newcomers, to ease a feeling of indebtedness, or possibly because they are simply a kind person, I found the experience to be one of the more engaging moments of creating my article and joining Wikipedia. It was fascinating to see Wikipedia's social norms at play, as well as their attempts at retaining newcomers, and what gratitude looks like within an online community, albeit on a small scale. I have hope that moving forward I may see more engagement on the article, or perhaps on articles I create in the future. As I continue to edit, I hope that my time adjusting to Wikipedia as a newcomer is as positive as my experience with rnddude, and that I continue to see Kraut and Resnick's design claims reflected within Wikipedia.