User:Joanatrodrigues/reflection

Wikipedia Experience

When deciding to take this Online Communities class, I was not prepared to the exposure I would get to online communities. I have always limited myself to the popular social media – whichever online community my friends were using at that point in time. However, I quickly discovered the fascinating world of the thousands of online communities existent around us. Although I use Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat on a daily basis, I ignore my accounts on Twitter and Tumblr. These two online communities have not been able to bootstrap me in a way that would make me feel part of their “family”. Consequently, I have never felt as a crucial member of an online group, and now I was willing to truly commit to Wikipedia this semester in order to get that sense of importance in an online community.

As the class began our adventures in the Wikipedia territory, we all signed up for this community by creating an username and therefore being given a user page. I immediately received a message from Wikipedia welcoming me to the community and affirming, “we’re glad you’re here”. The message was a link to the page Help:Getting started. In this page there were explanations of the Wikipedia world, as well as links to tutorials I might be interested in or need as I begin my adventure in this online encyclopedia. The first step I had to take was to choose a topic for my article. After looking at topics that needed articles in Wikipedia, I noticed that nothing really caught my attention and interest. As I searched in the American version (the original) of Wikipedia about my hometown Salvador, Bahia, I realized the lack of information regarding certain cultural aspects. Therefore, I decided to add and reformulate the page for Axé (music). Since I was adding to an existing page, I decided to not rely on my sandbox. I wrote my texts on a Microsoft Word document and from there, added to the Axé (music) article with the proper formatting.

As I began researching for credible sources for my chosen article of Axé (music), I realized how hard it would be to find credible sources talking about axé in English. Eventually, after finding my sources with the help from my peers and going through each source, I decided to start moving some of my edits to the existent article. At this point I really struggled with referencing my work. I checked the Help:Cheatsheet and Help:Referencing for beginners, but was not being able to reference my sources correctly. I then searched for a YouTube video teaching me how to do it, which lead me to be able to reference my first two sources. Still, as I added more and more information to the article, I realized my referencing was not completely correct. Therefore, I decided to look at the edit source tool of one of my classmates’ article, User:Novey.n, to see how she referenced her sources. I then finally understood how to correctly code my references, making the whole process easier and actually enjoyable. According to Kraut and Resnick, “the relationship between the newcomer and community during this early socialization phase is especially fragile, and even small problems may drive newcomers out”. Although I got extremely frustrated with the coding issues I faced when referencing, I pushed through it for I knew I needed to overcome this obstacle in order to succeed in this class. If it had been in another online community, I might have given up after the first hardship faced. In this case, the benefit of my grade definitely overcame the negative experience. Eventually, I was able to successfully contribute to an article on Wikipedia, and finally feel part of this online community.

I was also reluctant about making too many changes to the existing article. However, there were several grammar and sentence structure errors that I could not allow or did not properly fit into the new version of the article. I therefore changed several sentences, grouped sections and deleted unsupported and irrelevant information regarding axé. I hope Wikipedians will Wikipedia:Assume good faith about my necessary edits to enrich the article Axé (music). In relation, moderation is “the governance mechanisms that structure participation in a community to facilitate cooperation and prevent abuse”. According to James Grimmelmann, “moderation depends just as much on social norms, and thus it is always emergent, contingent, and contestable. Moderation takes place at the interface between infrastructure and interaction. Both owners and authors can influence a community’s course, but neither can control it”.

After all, “a good moderator can create the conditions for life, but not life itself”. I believe I created a welcoming atmosphere to encourage more contributions to Axé (music).

During our exploration of Wikipedia, we learned in class about several characteristics and norms in online communities. One of the notions studied by our class was about newcomers. Online communities tend to treat newcomers differently. There are some communities that immediately demand from the new user to RTFM. According to Professor Reagle, “RTFM, an acronym for “read the fucking manual,” has been used for decades within computing and hacking culture and it is an exhortation for others to educate themselves before asking rudimentary questions”. However, I believe that any online community that greeted newcomers with that term would not be a community that I would be stimulated to stay in. I understand that, “in a community in which learning and sharing are so important, extant members expect newcomers to acquaint themselves with well-established knowledge, both technical and social”. Still, there are better ways to ensure that newbies read the FAQs before asking something that has already been answered. Wikipedia actually does a wonderful job in greeting newcomers. One of the pillars of this community is to Wikipedia:Please do not bite the newcomers, where Wikipedia asks other members to “remember: all of us were new editors at Wikipedia once”.  After all, “nothing scares potentially valuable contributors away faster than hostility”, right? Wikipedia does a great job in welcoming newcomers, for they know “newcomers can also be a source of innovation, new ideas, and work procedures or other resources that the group needs”. Although I did not interact with anyone outside from our class during my edits of the article, I felt completely welcome into the Wikipedia community.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience of embarking in the Wikipedia online community. I learned coding skills I did not know I was capable of, and allowed myself to feel as a relevant member of this community. However, I now realize that I am not comfortable enough to socialize and fully interact in a online community such as Wikipedia. Since I did not experience any contact and therefore any backlash for my edits, I cannot state that I experimented Wikipedia as a whole, but I would definitely give it another try. I am very grateful for this assignment, and the tools we learned in class and in this online community.I hope my edits will allow others to learn more about the axé music and consequently instigate them learn about the Afro-Brazilian culture.