User:Wugapodes/The Back Rooms

How to deal with readers who wander into the back rooms

Readers come to an encyclopedia because they have information needs. In a traditional encyclopedia, if a reader's information need isn't met they cannot ask the editors, and writing a question on the pages of Britannica won't get a reply. Not so on a Wikipedia. Editors will frequently encounter readers whose information needs are not met as we go about our tasks, making our interactions with newbies more like a librarian and less like an editor-in-chief. Library scientists have researched and developed methods for handling these encounters successfully so that patrons have their needs met and leave with a positive impression of the institution. These same methods can be useful for editors to keep in mind when interacting with newbies on talk pages or who replace article text with questions (after reverting, of course). The following is adapted from our article on Reference interviews, and attribution is available at that page. The reference interview is structured to help provide answers to the patron. In general, the interview is composed of the stages below.

These stages may occur in loops, for example when a clarification of the question leads to the need to establish more background information on the query topic. These steps are designed to put the user at ease, and then help ensure that they have correctly explained what they require. When the editor believes that the query is fully understood, they can attempt to provide resources that help satisfy it. This can include making edits to an article, providing links to policy pages, providing useful encyclopedia articles, or recommending external resources. An important and often overlooked final step is checking that the information or service provided was indeed what the user needed.

Welcoming

Unlike most libraries, we usually run into people after they did something that led to a revert like page blanking, using the talk page as a forum, or misusing edit summaries. The welcome should usually include a short explanation of why you took the editorial action you did. Consider things like "Hi, thanks for your question. Please do not replace article content, we consider that vandalism and take it very seriously" or "Welcome to Wikipedia! An article's talk page is for editors to improve the article, not a general forum on the topic, so we had to remove your post."

Gathering general information from the user and getting an overview of the problem

If a reader wanders into the back rooms, it's probably because the article needs to be improved; if they found what they needed in the article they wouldn't be wandering around now would they? As an editor, this is a good opportunity to get feedback from readers on what the article actually needs. Consider something like "It seems like you didn't find what you were looking for in the article, could you tell me a bit more about what you were searching for?"

Confirming the exact question

On Wikipedia this is not always the most important step because we usually do not have real-time conversations like librarians would. If it seems relevant, after a response to your welcome and first question you can try rephrasing your understanding of what the reader is looking for. Something like "it seems you were looking for information on the behavior of tyrant flycatchers, but didn't find it in the article, is that right?"

Intervention, such as giving information, advice or instructions

If we have a dedicated article on the topic or other similar articles, you can point the reader there. If the information actually is in the article, you can point it out to them (and consider how you might make it easier to find in the first place). If the request is something that doesn't comply with WP:NPOV or WP:BLP you can try to briefly explain why the request is denied.

Finishing, including feedback and summary

The intervention can be wrapped up with a farewell that hopefully leaves the reader with the impression that our editors are kind, professional, and knowledgeable. You can try thanking the reader for their time, for using Wikipedia, or tell them how their feedback will help editors improve the article. If the reader seems interested, you can give a short introduction to how to make a good talk page post, or how they can use templates like {{example needed}} or {{clarify}} in article to signal areas for improvement. Consider something like: "I appreciate the time you took to give us feedback, and it will help improve the article for more readers. In the future you can try to use <insert relevant inline template here>"