User talk:Clovermoss/Editor reflections

Thanks for doing this

Clovermoss I've really enjoyed reading these. Thanks for getting this project going. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 19:03, 29 November 2023 (UTC)

+1, it was a thought-provoking exercise and it's fascinating to see other people's reflections. We were all clueless newbies once! HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 19:10, 29 November 2023 (UTC)

Same. Really nice to read other people's experiences. It's not something you otherwise often hear about. -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 08:05, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

Indeed. It's interesting to me how many other Wikipedians learnt by reading or just being bold rather than asking questions. I've added a link to this page from my personal Wikipedia timeline. Graham87 (talk) 13:14, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

The user research indicates that "learning by doing" is a significant model for new editors. If they're lucky, their fixable mistakes will be fixed instead of just reverted. WhatamIdoing (talk) 03:34, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

Ditto all the above — it's quite endearing to see the distinct-yet-strangely-unified reasons why folx end up contributing — TheresNoTime (talk • they/them) 13:27, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

+1, Makes a lot of familiar user names feel more real. Cheers, · · · Peter Southwood ^(talk): 08:20, 9 December 2023 (UTC)

Superb(!) I've really enjoyed reading your interviews and thank you. Rockycape (talk) 04:16, 2 August 2024 (UTC)

Preload?

Clovermoss, would you like for this page to have a preload for editors to answer the questions easier? I already have the code whipped up, but figured it's always good to ask. Queen of Hearts ❤️ (no relation) 19:31, 30 November 2023 (UTC)

@Queen of Hearts You can do that. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 21:44, 30 November 2023 (UTC)

@Queen of Hearts: It looks like Ritchie333 was having some issues with this, is there something you potentially overlooked? Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 12:30, 1 December 2023 (UTC)

I had trouble, too, and I think it might have been related to Template:Trim. --Tryptofish (talk) 22:34, 1 December 2023 (UTC)

As one of the old F--ts around here I say: "Leave well enough alone" AKA "If it's not broke don't fix it!" Buster7 (talk) 21:32, 4 December 2023 (UTC)

um, the way you've bleeped out that word makes it look like another, much stronger word... asilvering (talk) 01:32, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

Minor suggestion

Blue link "WikiEd" to reduce confusion Mach61 (talk) 22:22, 2 December 2023 (UTC)

@Mach61 I will! There does seem to be some confusion there and hopefully that will alleviate some of that. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 08:22, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

Will there be follow up questions

@Clovermoss I appreciate this and enjoyed participating. Will there be followup questions? Immanuelle ❤️💚💙 (talk to the cutest Wikipedian) 22:26, 2 December 2023 (UTC)

@Immanuelle I don't really have any plans for that but if anyone wants to update their answers over time or share something else, they're free to do so. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 08:22, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

One question that has interested me this year is how many of us started editing as an IP editor, before deciding to create an account. A bit more than half of editors in this discussion at VPM began as IP editors. WhatamIdoing (talk) 03:37, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

Definition of "experienced"

I was searching through some random talk pages today, and then I found this. Personally, this was interesting, but I then read the top: This is an essay about experienced editors reflecting on their experiences. I was wondering, what wound be your definition of "experienced"? Not that I want to participate now or even in a long time, I'm overloaded with assignments at the moment. The 🏎 Corvette 🏍 ZR1^{(The Garage)} 03:01, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

In this case, it's a past-tense participle (that is, a verb being used as an adjective) of "experience". It means to have gained skill, knowledge, or expertise through first-hand involvement in something. For example, you can spend your life reading about flying planes, but only those who've actually done it can be called experienced. Zaereth (talk) 03:15, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

My definition of experienced editor in the introduction was basically anyone whose felt like they've edited Wikipedia for long enough to not feel like a newbie. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 03:20, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

To me a good example would be an experienced swimmer that takes a break and leaves the pool when the kids show up. Buster7 (talk) 19:11, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

I also want to say that people don't need a formal invitation to participate. I've had people ask me this a few times elsewhere but this seems like a good place to bring it up again :) Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 23:32, 9 December 2023 (UTC)

Thematic Analysis

Hi Clovermoss, I just saw your comment about addressing key themes and want to offer my help! I'd been meaning to reach out a few days ago about it lol. I've got experience doing thematic analyses and it would be pretty simple to set up a shared/publicly accessible cryptpad sheet to tag the responses and allow for observations of emergent patterns. The main question would be what cutoff date you'd be interested in doing it and/or if you'd like to update the table/analysis on a rolling basis every few months or so if editors keep contributing reflections. Best regards, Your Friendly Neighborhood Sociologist ⚧ Ⓐ (talk) 20:04, 9 December 2023 (UTC)

@Your Friendly Neighborhood Sociologist It sounds like your approach is way more complicated than what I was thinking of, but feel free to go ahead and do it! Some sort of rolling basis would be preferable because I want people to keep contributing reflections. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 23:28, 9 December 2023 (UTC)

@Your Friendly Neighborhood Sociologist: Do you just need more time for this or have you changed your mind? I'm okay with waiting if that's what you need. It's also okay if you have changed your mind, I'd just like to know what to expect and if my own approach is worth trying. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 12:23, 26 December 2023 (UTC)

Hi Clovermoss, it's still on my agenda, my apologies for the late reply - between holiday celebrations and a new work contract the past few weeks have been fairly busy for me lol. I think the new year's as good a time as any to start. My current idea is to just create a page with 2 tables, one for everything so far, another for everything after, with the second to be moved into the first every few months and analysis of the themes below.

P.S. Congratulations on your adminship and I hope you enjoyed the holidays! I also want to lyk I got your email - it got buried in my inbox as I think it deserves a thorough response and I've yet to have an opportunity to do a deep dive on the sources but hope to find the time in the new year. Best regards, Your Friendly Neighborhood Sociologist ⚧ Ⓐ (talk) 17:50, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Dividing into subpages?

This page is huge. Queen of Hearts, do you think the preloaded questions would get messed up if I tried to divide this into a few subpages maybe? I'm not sure how I would do it... maybe by year or by chunks of every 100 editors? I plan to keep this going on a long term basis so I suppose it's a good idea to start thinking about the sheer page size. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 15:23, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Adding a second page for more reflections would be the simplest solution, and perhaps a new page for every one hundred entries. The Night Watch (talk) 15:38, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Sorry for the late response, but I'd imagine we could just archive this like a talk page, putting old requests in numbered or monthly/yearly archives. Hell, if you put {{User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis}} on the page, ClueBot III would probably archive it, and it has an option for numbered or monthly/yearly. Queen of Hearts (chat • stalk • they/she) 02:15, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

I think I like the idea of the hundred editor chunks better. I just wanted to make sure it wouldn't break the preloaded questions if I started messing around with the page at all. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 03:07, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Ancient wikihistory

An editor who has been around since the early days told me that I might find Wikipedia:Historical archive/New user log interesting. I figured others might as well! Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 23:10, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

Maryana Iskander

Apparently Maryana Iskander linked here in her Feb 2024 update. [1] I thought people who watch this page might find that interesting. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 01:28, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

It looks like there was also a tweet by the WMF about me too. [2] Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 02:52, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

Simple English Wikipedia

An editor on the Simple English Wikipedia has created their own version of editor reflections here, if anyone is interested. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 12:35, 17 September 2024 (UTC)

Spanish Wikipedia

Another project has their own version of this now. [3] Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 13:38, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

Do you want to add an interwiki link? WhatamIdoing (talk) 05:48, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

An external link is good enough here, although you could comment and add an interwiki link if you really want to. I mostly just try to keep this talk page updated with anything interesting that happens with editing reflections. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 08:14, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

@Clovermoss Interwiki links, this is so bringing me back. Feel free to revert me, but you know how there's those "view this page in other languages" links that are normally controlled through Wikidata? You can actually add those manually, like I just did. It's cosmetic, but it's also your page- feel free to revert me for literally any reason, but I also don't think you knew what WhatamIdoing was actually talking about, given that we do most interlanguage linking through Wikidata now. (And have done since 2012 or so) GreenLipstickLesbian (talk) 18:52, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

I wasn't aware that it had that specific purpose. I thought it was just about how I was linking things in my comment. I don't mind the pages being linked together through wikidata. Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 19:29, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

Have you ever tried to link to a Category: page, without putting the page in the category? The difference is whether you type [[:Category:Whatever... or [[Category:Whatever... The same thing happens with links between wiki pages. Use the colon when you want to make a visible link on the page, and omit it when you want the thing to happen. It's the same for files: [[File:Example.jpg]] will put the picture on the page, and [[:File:Example.jpg]] puts a blue link to the file on the page. And, relevantly, [[:c:File:Example.jpg]] puts a blue link directly to the Commons File: page (instead of the English Wikipedia's) on the page. "c" is the code for Commons, "m" for Meta-Wiki, "w" for Wikipedias (which you don't need unless you're on a non-Wikipedia page), "s" for Wikisource, and so on. Then you can stack in the language code: s:fr:Page_name to switch to the French Wikisource. There's more at Help:Interwiki linking if you (or anyone else watching this page) ever need it. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:26, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

Yes, I was aware that you could do that. I just find it easier to link it like any other link most of the time. It's a few seconds faster. 😅 Clovermoss🍀 (talk) 23:50, 10 October 2024 (UTC)