Wikipedia:Wikipedia is a social networking site
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Wikipedia, from an editors and administrators perspective, may meet the functional definition of a Social Media Site in that Social networking sites are places where people meet and converse with each other online. A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors.
Wikipedia missions itself an online encyclopedia and, as a means to that end, an online community of people interested in building a high-quality encyclopedia in a spirit of mutual respect. Users of Wikipedia are encouraged to make personal connections with other users for the purpose of developing the encyclopedia, and indeed, Wikipedia is the world's only practical platform for facilitating collaboration among people who have highly specialized interests and a strong desire to share the encyclopedic information which promotes those interests with the world. It is only natural that readers would want to contact the authors of Wikipedia articles and that editors of a given article might want to meet other editors who volunteered their time to develop that same article, especially when the article is on a topic represented by scarce expertise in the world. Wikipedia is a social networking site which unites people who have the goal of making the sum of all human knowledge available to every single person on the planet, and many Wikipedians feel strongly about the value of the shared mission and the community.
Discussions
editSocial networking sites are places where people meet and converse with each other online. Every social networking site has its own culture and promotes certain kinds of interaction and excludes other kinds. Wikipedia facilitates meeting and conversation only for people who want to develop educational content. While it does have forums for discussion such as the village pump and talk pages, these pages should be used to improve the encyclopedia. Users are expected to contribute to the encyclopedia, and not treat it like a general purpose forum. Within that boundary, there are great opportunities for socializing.
User pages
editWikipedia users get user pages and they are encouraged to express themselves appropriately on them. The expectation is that when users identify themselves and share their interests that other users will also be personally interested in collaborating on Wikipedia projects. Many social groups which exist away from the computer also exist on Wikipedia, so here one can find people planning collaboration with others who share their interests, nationality, religion, philosophy, profession, language, or any of the other familiar social groupings which exist in every society and which compose every place's culture and bring all people together for the betterment of society. Placing userboxes and categories on one's userpage is an excellent way to make one's self available to be found, just as checking userboxes is a common way for anyone to learn about others whom they encounter and browsing user categories is a great way to find others with whom to collaborate.
Make friends
editThere are very few people in the entire world who share any given person's most specific interests and Wikipedia might be the easiest meeting place for connecting people who want to teach and learn specific things. Wikipedia is also often the best place to sort out the best sources and best outline of information on a given popular topic, and to meet the people who care most about making the best possible presentation of a topic to the world. All users of Wikipedia should feel that this is a safe and welcome place for anyone to come and join the project of making an encyclopedia, and all users should feel welcome to make friends with other users if they choose to do so. Conversations which are not about building an encyclopedia should be moved to another website or platform.