Wikipedia's Open Door and Closed Window

Wikipedia’s Open Door
and Closed Window:
Why People Join Wikipedia, Why They Leave, Whether it
Matters and What (if Anything) to Do About It

William Beutler • January 13, 2010
#WikiWars • Bangalore, India

@williambeutler • @thewikipedian

Who Reads Wikipedia?

• People who want to know things and have
an internet connection
• That is to say, almost everyone
• For all its ubiquity, Wikipedia literacy is very
low
• Talk pages? Warning tags? Huh?


Who Edits Wikipedia?
• Very, very, very few people
• Per Jimbo:
• 50% of all edits performed by 0.7% of all
editors (524 people)
• 73% of all edits performed by 2% of all
editors (1400 people)
• Per Aaron Swartz:
• Yet the most active don’t always write

80-20 Rule? Forget That

50% by
0.7%

73% by 2

The rest

Edits Editors


Why Do People Quit Wikipedia?

• Better question: Why do people join
Wikipedia?
• Very few contribute in the ﬁrst place
• Who says anyone is supposed to be
continuously active in the ﬁrst place?


What Wikipedia Really Is
• The misleading PR speak:
the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

• The official language:

a neutral and unbiased compilation of

previously written, verifiable facts.

• In reality, it is:
a popular, simple and useful but unreliable, insular
and very complicated background briefing.


Wikipedia is Complicated
Approx. 50 policies, 150+ site guidelines, more
advisory essays often treated as enforceable


1 Header: Present in every article, givesarticle’s subject in
§
and preview of the full article, with the
a thumbnail sketch
2
boldface. Should be no longer than 3 paragraphs, usually 1
does not require citations.

3
2 Infobox: Notwhere similarto every article, but May
§
recommended
appropriate
subjects do have one.
include image or not. 4

3
§ Contents: Appears automatically after creating 4 or more
subsections following the Synopsis.

§ Body: Contains one or more paragraphs describing the
4 subject, with inline citations verifying important facts.

5 References:There are multiple forms of acceptable styles
§ Proper formatting will automatically place
citations here. 5
of citation format.

6
6 External links: Links to ofﬁcial website if any, other
§
useful, ideally non-commercial articles.
7

§ Categories: Added to bottom of article, groups with
7 similar articles for ease of navigation and sorting.

Why Join? Stay? Leave?

• TO HAVE FUN BY CAUSING MISCHIEF
• Not banned yet / found a new IP address
— STAY
• Been there, done that, bored — LEAVE
• Banned or blocked indeﬁnitely — LEAVE



• TO SEE IF IT WORKS
• Interest further piqued — STAY
• Curiosity satisﬁed — LEAVE



• TO ASSERT ONE’S BUREAUCRATIC OR
KNOWLEDGE-BASED AUTHORITY
• Adminship granted, etc. — STAY
• Contributions respected — STAY
• Adminship, contributions rejected — LEAVE



• TO MAKE A POINT ON BEHALF OF
ONESELF OR SOMEONE (OR
SOMETHING) ELSE
• Point made, interest piqued — STAY
• Point made, nothing more to say — LEAVE
• Point defeated — LEAVE



• TO SHARE / MAKE USE OF
ACCUMULATED KNOWLEDGE
• Expertise valued, continually useful — STAY
• Expertise exhausted, little more to say —
LEAVE
• Expertise rejected for stylistic / content
reasons — LEAVE



• TO ASSIST IN DEVELOPING THE SUM OF
ALL HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
• Contribution meaningful — STAY
• Lack of time — LEAVE
• Frustrated by vandals, trolls — LEAVE
• Disagree with direction of project — LEAVE


Editing Wikipedia is Stressful


Raul’s Fifth Law of Wikipedia
• “Over time, contentious articles will grow
from edit-war inspiring to eventually reach
a compromise that is agreed upon by all
the editors who have ot departed in
exasperation. This equilibrium will
inevitably be disturbed by new users who
accuse the article of being absurdly one
sided and who attempt to rewrite the
entire article. This is the cyclical nature of
controversial articles."


The Vanishing


The... Downshifting?


Goodbye, Cruel World


Sometimes You Don’t Even Get This


Gone, But Not Forgotten


What Does It Mean for
Participation?
• Administrator activity Sept. ‘07—Mar. ‘09

Source: User:MBisanz @williambeutler • @thewikipedian

What Does It Mean for
Participation?
• Number of hours between 5 million edits

Source: User:MBisanz @williambeutler • @thewikipedian

Three Types of (Productive) Editors

• Original Authors of New Content
• Organizers of Existing Content
• Outside Interests Exerting Inﬂuence


Bad Inﬂuence
• Rep. Dave Albo wouldn’t take “no” for an answer


Positive Inﬂuence
• Article created by campaign voluneer with
disclosure & understanding of the rules


Let’s Get Prescriptivist
• Recognition that volunteer “spirit” of
Wikipedia is not the only model
• Assistance / engagement of expert groups,
even ones with potential Conﬂict of Interest


Let’s Get Prescriptivist
• Informal education — More FAQs, 101s, etc.
• Partipation by educators — WP involved in
classroom assignments, not avoided

•

Thanks For Listening!

• See this again at: http://slideshare.net/williambeutler
• Wikipedia: User:WWB + User:NMS_Bill
• Twitter: @williambeutler • @thewikipedian
• The Wikipedian: http://thewikipedian.net
• Blog P.I.: http://blogpi.net
• E-mail: williambeutler@gmail.com


Wikipedia's Open Door and Closed Window

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