Talk:Strategy/Wikimedia Foundation/2016/Community consultation/Communities

Response by SVentura (WMF) 19:15, 12 January 2016 (UTC) Reply

Lower the threshold for actual contributions. In other words, make contributing to the projects easier (access to 'edit' or 'improve' buttons everytime user interacts with content, both on our sites, mobile apps, and on third party environment), value small contributions and make contributing less time/effort intensive (through micro-edits, edit suggestions mechanisms - yes people might think this is spoon-feeding, but that's how you raise a *baby* into a *steak eating* adult. Make contributing to the projects *fun* and rewarding (use principles of gamification to bring people in, reward contribution, participation and initiative - particularly for newbies). Part of our success in engaging future communities might rely on how we define ourselves, what does a 21st century knowledge project looks like? Is a digital encyclopedia composed of pages, articles, images, video, interactive boards, audio, graphics.... all of the above?

Response by Slowking4 15:31, 18 January 2016 (UTC) Reply

if you make me pick one it is: become more welcoming. the culture is the constraint on future growth. we have a culture of rigor through rejection; we need a culture of rigor through mentoring. community health could lead this culture change, but it will be a long painful process; the community will not do it on its own. we have a flawed premise that content writers are infinite; when expert writers are finite, and preoccupied with their paying work. when they see their work reverted and not a spirit of collaboration, then they go away for good.

all of the above. community health will be a system. need a profound culture change: need to stop harassing newbies, especially when they break rules; need to support productive volunteers with grant support; need to play nice with affiliates, help affiliates become better; need to grow activity on global south; need better automation to free up volunteers to authentically mentor newbies; need policies for problem avoidance rather than prescriptive direction.

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I agree with you heartily, but, alas, User:Slowking4, we can't do them all, not at one time. :/ We have to prioritize our approaches so we know what to do first and now (well, where now = June +). Given that, if you could only do a couple at a time, which would you do first? :) --Maggie Dennis (WMF) (talk) 15:55, 18 January 2016 (UTC) Reply

i kinda agree, we need to set priorities, however, it is not clear to me that there are constraints of resources, but imagination & people. i keep thinking of a strategy of small ball, where you spread the grant love widely, and reinforce success with follow-up. there are a lot of volunteers doing good work, but on a shoe-string. a little expense money would do wonders. also the picking of "one thing" tends to whip saw strategy, when a nuanced family of approaches, or front burner, back burner, might provide a more flexible approach. Slowking4 (talk) 16:12, 18 January 2016 (UTC) Reply

Fair enough, Slowking4. :) At least in terms of grantmaking, I suppose it's possible to strategize more widely - when it comes to directing staff activities, I think focal approaches are helpful. But I think you're right that flexibility is important. Support and Safety (formerly Community Advocacy) has prioritized among its strategies this year harassment and strengthening trust & safety practices, but that doesn't mean we haven't gone beyond that, where need emerges. --Maggie Dennis (WMF) (talk) 16:17, 18 January 2016 (UTC) Reply

thanks, as far as directing staff & small ball: how about having staff collaborate with Magnus Manske? you or i could name a top ten; listening to them and collaborating on some of their wish list would do more than money. these are productive people who have a big impact. (but then i'm a user who remembers community fellows fondly) Slowking4 (talk) 16:28, 18 January 2016 (UTC) Reply

Response by Yger 19:09, 18 January 2016 (UTC) Reply

Approach five

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Response by BethNaught 20:56, 18 January 2016 (UTC) Reply

Leading question. {{sad face}} However, the critical area to focus on is harassment. We need to stop trolls driving productive contributors away.

Support ideas 1, 3 and 4.

• 1: harassment is a serious issue on English Wikipedia. I don't think the WMF should expand its programme of so-called "SanFranBans" but there needs to be thought about how to optimise co-operation with community structures, such as Arbitration Committees, to tackle harassment.
• 3 and 4: Aiming for maximal transparency and co-operation is essential, because an adequate level of it might be reached.

Idea 2 is so buzzwordy I don't understand what it proposes. Volunteers already do 5 well on English Wikipedia but WMF help may be good for smaller wikis. However I do not endorse any software which changes the fundamental wikitext model of wikis, because look at the mess Flow is in at the moment. With regard to 6, policy and process is important. If anything, there needs to be effort to more effectively explain to new users how to edit Wikipedia and so on.

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Response by Snipre 21:08, 18 January 2016 (UTC) Reply

Il faut renforcer les projets. Le système actuel est trop centré sur le travail individuel, ce qui engendre des problèmes lorsque 2 visions différentes se rencontrent sur un même sujet.

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