On July 1, the Wikimedia Foundation introduced VisualEditor, a new tool for editing Wikipedia articles. This allows all logged-in editors to view Wikipedia pages in their article form while editing. Previously, an article’s “Edit” page could only be read and changed using Wikimarkup, a syntax that many new editors found confusing. VisualEditor is one way in which Wikipedia is making it easier for new editors to contribute to the site.
Wikipedia promotes itself as “the free Encyclopedia anyone can edit.” In fact, editing Wikipedia is quite easy. The “Edit” page of most articles is accessible to anyone, whether logged-in as an editor or not, by clicking on the tab at the top right-hand corner of the article’s page. You could put down this newspaper and go edit Wikipedia right now! Despite this, the number of regularly contributing editors to Wikipedia’s 4.2 million articles, in English alone, is a comparatively small 40 000. This group of dedicated editors at the heart of Wikipedia not only creates pages, but edits existing pages, and monitors them for incorrect edits and vandalism. Since Wikipedia keeps all old copies of an article, these undesirable changes are easily reverted. This is why Wikipedia, a website open to anyone’s contributions and with high visibility, is so free of vandalism and nonsense (and you thought it was the common sense and decency of the human race!)
Having a limited pool of regular editors, however, is not all good. In the first place, Wikipedia is built upon the collective knowledge of its contributors. More contributors means more knowledge, and a better Wikipedia. Secondly, having a small community of regular contributors can engender a sense of proprietorship, and create a barrier for new editors. Wikipedia’s policy on editing is “Be Bold,” meaning no one should hesitate to edit when they can contribute something useful. However, new editors sometimes feel that their contributions are not welcome. Back in April, one clash between newcomers and established editors become news outside of Wikipedia. Steve Joordens, a University of Toronto professor, assigned the 1900 students taking his introductory psychology class the optional assignment to edit the Wikipedia pages on the topics covered in the course. The influx of new edits, all in the same subject area, and several of which were erroneous or improperly cited, raised flags in Wikipedia’s regular contributor community. Discussions got heated on the article talk pages, but the issue was ultimately resolved, with both sides claiming to have learned something from the experience.
The Wikipedia community, made up by volunteer editors and some 150 employees of the Wikimedia foundation, is aware that its goals of outputting high quality articles and growing the number of editors are sometimes contradictory. VisualEditor is one example of a tool aimed at reconciling these two goals. Other examples include style guides, countless tutorial and help pages for newcomers, the “Teahouse” discussion page where new editors can ask questions of experienced editors, and a page directed at established editors entitled “Please do not bite the newcomers.” Naturally, friction within the old and new members of any association of people is bound to happen, and none of this is to say that new editors do not make changes to Wikipedia all the time. You can actually see a live global map of newcomers making changes to Wikipedia live on hatnote.com. Logged-in editors do not need to provide their IP address and therefore do not appear on the map.
It is difficult for us 20-somethings to remember a time when we actually used a paper encyclopedia. Incidentally, the English language Wikipedia alone, if written out, would fill over 2600 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica (as of 2010). These days, not only is Wikipedia often used in universities and the workplace, it is used in casual conversation, where almost any factual debate can be resolved by one or both parties checking Wikipedia on their smart phones.
It is easy to forget, however, that Wikipedia is a community tool that is created, maintained, and funded by volunteers. It is not a free encyclopedia, but rather a give-what-you-can encyclopedia. Seeing as your contributions to Wikipedia are needed and wanted (so long as you read and follow the guidelines), and given that the editing process just got a whole lot easier, why not give it a try? If writing, fixing spelling or grammar, adding references and links, or translating are not your thing, you can always give a monetary donation. Due to the fact that Wikimedia is a not-for-profit organization that does not use advertising, it runs entirely off donations.
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