I have had a wiki for many years now. I'm not able to say the URL for confidentiality reasons (thanks to search engines). I can count on one hand, the numbers of editors who have done any significant work. They have collectively done really good work and actually, only one editor has helped the site a lot. I feel there should be many more editors. I feel I'm to blame for this. Lack of leadership? Not sure what it is. I feel its a wiki so it should not require me to be there all the time. I like to be rational and give people the freedom to do what they like. The subject matter is controversial and our standards are high and work is difficult to do. Like a good article on Wikipedia, it requires research, fact checking and analysis. Some editors tried to join but they could understand how we do things. A certain mindset and commitment is required. But then that is the case for every wiki.
I don't know what to do, and how to track this down and how to grow the community. The future of the website worries me greatly so I'm coming here for advice. We need more editors and admins involved so it can be guaranteed to keep existing, grow and flourish Can I do something to attract editors and make things more welcoming? Is the wiki interface difficult for new comers? For example a Wysiwyg editor may help. That's just one thing though and it may not be a problem.
I see some other similar wikis with a lot more editing activity and I wonder what I could do. I cant reveal my identity (that would help in making editors more comfortable and perhaps form a personal bond with me but I cant do it). Maybe some kind of analysis is required to see what is keeping people from coming in.
If there's anything any of you did that improved editing activity, I would really like to hear it. I'm open to any kind of advice, suggestions or ideas, big or small.
Dan
Hi Dan!
My answers are below ----- Yury Katkov, WikiVote
On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 7:50 AM, Dan Fisher danfisher261@gmail.com wrote:
I have had a wiki for many years now. I'm not able to say the URL for confidentiality reasons (thanks to search engines). I can count on one hand, the numbers of editors who have done any significant work. They have collectively done really good work and actually, only one editor has helped the site a lot. I feel there should be many more editors. I feel I'm to blame for this. Lack of leadership? Not sure what it is. I feel its a wiki so it should not require me to be there all the time.
It is a mistake. Creating a wiki is like running a business: you have to spend a lot of time and effort before the wiki become self-supportive system. In Wikivote we even have special staff called facilitators that encourage people and analyze what can be done better for them.
I like to be rational and give people the freedom to do what they like. The subject matter is controversial and our standards are high and work is difficult to do. Like a good article on Wikipedia, it requires research, fact checking and analysis. Some editors tried to join but they could understand how we do things. A certain mindset and commitment is required. But then that is the case for every wiki.
I don't know what to do, and how to track this down and how to grow the community. The future of the website worries me greatly so I'm coming here for advice. We need more editors and admins involved so it can be guaranteed to keep existing, grow and flourish Can I do something to attract editors and make things more welcoming? Is the wiki interface difficult for new comers? For example a Wysiwyg editor may help. That's just one thing though and it may not be a problem.
This IS a problem. MediaWiki syntax is objectively ugly and is the main technical obstacle. We try to eliminate the problem with WYGIWYG editors and semantic forms. The second obstacle is very heavy user interface. We've hidden 60% of the buttons that MediaWiki has.
I see some other similar wikis with a lot more editing activity and I wonder what I could do. I cant reveal my identity (that would help in making editors more comfortable and perhaps form a personal bond with me but I cant do it). Maybe some kind of analysis is required to see what is keeping people from coming in.
Of course it also depends of the topic of your wiki. If it's the wiki about some popular Anime cartoon the target audience will be bigger and people will be very engaged. You can try some methods of Search engine optimization to attract new readers to your wiki. Maybe you find this link interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Editor_engagement
If there's anything any of you did that improved editing activity, I would really like to hear it. I'm open to any kind of advice, suggestions or ideas, big or small.
1) Editor encouragement. Talk to them, greet them, tell them that they're cool guys. Run contests, marathons. Look at Wikipedia experience. 2) Extensions that make the system's feedback to the user visual: Echo extension is a great example 3) simplify the software. Hide all the buttons you don't need, install Semantic Forms 4) advertise you wiki
Dan _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
Thanks Yury! I will refer to this and maybe ask you for help later (I hope its ok with you). I went to the wikivote website and I couldn't find a wiki to check the editing interface. Could you give a link here or in private?
Maybe you find this link interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Editor_engagement
Yea I have this link bookmarked already. I should look at it. Do you have pages like this for wikivote? I would like to look at those too.
Yea I think I like this Echo extension, I'll look into it. I have your reply saved. Its very useful, thanks a lot. Link for echo: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Echo
WJohnson wrote:
Explain more clearly why you can't tell us what the name of the site is.
hi WJohnson, I understand your inquiry and thanks for the interest. Its something like Wikileaks. Its controversial and has a polarized audience with people liking or disliking it. I cant tell the URL because Google indexes everything and right now I dont want this discussion to pop up when anyone searches our name. Yuri's suggestions were useful. That's the kind of general advice I was looking for. I will first implement this general advice and then maybe come back later on with the actual URL to see if there's additional advice.
thanks all Dan
On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 7:44 AM, Yury Katkov katkov.juriy@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Dan!
My answers are below
Yury Katkov, WikiVote
On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 7:50 AM, Dan Fisher danfisher261@gmail.com wrote:
I have had a wiki for many years now. I'm not able to say the URL for confidentiality reasons (thanks to search engines). I can count on one hand, the numbers of editors who have done any significant work. They have collectively done really good work and actually, only one editor has helped the site a lot. I feel there should
be
many more editors. I feel I'm to blame for this. Lack of leadership? Not sure what it is. I feel its a wiki so it should not require me to be
there
all the time.
It is a mistake. Creating a wiki is like running a business: you have to spend a lot of time and effort before the wiki become self-supportive system. In Wikivote we even have special staff called facilitators that encourage people and analyze what can be done better for them.
I like to be rational and give people the freedom to do what they like. The subject matter is controversial and our standards are high and work is difficult to do. Like a good article on Wikipedia, it
requires
research, fact checking and analysis. Some editors tried to join but they could understand how we do things. A certain mindset and commitment is required. But then that is the case for every wiki.
I don't know what to do, and how to track this down and how to grow the community. The future of the website worries me greatly so I'm coming
here
for advice. We need more editors and admins involved so it can be guaranteed to keep existing, grow and flourish Can I do something to attract editors and make things more welcoming? Is the wiki interface difficult for new comers? For example a Wysiwyg editor may help. That's just one thing though and it may not be a problem.
This IS a problem. MediaWiki syntax is objectively ugly and is the main technical obstacle. We try to eliminate the problem with WYGIWYG editors and semantic forms. The second obstacle is very heavy user interface. We've hidden 60% of the buttons that MediaWiki has.
I see some other similar wikis with a lot more editing activity and I wonder what I could do. I cant reveal my identity (that would help in making editors more comfortable and perhaps form a personal bond with me but I cant do it). Maybe some kind of analysis is required to see what is keeping people from coming in.
Of course it also depends of the topic of your wiki. If it's the wiki about some popular Anime cartoon the target audience will be bigger and people will be very engaged. You can try some methods of Search engine optimization to attract new readers to your wiki. Maybe you find this link interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Editor_engagement
If there's anything any of you did that improved editing activity, I
would
really like to hear it. I'm open to any kind of advice, suggestions or ideas, big or small.
- Editor encouragement. Talk to them, greet them, tell them that they're
cool guys. Run contests, marathons. Look at Wikipedia experience. 2) Extensions that make the system's feedback to the user visual: Echo extension is a great example 3) simplify the software. Hide all the buttons you don't need, install Semantic Forms 4) advertise you wiki
Dan _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
2013/4/23 Dan Fisher danfisher261@gmail.com
I have had a wiki for many years now. I'm not able to say the URL for confidentiality reasons (thanks to search engines).
You want to attract editors to your wiki but you refuse to post its link on a mailing list? I think there's something wrong in your approach :)
Explain more clearly why you can't tell us what the name of the site is.
-----Original Message----- From: Dan Fisher danfisher261@gmail.com To: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list mediawiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Mon, Apr 22, 2013 10:40 pm Subject: [MediaWiki-l] Need advice on attracting more editors to my wiki
I have had a wiki for many years now. I'm not able to say the URL for confidentiality reasons (thanks to search engines). I can count on one hand, the numbers of editors who have done any significant work. They have collectively done really good work and actually, only one editor has helped the site a lot. I feel there should be many more editors. I feel I'm to blame for this. Lack of leadership? Not sure what it is. I feel its a wiki so it should not require me to be there all the time. I like to be rational and give people the freedom to do what they like. The subject matter is controversial and our standards are high and work is difficult to do. Like a good article on Wikipedia, it requires research, fact checking and analysis. Some editors tried to join but they could understand how we do things. A certain mindset and commitment is required. But then that is the case for every wiki.
I don't know what to do, and how to track this down and how to grow the community. The future of the website worries me greatly so I'm coming here for advice. We need more editors and admins involved so it can be guaranteed to keep existing, grow and flourish Can I do something to attract editors and make things more welcoming? Is the wiki interface difficult for new comers? For example a Wysiwyg editor may help. That's just one thing though and it may not be a problem.
I see some other similar wikis with a lot more editing activity and I wonder what I could do. I cant reveal my identity (that would help in making editors more comfortable and perhaps form a personal bond with me but I cant do it). Maybe some kind of analysis is required to see what is keeping people from coming in.
If there's anything any of you did that improved editing activity, I would really like to hear it. I'm open to any kind of advice, suggestions or ideas, big or small.
Dan _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
mediawiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org