Dear Ashwin,

You may recall our talk regarding this topic during WCI2011 venue.

It seems somehow you have got the notion that developement of Wikipedia is all about creation of new articles and edits on a day to day basis.

I must completely disagree.

Wikipedia as a tool of knowledgeware is only as good and effective as its readers would look upon it. The edits seldom offers a reflection of its USE. To that direction, what true devices have we got to measure and affect the passive readership of wikipedia?

A lot of people are contributing to Wikipedia not just by editing but being constant pursuers and evangelists of the very cause and prospects of it. (You can count me as one, and probably an effective one at that.)

But those very people may be doing very less editing activity. They would rather offer the means of fishing to others than just giving a fish for once. Some of them spend their time with a wider reach and result by getting all the more people into the arena of Wikipedia.

Portal India Quiz is one simple humble little but nice page that lurks or languishes somewhere within the deep realms of English Wikipedia. I have been keenly observing (and at times participating) at that portal. It gives me enough Wikitainment as well as Wikdrinaline (a recently discovered hormone that is produced as a result of spending time in Wikipedia -either or both reading and editing) to stay on for hours and even overnight within the boundaries of Wikipedia. Where else would you find a reason to mangle through the great stacks of English (Indian) Wikipedia and elsewhere for a single question?

That helps a lot Wikipedia too. While or after a mind-filling QA, I would have gone through at least a few pages within en.wiki. Besides adding the search scores of WP, my exploration would let me get enlightened on certain aspects about those pages. Some of them would require slight fine tuning. Some are not even being worth being there. Some are obnoxiously false or misguiding. Some so inevitable topics are non-existent to my surprise.

The  time, I may have not spent at all in Wikipedia would now be spent in such pages. Just a spelling mistake here, just a talk comment there, or a fresh stub or interwiki link somewhere.

It even regularly occurs to me that a corresponding page in my home wiki gets created /edited or elaborated just after realizing the significance of the same after the insights obtained from such painstaking research on a particular (interesting or non-interesting) question at wp:pinq

WP:PINQ may not be doing its full potentials. But it IS doing some job that is helping build the great edifice that is Wikipedia, however negligible it may seem.

(At times, even I am frustrated that the questions are too tricky or illogical or that there are not many takers to participate. But that is our problem. Not the fault of the portal itself.)

Additionally, drawing inspiration from the English version, we had started up a similar portal in Malayalam Wikipedia (Concentrating on Kerala and Malayalam language) a few months back. Like the English counterpart, It too was intended to run on a small pace. At times, its activity charts surge. And at times, it goes to a slumber. But the portal has been effective and successful to bring in fresh blood as well as increased activity in ml.wiki creation.


With warm regards,
Viswam
user:viswaprabha homed @ ml.wikipedia.org





On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 22:20, Ashwin Baindur <ashwin.baindur@gmail.com> wrote:
Hmmm, touched a sensitive spot, have I? The record speaks for itself.
2005 & 2006 is a long time ago. How about justifying it and reforming
it today?

I firmly believe that all methods for community building should be
used, but you have not made a case here other than that it was useful
many years ago and I should not criticise people working on their own
interests.

My answer to you Srinivas is - prove my words false, make the Quiz
relevant. I'll join you in the Quiz  myself. Till then I remain the
skeptic on this issue.

My purpose for posting was only to prod people's minds. Accordingly,
I will not be posting on this thread any more for that reason.

Warm regards,

Ashwin Baindur
------------------------------------------------------



2012/2/18 Srinivas Gunta <srinivas.gunta@gmail.com>:
> I for one can say that lot of new articles were created in 2005-06. By being
> in the nature of not well known, the subjects of these questions may not
> necessarily evolve into featured articles but several of them made to DYK.
> All efforts to build communities must be encouraged. I can also argue that
> INCOTW/ INCOTM has not lived to its promise, had become dormant for a long
> time and it is not clear as to where it will be going. However, it does not
> help in detracting someone from working on something of their interest.
> YMMV.
>
> Regards,
> Srinivas.
>
> On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 9:46 PM, Ashwin Baindur <ashwin.baindur@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> > 2012/2/18 Naveen Francis <naveenpf@wikimedia.in>:wrote
>> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:India/Quiz
>> >
>> > Crack the question
>> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:India/Quiz#Q_43.08
>>
>> I have mixed feelings about the Portal:India Quiz (in fact I argued
>> that it should be terminated).
>>
>> There - you can now throw custard pies at me!
>>
>> The idea originally began that the quiz would be an instrument to
>> article improvement. Sad to say, its mode, its exclusivity, the need
>> to think up terribly difficult questions etc led to its becoming an
>> abtruse form of entertainment and nothing more. The quiz simply did
>> not fulfill its promise to any notable degree. The players, it
>> appeared to me, spent too much time playing the game and their edit
>> history showed little related development of articles to justify the
>> original idea.
>>
>> Don't believe me? See the histories of edits of the quiz page &
>> participants for the period of their quiz participation.
>>
>> So one should be under no apprehension that this quiz adds to
>> community or to the encyclopedia.
>>
>> I stopped well short of doing anything more than arguing on talk page
>> because I am at heart an inclusionist. I did not want to be a
>> spoilsport but I did hope that my raining on their parade could lead
>> to a re-evaluation. Sadly this did not happen.
>>
>> I would like to make a point here. Its interesting to play India Quiz
>> and it is definitely a challenge. And I'm sure it is great fun too.
>> But it is a greater challenge to take the questions and their answers
>> and use them to build up any article in anything more than a trivial
>> fashion.
>>
>> The opportunity here is to make India Portal Quiz achieve its purpose
>> of developing articles while playing it. Are the players capable of
>> succeeding in this challenge?
>>
>>
>> AshLin
>>
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