We are pleased to share with you the initial results of the HEWP editors
survey:
Wikimedia Israel conducted an editors’ survey in August among HEWP editors.
The questionnaire was based on the WMNL survey in order to to enable
international learning in the future.
The survey had two target audiences: active editors (with voting rights [1])
and contributors. The questionnaire was the same but distributed
differently. Active editors got an invitation to participate on their talk
page, while contributors were invited through a “Sitenotice”. Some 151
active editors and 171 contributors participated.
*Gender*: Almost 20% of the respondents were women.
Among the active editors, only 10% were women whereas 29% of the
contributors were women. The explanations (open answers) for limited
diversity among the editors ranged from a negative work atmosphere to a
conservative point of view about gender roles.
Editors in general did not find the low participation of women negatively
affects the coverage of topics in Wikipedia. Answering a question about how
to increase the participation of women, respondents offered workshops,
encouraging high school students to participate, expanding the wiki-women
group and providing general support.
*New editors*: A large majority of editors acknowledged that new editors
wanted to contribute to HEWP. They recognized the importance of a
continuous arrival of new editors and felt that new editors were welcome.
*Work Atmosphere*: 34% of the respondents reported that they were satisfied
with the work atmosphere on the Hebrew Wikipedia. Only 5.5% of the editors
were not satisfied with it at all. However, 46% noted that there was a
large number of conflicts. Active editors (66%) reported such conflicts
more than contributors (29%). Almost 46% of the active editors stated that
they felt like they were in a conflict in the past six months, while only
29% of contributors expressed the same. 61% of the editors indicated that
conflicts were either mostly or sometimes resolved in a good way.
Ideology, worldviews and egos were considered to play a major role in the
development of conflicts. Contributors also mentioned lack of patience from
the active editors.
*Wikimedia Israel*: 60% of the respondents are familiar with Wikimedia
Israel. As expected active editors are more acquainted with WMIL than
contributors. Among them, 78% agree with the statement that WMIL provides
practical support to editors.
The survey provides important information for the HEWP editors’ community
and for Wikimedia Israel.
Wikimedia Israel will learn the data and use it to develop better support
for editors, contributors and newbies.
[1] The Hebrew Wikipedia has adopted a policy of deletion upon a 55%
majority, with no minimum number of votes. In these votes, only registered
users with one month seniority and at least 100 edits in the article,
image, category or template namespaces in the past 90 days can vote.
Michal Lester
Executive Director
Wikimedia Israel