Hi Zubin,
As a rare newcomer to the Wikimedia project, I've
been thinking of some of
the factors that seem to discourage me from contributing and one of the
primary ones seem to be the fact that the way the administration is
organized and rules enforced is often vague and unclear. The definition and
the method of collection of the vague idea of "Consensus" aren't easily
found and take a lot of digging to get out.
It's interesting you mention this. I was discussing Wikipedia the
other week with participants in another online learning community, and
it really struck me just how much of a focus Wikipedia has on very
dense rules about content, and how little a focus we have on community
and positive interactions.
There are an immense number of guidelines and policies, but discourse
on-wiki is often mainly a string of references to these policies and
guidelines - which is baffling for anyone unfamiliar with them, and
doubtless a big turnoff for anyone who *isn't* familiar with them who
wants to take part (even if you can navigate the technical aspects of
talking to people.) By contrast, praise, thanks and encouragement are
fairly scarce.
Regards,
Chris