We also might want to look into policy overhauls
to reduce barriers
to contribution.
________________________________
From: David Moran <fordmadoxfraud(a)gmail.com>
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Sent: Tue, November 24, 2009 5:53:35 AM
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Can you tell us about ... - An Idea to
encourage more edits
I actually like this idea, a LOT. The main page basically poses
Wikipedia
as a warehouse of content, which is fine, it is that, but also does
little
to pose Wikipedia as a collaborative project. Yeah, new visitors can
technically TRY to edit our main page articles now, but generally
the stuff
that makes it there is already so polished, or so intensely guarded,
that
neophyte editors have little to no chance of making meaningful edits
on
them. I've had a couple articles I created in the Did You Know
space, so I
can definitely say that they aren't the editor-magnets that Featured
Articles or In the News are, but I think putting out there on our
front page
articles that need CONTRIBUTORS rather than just READERS (in an
obvious way,
I mean--of course all our articles need contributors) would be a very
helpful, and very easy thing for us to do.
In general, redesigning the reader-facing parts of the site to
encourage contribution is something I strongly support. It will
benefit us in the long run.
The emphasis at present appears to be on presenting us as a place to
go to learn and discover things. This is great, but it does not
necessarily encourage contribution.