[Gendergap] What motivates women to edit? ...Gendergap Digest, Vol 2, Issue 5

[Daniel and Elizabeth Case]

Carol writes:

Also, get people in the habit by just encouraging minor edits to start, even just grammar or spelling or wikilinks. Frequently when I watch a movie I search for background in the Wikipedia article. Sometimes I make minor corrections.  I'm sure others use it for similar purposes.  

Maybe appeal to the "straighten this mess out" motivation many women feel (in fact that's how I describe part of my motivation on my user page).  Little habits can become big ones.

Maybe a banner every couple hours (or during high traffic times) that say something like: "Hello, visitor! See a spelling or grammar mistake in an article? Feel free to jump in and correct it.  Making editing wikipedia a habit!" Or something snappier.  And a certain percentage of those will be women who otherwise would not think of editing.

My response:

I've noticed a fair amount of regular female editors do, or at least started out doing, exactly this sort of wikignome stuff. It parallels a similar abundance of women in such positions, particularly in book and magazine publishing-especially the former, where a lot of the editors who do the real work of editing (i.e., the stuff that authors deeply appreciate and thank them for profusely when accepting awards. Or should), as opposed to acquiring editors who often get photographed for gossip columns leaving lunches at trendy, pricy restaurants), are women.

One can speculate as to why this is so, but that's for another time and forum. I think Carol has a point and a great idea that we should try to work with.

Daniel Case
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