[WikiEN-l] Announcement: Survey study on the categorization of contributors to Wikipedia

Fri Feb 18 13:11:18 UTC 2011

Hi Jeroen, you might also want to look at some of the forks of
Wikipedia such as Citizendium and Conservapedia and see how
"successful" they have been with their policies of restricting IP
editing and even pseudonymous editing.

Also there was some discussion about this on the Strategy project. For example:

http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposal:Less_anonymity

http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposal_talk:Get_rid_of_the_global_anonymity

http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposal:Require_all_new_user_Accounts_to_start_as_anonymous

The big questions that proposals to end anonymity tend to founder on are:

1 How do you persuade "good editors" to go through an id verification
process before they start editing?
2 If you skip the verification process how do you avoid the scenario
where you haven't dissuaded any of the trolls and vandals who will
happily give you a false name, but you have lost a large part of your
good editors?
3 A lot of our editors are young. Some are very young. Is it ethical
to encourage them to broadcast their identity on the Internet and
create a permanent record of their adolescent views on many
controversial topics?
4 Wikipedia was largely written by anonymous authors, would it be
ethical to disown them now and prevent them from being part of the
project?

WereSpielChequers

On 18 February 2011 08:26, Bob the Wikipedian
<bobthewikipedian at gmail.com> wrote:
> The first survey's fine. :-) I'm merely suggesting you put out a second
> survey once this one's harvested. The second survey, of course, would
> focus more on exploring what we like about anonymity, as you've
> indicated you're seeing that unexpected trend.
>
> Sorry for the confusion!
>
> God bless,
> Bob
>
> On 2/17/2011 10:41 AM, Jeroen Kleijn wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Thanks for the quick reply. Do you mean that you are waiting on a new
>> URL of the survey? I have edited the
>> currenct survey so the URL given in my first email is still correct. Do
>> I need to post the full message again before publishing (on the list), or
>> will this be done by the moderators of the list?
>>
>> Sorry for the inconvenience, but maybe I misunderstood?
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Jeroen Kleijn
>>
>> Op 17-02-11 16:44, Bob the Wikipedian schreef:
>>> Mr. Kleijn--
>>>
>>> Sounds like a followup survey's in order, then, and I'd be more than
>>> willing to participate.
>>>
>>> I won't hold the question's format against you-- questionnaires are very
>>> difficult to write without leading the questionnee.
>>>
>>> God bless,
>>> Bob
>>>
>>> On 2/17/2011 6:44 AM, Jeroen Kleijn wrote:
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> At first: thank you for replying.
>>>>
>>>> I've checked the grammar of the survey and made some corrections in the
>>>> introduction. Although I can't see any grammar errors
>>>> in the questions. Concerning your second point about vandalism I agree.
>>>> The results (I've launched the survey last sunday) show that most of the
>>>> respondents
>>>> say that anonimity is not a problem but Wikipedia's greatest strength.
>>>> But I'm still curious about this topic and would like to check it.
>>>>
>>>> Therefore, I hope that I could run the survey on the WikiEN list.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>> Jeroen Kleijn
>>>>
>>>> Dear all,
>>>>>     I'm a Master student and currently busy with my thesis concerning
>>>>>     Wikipedia. This survey is part of a Master Thesis research project which
>>>>>     investigates the effects of the increasing participation at reliability of
>>>>>     Wikipedia. The survey is designed to collect information that will
>>>>>     help me to identify the contributors to Wikipedia.
>>>>>
>>>>>     I would like to invite you to answer my online survey, which is available
>>>>>     at:
>>>>>
>>>>>     http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=ag5flewr68z06ay867574
>>>>>
>>>>>     To be eligible for this investigation you should be an user of Wikipedia
>>>>>     who has contributed to the website by creating or editing an article.
>>>>>     The questionnaire will take approximately 5 minutes to complete. To
>>>>>     allow for reliable results, I hope that as many contributors as possible
>>>>>     complete
>>>>>     the questionnaire. You would especially help me if you could link to the
>>>>>     questionnaire or forward this e-mail to people who don't regularly read
>>>>>     this list.
>>>>>
>>>>>     Your support would be greatly appreciated!
>>>>>
>>>>>     With regards,
>>>>>
>>>>>     Jeroen Kleijn
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Op 14-02-11 11:29, michael west schreef:
>>>>> On 13 February 2011 16:47, Jeroen Kleijn<jeroenkleyn at gmail.com>     wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Dear all,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm a Master student and currently busy with my thesis concerning
>>>>>> Wikipedia. This survey is part of a Master Thesis research project that
>>>>>> investigates the effects of the increasing participation at reliability of
>>>>>> Wikipedia. The survey is designed to collect information that will
>>>>>> help me to identify the contributors to Wikipedia.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I would like to invite you to answer my online survey, which is available
>>>>>> at:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=ag5flewr68z06ay867574
>>>>>>
>>>>>> To be eligible for this investigation you should be an user of Wikipedia
>>>>>> who has contributed to the website by creating or editing an article.
>>>>>> The questionnaire will take approximately 5 minutes to complete. To
>>>>>> allow for reliable results, I hope that as many contributors as possible
>>>>>> complete
>>>>>> the questionnaire. You would especially help me if you could link to the
>>>>>> questionnaire or forward this e-mail to people who don't regularly read
>>>>>> this list.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Your support would be greatly appreciated!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> With regards,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Jeroen Kleijn
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> Check your grammar on the survey. and in terms of the question relating to
>>>>> anonymity and vandalism, most editors will not describe it as a problem.
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