I too have seen some good results with the "thank" feature ( There are even better results when I write something specific.) I agree with Anders that the thank message is especially useful when sent to me, indicating that something I did was understood--in my case, usually that if I accepted or rescued an article the person is still around. Ideally I should follow it up with a real message. I But if it's in response to something like deletion, I am always unsure if it's genuine thanks, or meant in the opposite sense. One of the advantage in using real language is greater clarity.
I still remember exactly some encouraging things said to me by experienced users in my first few months when I first came here 8 years ago; mot were not separate messages, but in the course of discussion. When difficulties arise, I recall them to encourage myself. I even read over my RfA from time to time.
I completely agree with Liam that the way forward in many areas is with the Wikiprojects. They need further development, but I'm not sure how much of this requires additional software, rather than additional active participation. We should learn from the most successful, such as military history. (or chemistry or medicine) They're a self-organizing feature, with the advantage of not requiring funding or help from the foundation. Some have however on enWP become somewhat of a closed circle, immune to community views to the point of trying to maintain guidelines the community does not support .he remedy for this as for essentially everything else is increased participation.
On Tue, Aug 26, 2014 at 7:58 AM, Ilario Valdelli valdelli@gmail.com wrote:
The question here is about "editor retention".
Honestly we can say "thank you" or we can use a lot of emoticons but the problem is always the same.
At the first error the "thank you" and the pink sweet world disappears.
There is always someone in the other side who is so gentle like the elephants in the a store of crystal things.
The biggest problem in my opinion is to continue selecting administrators considering only their technical point of view and never their community management capacities.
Every time I meet someone who left the Wikimedia projects the problem is the same: a conflict and frequently some block which seems to be "unclear" and "incorrect".
Please introduce something that is able to associate the beautiful words to the beautiful actions.
HELP APPRECIATE INVOLVE
Are really good points and applied not only to the new editors but to all editors.
On Tue, Aug 26, 2014 at 12:58 PM, Anders Wennersten < mail@anderswennersten.se> wrote:
I agree with Craig
The Thank function is not only good to give to new editors but also as a measurement to what action is appreciated by new beginners
I frequently get thanks from new one after I have complemented, wikiadjusted their articles (HELP is appreciated)
I never get a Thanks for putting up templates, neither on articles or an editors discussions page
To my surprise, I do getTthanks though, when I am tougher and removes an article and put the text on a subpage to the editor, followed by a
message
often almost harsh ("fluffy text", "unecyclopedic", "no sources",
"unclear
what is meant" etc) (Any type of personal feedback relevant to the person action IS appreciated)
My three key actions to new editors are HELP, fix their articles directly, wikify, put on categories, infoboxes find sources and images and do this within an hour of its creation and without putting on templates SHOW APPRECIATION when a number of good action is seen, put on a personal message of appreciation on the editors talkpage praising his/her
knowledge
and competence INVOLVE after a time a month or two of repeated good actions, get the person involved by asking issues in his/her expert ares, invite to a IRL meting with other experts in his/her area of interest
So absolutely "The editor retention problem will not be solved with technological gizmos and doodads, nor with top-down solutions imposed
from
above. " it is with personal messages and contacts and appriecation of competence
Anders
Craig Franklin skrev 2014-08-26 12:18:
I agree with this wholeheartedly. When I think back to when I was new
on
Wikipedia, pretty early on I got an honest-to-god personal message from someone to thank me for correcting a typo ( https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk: Lankiveil&diff=5647166&oldid=5629943 ). It made me feel like this was a community of nice people that I wanted to collaborate on things with, and was probably instrumental in me sticking around.
The editor retention problem will not be solved with technological
gizmos
and doodads, nor with top-down solutions imposed from above. It will be solved with positive human contact and creating a collaborative
community
that people actually want to be a part of, rather than one that they put up with. Template welcomes and messages that have all the warmth of a form letter enclosed in a utility bill won't make a lasting improvement in
the
long run. The intention behind things like the "thank" button are
great,
but they should be seen as at most an enabler, rather than as the actual solution to our problems.
Cheers, Craig
On 26 August 2014 10:09, David Goodman dggenwp@gmail.com wrote:
Perhaps the best way of doing this is the admittedly laborious method
of
personally communicating with new editors who seem promising and encouraging them and offering to help them continue. The key word in
this
is "personally". It cannot be effectively done with wikilove messages
,
and certainly not with anything that looks like a template. Template welcomes are essentially in the same class as mail or web "personalized"advertisements. What works is to show that you actually read and appreciated what they are doing, to the extent you wanted to write something specific.
On Mon, Aug 25, 2014 at 2:19 PM, Ilario Valdelli valdelli@gmail.com wrote:
Wikimedia ch is doing a big investment in supporting communities.
There are three community liaisons (a third hired recently) to support
the
three national languages which are also within the biggest linguistic communities.
Anyway there is not a unique solution to be adapted easily in user retention and recruiting because the world is varioius as it is the life.
Regards Il 24/ago/2014 03:56 "James Salsman" jsalsman@gmail.com ha scritto:
Is there a list somewhere of all currently active Foundation
initiatives for attracting and retaining active editors? I am only aware of the one project, "Task Recommendations," to try to encourage editors who have made a few edits to make more, described starting at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JbZ1uWoKEg&t=60m20s
I am not worried about pageviews at all, given that the trend is as constant as it has ever been when mobile users are added in to the total. Sadly, the greater number of mobile users appears to be
harming
active editor numbers beyond their already dismal trend, so it would be nice to have an idea of exactly how much effort the Foundation is applying to its only strategic goal which it is not achieved, and has not ever achieved. I am amazed that so much more effort continues to be applied to the other goals, all of which have always been met through to the present. What does this state of affairs say about the Foundation leadership's ability to prioritize?
Is there any evidence at all that anyone in the Foundation is interested in any kind of change which would make non-editors more inclined to edit, or empower editors with social factors which might provide more time, economic power, or other means to enable them to edit more?
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