Hi,
*TLDR:* Wikigrok proved that readers are interested in and capable of
making casual, mobile contributions to Wikipedia. We are putting continued
development of the 'Wikigrok' casual contribution feature on hold until we
have a plan for optimally harnessing this interest/capability.
*Background*
Given the growth of mobile traffic on wikipedia and the challenges inherent
to traditional editing on a mobile device, Wikigrok was proposed as a way
to test if regular wikipedia readers would be interested in making smaller,
more casual contributions to wikimedia projects while reading Wikipedia on
a mobile device.
*Results*
By early 2015, the results were in: readers were relatively interested in
engaging with the feature[1]. Some oft-quoted comparisons include:
- 3x the number of unique responders as mobile editors during test
period (4.5K editors, 12.3K WikiGrokkers), even with WG on sample of
articles & users
- 1.5x better clickthrough than 2014 Fundraising full-screen mobile
banner
(I actually do not have references for these, as they are borrowed quotes)
Furthermore, we found that the quality of responses was rather high [2,3].
*Future*
The original thought was to use these responses to fill in gaps in Wikidata
and our initial test results (2 weeks worth) were successfully ported over
in late April [4]. However, in order to production-ize the system, we would
have to:
1. scale and develop queries against the new wikidata query service
2. create an article parser to identify potential multiple choice
answers for each question
3. create a system for attributing aggregated results to the specific
contributors (per Wikidata bot request discussion[5])
None of these are unsurpassable, but we have learned a great deal and, at
this stage, we believe that further effort should be devoted to evaluating
areas of need and fit before we commit additional efforts to specifically
porting information into Wikidata.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns about
this decision.
Best,
Jon
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:WikiGrok/Test2
[2] Quality of responses, version A:
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/File:All_Campagins,_Scatterplot,_version_(a).…
[3] Quality of responses, version B:
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/File:All_Campaigns,_Scatterplot,_version_(b).…
[4] *https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/WikiGrok?limit=500
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/WikiGrok?limit=500>*
[5]
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Requests_for_permissions/Bot/WikiGrok