Proposal:User pages should work more like social networking sites

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Every proposal should be tied to one of the strategic priorities below.

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  1. Achieve continued growth in readership
  2. Focus on quality content
  3. Increase Participation
  4. Stabilize and improve the infrastructure
  5. Encourage Innovation



Summary

User pages are, like the discussion pages, old fashioned and difficult. They must edit their page in the same way as they would edit an article. However, user pages are not articles. By examining popular social networking sites, we can improve user pages for the sake of the user and those that visit their page.

Proposal

  • Allow users to post in profile things like their name, email, native language, interests, etc.
  • Show recent edits made by the user and present them in a similar way to Walls in Facebook and YouTube.
  • Allow users to post what they're doing in the same way as Twitter.
  • Get users be friends with other users.
  • Give links to articles that the user has created.
  • Allow users to keep their information either: viewable by everyone, viewable by friends only or completely private.

Motivation

Imagine that you're a new user and you don't have much knowledge of the way that Wikipedia or MediaWiki works. Then, you open your user page. What should you put there? Is there anything that the rules say you're meant to put? Usually, your in the same situation as an artist staring at a blank canvas. What kind of things can you put on your userpage?

Also, many user pages on Wikipedia are cluttered with boxes that will state the user's interests and abilities such as "This user speaks very good French". These pages clutter up user pages (including mine) and are usually never read by anyone!

Key Questions

Would every user like this?

Would this encourage users to give away too much personal information?

Would users prefer the current article-based system?

Potential Costs

Getting someone to create this new system.

References

Community Discussion

Do you have a thought about this proposal? A suggestion? Discuss this proposal by going to Proposal talk:User pages should work more like social networking sites.

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