Wikipedia is not a social networking site

Fragment of a discussion from Talk:May 2011 Update

Agreed: Wikipedia is not a site whose primary goal is social networking, but it clearly functions in an extremely social way, so it could benefit from techniques used in other sites to make the social side more functional and more pleasant.

For example, it might help if Wikipedia software implemented something like reputation (as in techie sites like Slashdot, Perl Monks, or Stack Overflow) or a Like button (as in Facebook). More "objective" criteria for ranking quality, skill, experience, or popularity among contributors, articles, and edits might help resolve disputes. For example, newcomers might find it less arbitrary to have to acquire "experience points" than to have to please faceless administrators who derive their authority and powers from mysterious processes.

I'm sure such ideas have already been discussed (not here though), and there may well be good reasons why mechanical means of assessing quality are not currently emphasized.

Kaicarver04:55, 9 May 2011

Sounds good to me in principle at least. JonRichfield 17:18, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

JonRichfield17:18, 9 May 2011

There need to be more forum-type, open, rambling communications allowed. One of the key techniques, used by deletionists, is to suppress conjecture by editors who might openly discuss an issue as discovering an entire new section to add to an article, or (God forbid) "16" spin-off articles needing to be created. To prevent their own heart-attacks when avoiding "too much truth" I think some people instantly bark, "This is NOT a forum, either propose a specific edit (of "5" words) or else [ShutTFUp implied]". Naturally, such venomous, negative people are the cyber-poison which will drive away some (many?) would-be active contributors. Those negative not-a-forum shutup orders need to be stopped. Also, some polite ways should be encouraged to say, "Thank you for wanting to add another 13th-century Persian poet, but there seem to be few sources about that poet; instead, consider working on some user-requested articles from this list of 450,000 empty articles which millions of readers have been wanting for months." In the process of working on other articles, then new users might meet someone who has detailed sources about 13-century poets, and a en:synergism could occur which would help many people and make the original user happy to be a part of the larger group. Some level of forum-type discussions should be encouraged, and the prior not-a-forum shutup orders need to be stopped.

Wikid7706:18, 10 May 2011
 

I disagree, and here is why: Bible scholarship is unpopular: the fundamentalists bash it, because it goes contrary to their literalism; the usual believers ignore it; the fanatics think it is a trick of the Devil. So, the popularity of a viewpoint in matters of religion does not prove that it is academically sound. If all those who don't care or bash Bible scholarship would be allowed to vote on it inside Bible scholarship articles, they would ruin it. Wikipedia is not a democracy.

Tgeorgescu21:48, 10 May 2011

I agree popularity does not prove anything. But it's an interesting data point. So popularity should not decide anything (and let's not talk about "wisdom of crowds"), but it could be a tool. A way to express positive or negative feedback could increase granularity of communication, i.e. add a little oil to the mechanism of Wikipedia.

I often like individual things on Wikipedia and would like an easy way to express that, where an actual message would be overkill (example). And I wouldn't mind having things I do on Wikipedia be Liked or Unliked. Feedback can be useful. As an inexperienced editor, sometimes I follow the "Be bold" motto, but I wonder if I should or shouldn't have. If I saw an Unlike from someone who seems to do good work, I would ask them why. If I saw a Like, I might not do anything, but I would feel less isolated and more part of a community.

That this would not be a help in all areas, and especially not in areas where controversy escalates and tempers flare, doesn't mean it wouldn't be useful in some. I don't know whether Wikipedia is a democracy or not, but I am talking about something else, a small feature to add civility and communication in day-to-day matters, often more useful as an individual expression (User A Likes/Dislikes Item X) than as an aggregate (Popularity of X).

PS: The article feedback tool is definitely not the kind of thing I am talking about. "Please rate the article on a scale of 1 to 5 in the following areas: Trustworthy, Objective, Complete, Well-written" (example). It's too heavy-handed, bureaucratic, confusing, single-purpose: "Let's stick loaded questionnaires everywhere! They'll help us produce unreadable reports 6 months later!". Wikipedia can learn from the simplicity and power of successful social networking tools.

Kaicarver07:15, 12 May 2011