Task force/Community Health/Implementation

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Recommendation and priorities Volunteers/Editors Wikimedia Foundation Wikimedia Chapters

Volunteer Recognition

  1. Track good/outstanding volunteers
  2. Offer official WMF recognition and swag, online and offline
  3. Build relationship between foundation and outstanding volunteers
  • Establish system for recommending worthy volunteers for recognition;
  • Allow for oversight to decide on borderline cases
  • Design "on-line" swag (e.g.: web badges)
  • Allocate budget for Wikimedia swag, mailings (per project/language -- how many editors can you afford to recognize?);  Doing...
  • Draft an "appreciation letter" from the board/executive;
  • Create banner that recognizes a random "good volunteer" from community list
  • Directly communicate with volunteers in good standing

Improve consensus-building processes

  1. Create a "binding mediation" process as a "last resort" for content-related disputes
  2. Create "representative consensus-building" processes, to manage the scale of disputes with too many parties
  3. Encourage consensus-building by taking power away from filibusters and "spoilers"
  • Design and implement three process changes (how, not if);
  • Nominate volunteers to work on dispute-resolution committees
  • Understand and establish consensus-building priorities;
  • Ask large projects to design three process changes (how, not if);
  • Close the discussion and look for consensus
  • Provide training or paid support staff for community mediators

Demarcate and strengthen volunteer roles

  1. Create a "senior editor" role for volunteers who have a record of good judgment, reasonableness, understanding of policy, and constructive behavior.
  2. Protect new users by demarcating them, and help them find assistance from experienced editors (by demarcating mentors, administrators, and "senior editors")
  • Determine appropriate system/marker for recognizing reputable editors
  • Understand and establish value of demarcating reputation;
  • Develop demarcation system (e.g.: "new" or "admin" beside new user's signature)
  • Manage staff and volunteers to implement demarcation system

Tools for community health

  1. Create "What You See Is What You Get" editing interface
  2. Make research easier to do
  3. Improve support and feedback by facilitating requests and responses
  4. Simplify and facilitate discussion
  5. Make it easier to monitor and maintain Changes
  • Usability donation drive
  • Beta-testing

Social networking features

  1. Consider standard social networking features such as profile, friend list, and groups
  2. Make use of WikiProjects or categories as a neutral meeting spot for volunteers
  3. Limit disruptive behavior, such as cabals, partisan groups, and canvassing
  • Establish policies for good use of social networking;
  • Recommend limits to social networking, to minimize anti-social and anti-consensus building behavior
  • Understand and establish social networking goals
  • Interface and feature development;
  • Work with community to mitigate anti-social behavior, anti-consensus building behavior