On 22 February 2012 12:44, Mike Christie <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 7:05 AM, Thomas Morton < > [email protected] > > wrote: > > > Realistically *we are all part of the problem*. You, me, etc. because the > > problem is the entire ecosystem. Even stuff we think is polite and > sensible > > might be incomprehensible to a newbie. Simple things like linking to, or > > quoting, parts of policy instead of taking time to write a simple > > explanation. The use of templates. The resistance to listen to arguments. > > It all adds up into a confusing user experience. > > > > This is not a new problem; many online communities suffer, and have > > suffered, from it. > > > > All of the things I mentioned are useful once your dealing with editors > > aware of the workings - it's not "new and scary" at that point and acts > as > > a useful shortcut to streamline our interaction. The key thing to work > on, > > I think, is easing newbies into that process without bombarding them with > > too much of it at once. > > > > This is part of the reason why I have been advocating that the education > programs take an active role in encouraging the academics who teach classes > on Wikipedia to become contributors themselves. If we can provide > high-quality one-on-one mentoring to academics in the workings of Wikipedia > we could increase the percentage of users who have a foot in both worlds. > Editors without subject matter expertise will always be needed but to > solve some of the problems on Wikipedia, particularly those regarding undue > weight and comprehensiveness of coverage, we have to attract experts and > help them become editors. That sounds like a great idea! I've always wondered about how our eduction programs focus on students, but not on the academics that teach them - or on professional organisations. During the last Board elections one of the things I kept saying is that we need to focus on subject matter experts; be they academics or professionals and get their input. Tom _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
