Matt,

Several years ago, I tried to revise an entry on a baseball article. The process went smoothly for me and Wikipedia accepted my revisions. They in fact had no requirements at all. Nonetheless, after some while, I checked back and it seemed that someone else or Wikipedia itself had changed what I had written. The changes were not factually incorrect but detracted a bit from my writing style. I think that led me to just shrug, be glad to have contributed to knowledge online, and ignore it all. I think that having others easily modify what I had written was a slight disincentive from further contributing to Wikipedia. Hope this helps.

-- ThomasHou - 05 Dec 2011

Matt,

Several years ago, I tried to revise an entry on a baseball article. The process went smoothly for me and Wikipedia accepted my revisions. They in fact had no requirements at all. Nonetheless, after some while, I checked back and it seemed that someone else or Wikipedia itself had changed what I had written. The changes were not factually incorrect but detracted a bit from my writing style. I think that led me to just shrug, be glad to have contributed to knowledge online, and ignore it all. I think that having others easily modify what I had written was a slight disincentive from further contributing to Wikipedia. Hope this helps.

-- ThomasHou - 05 Dec 2011

(1) If you tried to create an entry, was it accepted or deleted? If it was deleted, did you communicate with any Wikipedia administrator(s) regarding why your entry was rejected?

(2) If you edited or attempted to edit an entry, did you encounter any obstacles to editing the entry? If you made an edit, was it accepted or rejected? If it was rejected, do you know why it was rejected? If it was rejected, did you challenge this ruling? If so, what was that process like?

(3) Based on your experiences with Wikipedia, do you feel that edits are accepted or rejected on an objective basis? Why do you feel this why? Does this make you more or less likely to try to edit or create an entry in the future?

(4) Have you noticed any changes in the process of editing or creating an entry since you first started using Wikipedia? If so, how would you describe these changes?

(5) Have you ever been interested in creating or editing a Wikipedia entry but were discouraged by the technical know-how or time investment (beyond actually composing the entry or the edits) needed to do so? If so, can you be specific about what discouraged you? If you were not discouraged, can you describe what made creating/editing easy, user-friendly, etc.?

(6) Any other observations or thoughts would be much appreciated.

Feel free to comment here or e-mail me at matthewladner@gmail.com.

Thanks.

-- MatthewLadner - 03 Dec 2011

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