Wikipedia:Wikipedians
Wikipedians are people who write and edit the pages for Wikipedia, unlike readers who simply read the articles. Anyone can be a Wikipedian—including you. Just click the edit link at the top of any page, or at the beginning of each section. Visit the editing tutorial to learn more. You can browse or search the full user list, or request a random Wikipedian's user page.
Contents |
[edit] Demographics
The number of named accounts is currently 14,253,987. Only a minority of account holders are regular contributors. An unknown but relatively large number of unregistered Wikipedians also contribute to the site. Detailed statistical information about Wikipedia is available at Wikipedia:Statistics.
Based on a survey of over 58,000 self-selected Wikipedians by a group at UNU-Merit published in March 2010,[1] contributors can be split into four approximately equal groups: those under 18, those between 18 and 22, those from 22 to 30 and the remainder between 30 and 85. About 23% of contributors have completed degree-level education, 26% are undergraduates and 45% have secondary education or less. 87% are men and 13% women. The survey included users of 22 language editions in 231 countries.
Information about individual Wikipedians is available on the user pages of Wikipedians who choose to create them.
About 250,000 new accounts are created every month. About 300,000 editors have edited Wikipedia more than 10 times. Approximately the same number, 300,000 editors, edit Wikipedia every month; of those, about 50,000 make more than five edits, and 5,000 make more than 100. The Wikipedians with the 4,000 highest edit counts are listed here.
[edit] Personality
Researchers around the world have begun to identify key personality traits in Wikipedians. According to a study published in 2008, Wikipedia members are more likely than non-members to locate their 'real me' online—that is, to feel more comfortable expressing their “real” selves online than off.[2] This corresponds with more general findings that Internet communities tend to attract users who are introverted offline but more able to open up and feel empowered on the Web.[3][4] A gender difference was found in terms of extroversion: whereas female Wikipedia members were on average more introverted than female non-members, male members were just as extroverted as males in the control group. Wikipedians have also been found to be less agreeable, less open, and less conscientious, as defined by psychology’s Big Five personality traits.[2]
[edit] Motivations for contributing
A 2010 study found that, although members may initially contribute to the site for pleasure, they are motivated primarily by an internal drive to feel efficacious and self-confident. Aside from potentially fueling a first-time contribution, enjoyment was found to have no significant impact on knowledge-sharing behavior in Wikipedia. And while Barnstar awards are given to Wikipedians to signify achievement in helping with a task, it was found that Wikipedians are not primarily motivated by recognition or reputation.[5]
[edit] Nomenclature
It has been suggested that Wikipedist would be a more appropriate name, as an encyclopedist is someone who contributes to an encyclopedia. "Wikipedian", though, suggests being part of a group, community or demonym. So in this sense, Wikipedians are people who form The Wikipedia Community.
[edit] Contribution styles
Some Wikipedians welcome newcomers; some Wikipedians award those who they feel deserve awards. Some upload images; some work on history articles; some clean up grammar; and still others work on reverting vandalism. Many take on all of these tasks. Whatever one decides to do, every Wikipedian is presumed valuable.
Wikipedians have different characteristics on many aspects, of which boldness is one: On one hand there are 1RRs (Wikipedia:1RR), who rather discuss than engage in edit wars. On the other, there are bold ones (Wikipedia:Be bold), who are doers rather than discussers. In addition, there are Wikipedians who contribute mainly by writing and editing the contents of Wikipedia, and there are those who contribute to Wikipedia's administration or provide access to it for every single person on the planet. A multitude of views and other contribution characteristics are represented well by common Wikipedia-related userboxes: Wikipedia:Userboxes/Wikipedia.
[edit] See also
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wikipedians |
- Meta-Wiki
- Categorisation
- Category:Wikipedians – for more information about Wikipedians
- Wikipedia:User categories – for information about Wikipedian categories
- Wikipedia:User categorisation – a defunct WikiProject for user categorisation
- Other
- Wikipedia:Facebook – for pictures of Wikipedians
- Wikipedia:Wikipedians with articles – for Wikipedians who are themselves notable
- Wikipedia:Missing Wikipedians
- Wikipedia:Deceased Wikipedians
[edit] References
- ^ Collaborative Creativity Group, http://www.wikipediastudy.org/, retrieved 2011-03-22
- ^ a b Amichai-Hamburger, Y. et al. "Personality Characteristics of Wikipedia Members", CyberPsychology & Behavior, Vol. 11, No. 6 (2008).
- ^ Amichai-Hamburger, Y., Wainapel G., Fox S. “On the Internet no one knows I’m an introvert: extroversion, neuroticism and Internet interaction.” CyberPsychology & Behavior (2002).
- ^ Amichai-Hamburger, Y., McKenna, K., Tal, S. “E-empowerment: Empowerment by the Internet.” Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 24 (2008).
- ^ Yang, H. and Lai, C. “Motivations of Wikipedia content contributors.” Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 26 (2010).
