Given the discussion here and over at LessWrong where I crossposted this, I think when it comes to writing a larger post to make a more effective argument it’s important to explain how Wikipedia works. It seems to me like many people think that changing Wikipedia articles is just about making an edit and hoping it doesn’t get reverted.
This works for smaller issues but when it comes to big issues it needs more then one person to create change. I’m currently in a deep discussion on a contentious issue where I wrote a lot. If 3-4 people would join in and back me up, I likely could make the change and it wouldn’t take much effort for everyone of those people.
When it comes to voting on an election you don’t need to explain to people that even so they didn’t get what they wanted this doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a democratic election. People have a mental model for how elections work but they don’t have one for how decisions on Wikipedia get made and thus think that if they alone don’t have the power to create change it’s not worth speaking up on the talk page.
I also read that people think the goal of Wikipedia is truth when it isn’t it’s to reflect what secondary sources say. While it might be great to have an encyclopedia that has truth as a goal having a place where you find a synthesis of other secondary sources is valuable. Understanding that helps to know when it’s worth to speak up and when it isn’t.
Strongly agree! I’m currently writing an EA Forum post making the case for Wikipedia editing.
Given the discussion here and over at LessWrong where I crossposted this, I think when it comes to writing a larger post to make a more effective argument it’s important to explain how Wikipedia works. It seems to me like many people think that changing Wikipedia articles is just about making an edit and hoping it doesn’t get reverted.
This works for smaller issues but when it comes to big issues it needs more then one person to create change. I’m currently in a deep discussion on a contentious issue where I wrote a lot. If 3-4 people would join in and back me up, I likely could make the change and it wouldn’t take much effort for everyone of those people.
When it comes to voting on an election you don’t need to explain to people that even so they didn’t get what they wanted this doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a democratic election. People have a mental model for how elections work but they don’t have one for how decisions on Wikipedia get made and thus think that if they alone don’t have the power to create change it’s not worth speaking up on the talk page.
I also read that people think the goal of Wikipedia is truth when it isn’t it’s to reflect what secondary sources say. While it might be great to have an encyclopedia that has truth as a goal having a place where you find a synthesis of other secondary sources is valuable. Understanding that helps to know when it’s worth to speak up and when it isn’t.