This page is about experienced editors reflecting on own their experiences, with a specifc emphasis on what it was like to be a new editor. It was inspired by my experience meeting people at WikiConference North America and wanting to recreate that feeling onwiki. I don't think my questions were anything particularly groundbreaking and I'm sure people have attempted to collate something similar at other places like at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Editor Retention. Regardless, it's thrilling to see the perspectives of so many Wikipedians. I think the best way to approach all this is to read it for yourself as open-ended answers and authenticity can never truly be summarized the way a simple survey with yes/no answers can.
When did you start editing Wikipedia?: I created my account in 2018, shortly after my sixteenth birthday.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?: I wanted a cool hobby and I knew that Wikipedia was open to newcomers and impactful, so I decided to join and be a part of something great. I came into all this wanting to be a Wikipedian so I knew what I was getting myself into for the most part. I also noticed that there were some pretty serious gaps and quality issues in content I was interested in improving here on the project.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?: That's a bit of a tough one because I was quite proactive in getting myself help and very engaged with the community from the start. I think my experience might have more downsides if I hadn't had the previous experience I did editing wikiHow[a] and all the amazing help from User:Nick Moyes. He adopted me a few months into my journey as a Wikipedian and helped me figure out things whenever I was lost. There's definitely a few things that took awhile to fully click in and other stuff that I'm still learning as I edit here, but nothing quite stands out to me as something that would've worked better in hindsight.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?: I'd say my experience as a new editor was really positive and people did their best to be welcoming to me. I will say that whenever I didn't reach out to people it kind of felt like everything I was doing was going into some sort of void because I wasn't getting any feedback unless I asked for it. That resulted in me being somewhat anxious and constantly worrying if I was doing things the "right" way or messing things up out of ignorance. I stumbled across Women in Red at some point and created my first article: Katherine Hughes (activist). I had feedback from SkyGazer 512 while it was still in the draftspace and I really appreciate that they didn't just throw a bunch of templates at me. After the draft was accepted at AfC, SkyGazer 512 helped me nominate it for DYK, where it was promoted by Yoninah. I don't think I would've learned that there was a specific process for articles that show up there until much later if everything wasn't just suddenly thrown at me. I will say that it was incredibly thrilling as a 16 year old to see an article I wrote show up on the main page of Wikipedia. It felt like such a massive accomplishment!
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future?: Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm still hanging out here in 2100. Of course it's impossible to guarantee that and I can see some situations where I might quit if I become disillusioned with editing here or something. But being a Wikipedian has been very important to me and I don't see that changing in the longterm even if my activity might ebb and flow. Being a Wikipedian has helped give me a sort of social outlet and helps me feel like a productive member of society that's capable of making a difference. I became an apostate as a 13 year-old and that had serious ramifications on my social life, so it was nice to feel like I wasn't completely evil for existing and that I could just talk to people.
Were you involved with WikiEd?: No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? Why or why not?: Yes and I've given a lot of feedback to the WMF about the dedicated app for android devices. User:Clovermoss/Mobile editing goes into all this in more detail.
References
^While this did give me some familarity with using MediaWiki, I wouldn't say this gave me that much of a headstart. Some things were easier than others and I still needed a lot of help. For some reason it took me awhile to get the hang of linking diffs, but I had no problems adding a citation needed tag on my sixth edit. I'd say the most useful part of having experience editing a different wiki would be a general sense of how to get myself help and the understanding that there was a community out there. I remember going to the Wikipedia:Community portal right away, finding the link to the Teahouse and asking for feedback there. That's where I first met Nick :) Anyways, the community portal is also where I got involved with Wikipedia:Typo Team/moss. The similarity with my username felt like it was a sign from the universe that fixing typos was my destiny, lol.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you be a better editor? I don't think I'd change anything, now that I think of it. There were times I had different ideas of "what a good Wikipedia ought to do" but in hindsight that's mostly nonsense. I did exactly what I wanted to do on Wikipedia at each stage, I suppose. If the question were "what advice would I give myself" it would probably be to think about anonymity a little more.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?: I was an atypical newbie in that I spent a long time reading and researching before diving into editing, so I didn't need too much help. I learned from some veterans when I was researching, and when I solicited feedback on my first article. The names FT2, Dana boomer, Wikid77, and DGG come to mind as early, helpful, interactions (sadly now one is deceased, one long-inactive, and one banned).
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future?: Yes. There have been a few discussions and trends over the past few years that I've found discouraging/demotivating, but there's just too much I like about this place.
Were you involved with WikiEd? If so, what was that like?: It was overall a very positive experience. I was already teaching with Wikipedia and they needed an interim program manager shortly after my last semester teaching... then I stuck around for five years. Generally positive. It reframed my relationship to Wikipedia a bit as it meant I was no longer a volunteer (even if I seperated my work and volunteer accounts), but I didn't let it affect my editing that much. There was a bunch of layoffs early in the pandemic, which included me. The upside is it gave me time to finish my dissertation. :)
Have you edited on mobile? Why or why not?: Almost never. It's just too hard on a tiny screen.
When did you start editing Wikipedia?: I first created an account in 2005 but I didn't really start to edit consistently until 2018.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?: I had a lot of downtime at my job in 2018 and got tired of scrolling Twitter. I thought editing Wikipedia was something productive I could do with my time instead.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?: Having the presence of online resources available now, available back in 2005. I ended up doing some other kinds of tasks then but I think if I'd been able to go deeper in content writing I might have stuck around longer.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?: Not really? I just spent a lot of time reading Wikipedia space stuff in order to figure out what was going on and what I was expected to do.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future?: I can't imagine stopping while I still have time on my term as an arbitrator and I have big post-ArbCom plans when I can get back to my first love, content writing.
Were you involved with WikiEd?: I've spent a lot of time discussing WikiEd as I think their goals are laudable, their employees really great Wikipedians, and the messes their worst classes create unfortunate (or perhaps something less charitable).
Have you ever edited on mobile? Why or why not?: I have but I prefer not to do more than type quick talk page messages, both because I enjoy the full keyboard and because the experience is so clunky.
When did you start editing Wikipedia?: There are 2 answers to this. The first Wikipedia account I created was User:Blaze Fire Wolf which I created 4 1/2 years ago. The other answer is about 3 years ago on this account.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?: I created my account simply to fix a grammar mistake someone made and decided to help out with grammar and spelling and stuff.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?: Listen to what the admins have to say and understand that they say it in your best interest. I probably came close to getting blocked a couple times in my first year or so because I was simply too eager to help out and was helping out in areas I wasn't quite ready for yet such as at the Teahouse.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?: Plenty. Most of it I didn't listen to very well because I simply didn't fully understand that some of the things I was doing weren't all that constructive. As I have terrible memory I don't remember any of what exactly worked and what didn't work.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future?: I plan on continuing editing for as long as the free time I have allows me to do so. My free time has dwindled a lot in recent years. Where I used to be active here most hours of the day, now I'm on here for a few hours sporadically here and there.
Were you involved with WikiEd?: Not directly, though I have encountered WikiEd students who needed some guidance and needed their teachers and the staff to help out.
Have you ever edited on mobile? Why or why not?: Not until very recently. I don't have much to say about it other than it's somewhat clunky.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?:I'm incurably curious.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you be a better editor? I edited very casually for about a decade, usually not bothering to log in if a particular edit didn't require it. I guess it would have been nice to have had the ability to stay logged in longer, as I'd be quite interested to see how my work developed over that first decade.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?: I created my first article minutes after creating my account. It immediately -- and I do mean immediately, it was five minutes after I created it and I was actively working -- got tagged for speedy, and another editor came in and removed the tag with the edit summary "asserts notability, giving more time for the author to finish it". It's at Valerie Taylor (novelist). The editor who gave a noob more time hasn't edited in ten years, and I still wish I could thank them.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future?: It's been an interest of mine for over 17 years, a major hobby for ten, and part of daily life for 6, so yeah. I find topics that need an article regularly.
Were you involved with WikiEd? If so, what was that like?: I haven't, other than to occasionally come across a student-created article that just needs help, like Yongfeng chili sauce, which was AfD'd minutes after being moved to article space by a student.
Have you edited on mobile? Why or why not?: I've done it, but I hate it. I'm a touch typist. I like a keyboard.
When did you start editing Wikipedia I created my first account when I was in grade school solely to use monobook.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? Although I created my account in 2010, I did not actively start editing until 2017. I was bored because I temporarily dropped out of college due to extreme OCD.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've made you be a better editor? Up until 2020, I mostly edited categories. I did not discover WP:RCP until July 2020. I wish I had read more policies before that point because there are old edits where I do not follow policy.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I do not recall needing any help learning the ropes.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? I plan on staying for now. However, I expect other obligations to take up more of my time.
Were you involved with WikiEd? If so, what was that like? No. I think it is a massive net negative to the project.
Habe you edited on mobile? Why or why not? I was into Lost media, Wikipedia, Youtube, Do A Barrel Roll, Karen (slang) and the craziness that led to Adpocalypse 2.0 before they were cool. However, I have never gotten the hang of mobile devices.
When did you start editing Wikipedia?: I started editing Wikipedia in the latter half of 2019.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?: I was in college at the time, and one of the professors had us make Wikipedia accounts for a class project. After my professor gave us a lesson on some of the norms of Wikipedia, my classmates and I created a draft in my userspace. (That draft was later moved into the mainspace after the semester ended, and it remains in mainspace to this day.) I returned to Wikipedia about a year later out of boredom during the COVID-19 pandemic, and I've been here since. — Red-tailed hawk(nest) 04:16, 29 November 2023 (UTC)
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?: It's OK (and expected) for people to thoroughly revise one's contributions—having one's contributions reverted is a part of the normal editing process, even if it can be jarring at first. Part of the reason I had stopped editing in 2020 was that I was upset that the draft I had written with my classmates had been substantially revised, with a good chuck of content removed or totally rephrased. Looking back as an experienced editor now, those sorts of edits were mostly an improvement to the article, and I'm perfectly comfortable with the standard sort of bold-revert-discuss cycle that tends to lead towards article improvement—but I wish I hadn't been so discouraged at the start. — Red-tailed hawk(nest) 04:16, 29 November 2023 (UTC)
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?: I had a bit of help from my professor when I was in the class. It helped in terms of learning the basics of wiki-syntax, but I was more or less on my own for learning the culture and how to interact with the broader community.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future?: Yep! It's been one of my foremost hobbies over the past few years, and I've got no plans to stop any time soon.
Were you involved with WikiEd?: Nope! The class was not through WikiEd; it was something the professor did on his own.
Have you ever edited on mobile? Why or why not?: Yes I have. I try to limit my editing on mobile, because I like to use the visual editor and I find it easier to type quickly on a desktop. It's also quite a bit easier to format citations and the like on desktop. The ability to use a keyboard and mouse, coupled with a larger screen, makes it a bit easier to use for editing.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? Idle curiosity. I was reading, saw a button that said "log in/create account" and pretty soon I was hooked.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I was clueless at first and didn't have much idea of what I was doing or how I could be helpful. I like that (some?) newbies get a bit more in the way of structured suggestions these days but I'm not sure I would have used them. I'd have appreciated a guide like "this is what a reasonably complete article should look like" and "here are some good sources to search". I wish I'd discovered some of my passions earlier; perhaps I'd have pursued them in formal education.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Nothing structured. I remember admins like Fabrictramp, LadyofShalott, and SilkTork (the latter of whom partly inspired me to run for ArbCom) offering advice and using the clue stick when necessary.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? I think so. My activity has peaks and troughs depending on work and family life and the weather but I've been around nearly 15 years and can't see any reason I wouldn't still be around in another 15.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Yes, frequently. I used to use the Android app for reading and would fix typos or make other small edits if I spotted something. It's not great for internal-facing stuff and last time I used it things like scrolling through a watchlist were impossible. My watchlist is one of my main focuses of editing (it's huge and carefully curated to include noticeboards, potentially problematic articles including a lot of BLPs, IPs I've recently blocked for vandalism, common vandal targets, and a wide range of articles I find interesting or might get round to improving one day) so these days I use the web interface in a browser to view my it. Between Twinkle, the reply tool, and a few other scripts I can do quite a lot of adminning from my phone. I prefer a proper keyboard for writing anything of any length, though, and referencing on mobile is painful.
Since you ask, you might (or might not) like my recently written musings.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? 2016-ish. I edited for about six months as an IP, before registering an account in early December 2016.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I saw a mistake and wanted to fix it. It was a bit intoxicating as a 12 year old to be able to make changes that other people would see-- it felt like I was actually making a difference. I created an account after I read a newspaper article about something that I felt needed a new page. I got really hooked during COVID, when having a lot of free time coincided with my brain finally grasping how Wikipedia worked.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Honestly, for me the biggest thing is patience. I probably started editing before I should have. My early articles were terrible. Probably the first couple years of editing was terrible. But instead of telling me to go somewhere else, people put up with me, fixed my mistakes, and sometimes gave tips (They still do all of the above :)). I think when we hit users with paragraphs on every mistake they make and walls of SHOUTING acronyms it can be overwhelming. And I probably would have left.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Not formally, but I found a community in the military history project before too long, and though I am not super active there anymore, it was the single most valuable thing I did for retention. Women in Red similarly, for a bit. Otherwise, editors just fixing my mistakes as mentioned above.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? Yes. Wikipedia has enough different fields that when I get bored with one thing I can go to another (I tend to go through cycles of cleaning up other articles, closing AfDs, writing content, reviewing content, etc). My involvement waxes and wanes as life does, and I am liking taking summers largely off, but I don't see myself stopping editing.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I do very little editing on mobile (primarily accidental rollbacks), but a lot of reading (following my watchlist and identifying articles that need to be written). I cannot imagine writing content on mobile. Even short comments are hard for me without a keyboard, bigger screen, and the ability to easily navigate tabs/split screen. And I'm from the generation that is supposed to be comfortable with phones!
Just wanted to add that finding MILHIST and getting involved there was a massive boon to my Wikipedia career as well! I've largely moved on but I wouldn't be where I am today without the support of the community there. Also, I didn't realise how young everyone here was! I feel very old realising that I have at least a decade on most of these people!HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 16:23, 29 November 2023 (UTC)
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?To be honest, I don't really remember.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?The Mentorship system. Without it I was completly on my own
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I did not get any help or welcome. I attempted to write an article and was immediatly hit with a G11 deletion and a COI notice, purely because I had a bare ref and I did not understand the citation systems.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? I am not sure.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No, I was not
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Editing on the go is a terrible experience. Nothing works the way it should.
I think that we should welcome everyone via bot. I wonder how many people are in the situation that I was in. Welcoming should just happen automaticly so that n00bs are not cluelessly stumbling around. /rant
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I made my first edit in 2012, but didn't really start editing frequently until around 2018.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? My early edits were largely made out of a copy editing impulse to fix errors. I became a Wikipedian gradually as I peeled back the layers of the encyclopedia's back end, motivated both by a fascination with how it works and a journalistic impulse to document knowledge.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? In some of my early editing, I ran into a bit of frustration with Wikipedia's bureaucracy. For instance, I wanted to restore an article that had been turned into a redirect, and got confused when I was informed that Requests for undeletion was not an appropriate venue because the article had not technically been deleted. But on the whole, I had a fairly easy time of it — when told "you need to find notability-qualifying sources," I went and found notability-qualifying sources, which is not something most newcomers manage to do.There are several factors I might hypothesize worked in my favor: My education had taught me how to research, I think I'm innately much more inclined toward technical/complex environments like Wikipedia than the average person, and I just had some luck that the topics I wanted to write about had sources available and the other editors I ran into didn't totally shut me down. So ultimately, while it would have been nice to have had simpler rules and better guidance, I was able to get by. I don't think many others in my situation would have, though, which is why I've devoted so much effort to improving the newcomer experience.The only other thing that occurs to me is that I probably could have started editing sooner than I did if I'd been introduced to it earlier on. I was always aware that anyone can edit Wikipedia, but I never thought of it as a potential hobby until it started to become one.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I never had a dedicated mentor, although plenty of experienced editors helped me out in different ways at various points. The main way I learned about guidance was reading it directly. And while I wouldn't say that that worked, it worked well enough.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? Yes. The core motivations that make me want to edit Wikipedia (see above) are intrinsic parts of my personality, so I do not anticipate they will change. The amount of spare time I have has certainly changed in the past and may change in the future, and is pretty directly correlated with how much I edit, but even in busy periods, I tend to just edit less frequently rather than stop entirely.I do often edit as though I won't be around in the future, both because I might be wrong about my own future and because, in the long enough term, none of us will be around. A contribution that only provides value while an editor is still active (e.g. a bot without open-source code) is much less valuable than one that provides value ad infinitum.
Were you involved with WikiEd? I was not.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I occasionally edit on mobile, in two main circumstances. The first is when I'm out in the world and something prompts me to make a minor edit. For instance, I might be reading the article on a speaker I'm about to hear and notice a typo. But if it's anything major, I'll wait until I'm home and can use my computer. The second is also when I'm out in the world and get a ping about something time-sensitive. This might be the start of a discussion in which I wish to comment early to help inflect it in a particular direction. But in both of these circumstances, mobile editing is a compromise, never my desired option.Overall, I think there are two angles to look at mobile editing from. The first is the practical, current state. Clearly it's pretty bad — mobile editing has never been prioritized on a technical level by Wikipedia's interface designers, and it shows. The second is a more hypothetical picture of what mobile editing has the potential to become. Here, too, I'm a bit cynical. I think that the amount of information needed on-screen while editing and the amount of typing involved just makes it intrinsically a task better suited to computers than smartphones, the same as writing a novel or editing in Photoshop. Basically, there's a reason that most experienced editors do their editing from a computer. But I do think that it's worth investing some effort into improving mobile editing despite its lack of popularity. There is a lot of low-hanging fruit to be picked, and many of the editors just coming online that can help us address systemic bias in the developing world edit only on mobile.
It's always nice to have a chance to reflect on editing; thanks for providing the opportunity :) Cheers, ((u|Sdkb))talk 17:54, 29 November 2023 (UTC)
When did you start editing Wikipedia? 2017, though I really became active in 2021.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I was an avid Wikipedia reader and wanted to help contribute to it since I used it so frequently. Volunteering here is my way of giving back to a resource that I greatly value.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Not much, I had a pretty great experience learning to edit here. It perhaps could've been made easier by making guidelines easier to find and more condensed, but I'm not sure how exactly that could be achieved.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? What I valued the most was help from experienced Wikipedians reaching out on my talk page, and later on joining the Discord server and getting help from the community there. What didn't help were things that I just didn't know about in my earliest days, such as the adopt-a-user program and the WP:Teahouse. There's a lot of resources for new editors that they simply aren't aware of.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Yes, though my activity level tends to come in waves, based on a combination of my motivation and availability.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Maybe once or twice. I stay away from it because I find it to be a terrible experience. It's not intuitive, and making even small changes is a tedious process. I also have access to a computer everyday, so it's just not worth it to me to become familiar with the quirks of mobile editing.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I made an account in 2021, but I have been making typo corrections for about a year beforehand with an IP.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I think the constant typos got to me. I, like many people, had always thought of Wikipedia as this sort of endless void of information. When the COVID-19 pandemic put me chronically online, I started spending sizeable amounts of time reading Wikipedia. The random page button led me to articles that not only did not have enough information to satisfy me, but also had endless amounts of typos and grammar mistakes. Plus, I needed a new hobby.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? As a new editor, I can honestly say that I learnt most of the basic policies through the WikiFauna portal. It was an entertaining introduction to the roles an editor can fill and astonishing detailed as to what and what not to do. I think a little less time in the rabbit hole and a little more time proposing controversial changes on talk pages would have given me a better taste of Wikipedia. The idea of posting a message was daunting, but I had a great experience when I finally mustered the courage.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? The welcome message convinced me to start editing. Having an easily accessible repository of links was absolutely fantastic, and I am saddened by how many editors discredit the Welcoming Committee. I often felt like some of my contributions were falling into empty space as they were overwritten, and knowing that Kj cheetham, even for a short time, had paid attention to me kept me going. It sounds vain, I know, but there you have it. More experienced editors collaborating with me when I started talk sections was also very encouraging and made me feel as though I was on even footing, but getting reverted gave me an emotional shock at first. Even now I feel my heart in my throat at an alert! I never had any help aside from that first welcome, but I think relying on myself and getting involved in the community really kept me going.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? Absolutely. I've never had so much fun. My edit count has definitely decreased dramatically as I lost interest in countervandalism, but I am making more substantial edits now, so ((shruggie)).
Were you involved with WikiEd? No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Yes. It, for lack of a better word, sucks. I generally keep it on desktop view to review pending changes while waiting. It's awful to type on and worse to actually expand articles on. I've found an iPad works great, however, and I have actually contributed to several articles with one.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I started editing Wikipedia in early February 2022, though I took frequent looks at Wikipedia’s back-end pages (mainly FAC and a handful of user pages linked there) after stumbling upon them in Summer 2021.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I first created an account out of curiosity, as I wanted to see what the interface for users looked like, and made a few one-off edits. A few weeks later, I talked with a friend who was criticizing Wikipedia as an academic resource, and told him (in very inaccurate terms) how Wikipedia actually had good content standards in the form of FAC. After he made a joke that I bring Who Killed Captain Alex? to FA, I tried my hand at improving the article. I don’t think that page will ever become a FA, but I stuck around trying to rewrite Hollow Knight and have since improved other pages to GA and FA.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Greater patience and self-control would have helped me. My behavior on first few months on Wikipedia often reflected my real-life, in which I was not in a very good place and acted very erratically and immaturely. I have since received a little help and my mindset and physical health has improved, though I still feel somewhat embarrassed with how shoddy and unwelcoming my behavior was in that first year. I would wish that I would not have been so eager to get involved with maintenance work, especially with NPP and counter-vandalism, as that led to some mistakes that still embarrass and haunt me a bit. So yes, I would have appreciated greater patience and self-control.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I did not have much help as a newer editor, and learned concepts like deletion policy and content writing mostly on my own. I was a bit too eager getting involved with complicated areas like counter-vandalism and NPP, and that led to some discouraging mistakes and uncomfortable conversations (you can take a look here or on my talk page archives for examples). I even decided to step back from NPP and take an instructor-guided course after feeling as though I had made one mistake too many and had discouraged an established user. In other words, what has worked best for me is stepping back and being patient, while what has generally worked worst for me is acting too bold and taking an action without first examining the context.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? I intend to edit for at least the next two years, as I'm in a better spot right now life-wise and can spare some time for writing and maintenance. Anything could happen to change things, but I hope to stick around until I have at least written some more quality content that I've tasked myself with completing.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No. I have attempted to convince a few of my friends to try editing Wikipedia for fun, but none have any interest in involving themselves supporting what they believe to be a subpar and morally questionable resource (citing the graphic imagery and articles on expletives).
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I have editing using the Desktop interface on mobile, and have found it to be more useful than the current app or default interface. It is a bit tough to move around on, but have used it sometimes for edits on vacation or when my computer is not functioning.
Thank you for reaching out Clovermoss! I hope you are doing well.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I was a few months away from turning 17.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I had dropped out of high school For Reasons. Subconsciously, I suspect I started editing to educate myself.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I think probably figuring out things like anti-vandalism, cat sorting, and fixing disambiguation links might've helped a bit, but I'm not sure how that could've been possible.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I didn't have a lot of help, which probably explains why I'd periodically take a break and start over with a new account (this is disclosed on my userpage). Receiving what I perceived to be unfair criticism didn't help much, but I'm not sure how unfair it actually was. My own persistence helped, as well as what help pages and essays that were available at the time.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? I'll probably never return to over 500 huggle edits a day, but yeah.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? No. I'm simply more familiar with computers. I like the bigger screen.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I registered in November 2012, when I was 13 years old. I had been editing sporadically under an IP for a year or so.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? If memory serves me correctly, I was waiting for my parents to pick me up from school, and I was bored. I often had to wait an hour or two, and I figured, why not create a bunch of accounts on sites like Wikipedia and Genius.com?
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I would've read up on policies and guidelines first, and I would've been much more diligent in my editing. At the time, I was doing mainly gnoming and anti-vandal work, rather than content creation as I'm doing now, and I often made mistakes. In my first 2-3 years, I kept running afoul of various guidelines that I didn't even know existed, such as WP:OWNTALK - I was dragged to ANI at least once for reverting someone's removal of comments from their own talk pages. I probably would have also tried to focus on quality rather than quantity; I made hundreds of edits per day on some occasions, but they were mostly semi-automated edits or reverts.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I did not have any help. The current editor-mentorship program, had it existed, would have been of major help to me, but it did not exist when I was starting out.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? Yes. Because I have a full-time job now, I've been editing less compared to when I was in school. However, there are still some articles that I would like to improve, and I also want to continue maintaining the GAs and FAs I've improved over the last few years.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No, I am not.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Yes, I sometimes edit on mobile when I am at work. Most of my mobile edits are fixing errors, rewording, and the like, though sometimes I add a few refs using mobile. I've used both the mobile website and the iOS app. Both have some drawbacks compared to the desktop editing experience - for instance, you can't use user scripts for the most part, unless you activate advanced mobile editing (which only loads a certain number of scripts, not all of them). The iOS app has more issues than the mobile website, though; for example, it doesn't add edit summaries when adding a short description, and it neither indents nor adds an edit summary when you reply to a talk page thread, making you look like a newbie. The iOS app also doesn't allow you to edit the full page.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? During 2020, at some point. I registered in April and started actively editing in September.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? There were a lot of factors, I think. Solving backlog problems for the thrill of removing decades-old maintenance tags, expanding stub articles on topics I was interested in, and doing basic WikiGnome work on television related articles.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Literally zero people are looking at your contributions page. As a new editor, I was obsessive about my edit summaries and made sure not to edit the same article too many times in a row because I wanted my contributions list to have a certain "aesthetic", and I still haven't kicked that habit to this day and it's sometimes actively detrimental to my editing. I wish I could've told myself as a new editor, nobody cares, nobody notices, what your contributions are. If you're helping to build our encyclopedia, who cares what you're doing and when?
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I didn't have help as a new editor, though in hindsight I realize where I should have looked: the Teahouse and the mentorship program. I didn't realize these resources were available and as such I made no use of them, but they probably could have helped me if only I knew they were there. In essence, I learned through trial and error, which was both rewarding when I succeeded and embarrassing when I failed.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? I'd like to think so. Still so much work left to do! So many more maintenance tags to clear, articles to promote to GA, typos to fix. The work is never done.
Anything else to add? :) Thank you for reaching out to me to fill out this survey! I'm honored to be considered an "experienced editor". 〜Askarion✉
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I had a short phase of editing Wikipedia in 2015, but started more seriously editing the site in 2020.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? The COVID-19 pandemic caused me to work from home, and my workplace was not providing me with a lot of work. While surfing Wikipedia, I clicked the “Random Article” link and found an article about an explosion that happened in the city I lived in that I didn’t know about. I started editing that article, then the next one, then I was hooked.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? More positive feedback about articles I edited in a timely fashion, so I could know how to improve.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Only when I nominated articles at DYK or GAN.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? When you are a child, you say that you will play outside with your neighbours later: eventually, one of those times is the last time but perhaps you don't realise it in the moment. I think my editing on Wikipedia is going to be similar.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Yes, but only when necessary to respond on talk pages. It is incredibly difficult to format text and contribute using my phone, and I do not suggest it. I use Wikipedia my phone to look on my watchpage when I am bored, but I will respond on my laptop. Z1720 (talk) 20:51, 30 November 2023 (UTC)
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I tried editing on mobile, but it was too cumbersome. Fortunately, my phone is large enough for me to edit in desktop mode comfortably. I usually have a phablet and just purchased an iPhone 15 Pro Max and have used other phablets in the past, including the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? March 2022[a]
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? To be honest, I don't remember. I do, however, know my first edits were minor newcomer task copyedits.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? One specific thing I wish I would've known is WP:NOTBROKEN. I changed a ton of redirects to their target piped.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? No.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? Yes
Were you involved with WikiEd? No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Yes, I do most with my editing with mobile desktop with this nifty script that lets me use V22 on mobile, however I mainly do gnomery. I always do my major article-writing projects on computer. I have done a decent amount of editing with mobile web advanced mode, which is decent for editing. I never edit with mobile app; it's decent for reading, but very bad for editing.
References
^I've made some very minor edits from IPs before then, but nothing substantive.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I created my account in 2014 when I was a teenager, and edited sporadically until I decided to make it a "thing I do" earlier this year.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I've always enjoyed the idea of helping improve this site (It's only a few years younger than I am) but over time I began feeling like I had started to attain enough working knowledge of various subjects so that I could make reliable, helpful, novel contributions. Wikipedia is a young experiment as far as the history of information goes, so while a lot of basic coverage is there, I still feel like I'm able to improve the site by leaps and bounds every day.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Putting a lot of the resources more directly in front of me, it felt for several months like I was discovering things that answered questions I sometimes hadn't articulated yet. Wikipedia is huge and most of its users are not as engaged as I am, but I almost feel a 'I am/want to be a poweruser, turn on some gadgets and enable some preferences' button would be an idea to explore
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I think the help, policy, MOS, documentation, and essay material on the site is quite robust and useful on the whole. If I think of any real hiccups I experienced early on, I will edit them here.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? Yes.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I have not, but I've seen others do so, and from their edits, it seems like a viable tool I could use in a pinch. I simply have not had the need to yet.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? April 2016! Technically I edited some years before that: I vandalized an article on a lab computer in school and got blocked.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? Not sure. I'm here now though! (or am i?)
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I had a lot of help, but...probably things to make learning Wikipedia policies and processes more effective without becoming uninterested. Things like TWA (which I didn't know about), and now some of the Growth features and mentorship.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Yes! There were multiple experienced users who, in addition to linking me to those loooooong policies and guidelines pages, helped explain and show me how to contribute constructively. The human effort put into helping me learn to edit helped me then reciprocate that in my participation.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? I hope so! Since becoming a steward, I've unfortunately had less time for editing, but I hope to work to change that.
Were you involved with WikiEd? Nope
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Yep! I use the Timeless skin, which works great for me on mobile (iOS, Safari). I also use SWViewer on mobile.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? Sometime prior to Feb 2007, when I had to create an account because I was affected by an IP range block. My active editing started in 2012.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I don't really remember, but I think it started as just occasional, casual clarifications or corrections for small details before becoming something I "did".
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I was content to gradually find my way on my own.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Nope. I'm probably not the norm as I actually find welcome messages and the like off-putting.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? Yes
Were you involved with WikiEd? No
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? No. My big fingers and bad eyes make a full keyboard and large screen necessary. Even laptops don't cut it for me.
Other I'm always surprised at the importance institutional memory plays in the efficient operation of certain parts of Wikipedia (e.g., SPI, editing restrictions, unblock conditions). Thanks for contacting me.
My first edit was on June 28, 2009. I had spent a couple of months studying how Wikipedia works. My first edit was to create my userpage, which said at that time I am new to contributing to Wikipedia as of June 28, 2009. I am committed to the principles of Wikipedia, especially the neutral point of view, and look forward to contributing by improving articles in areas where I have some expertise. I know that I have a lot to learn, and appreciate constructive criticism. I never edited previously as an IP, though I accidentally have a handful of logged out edits after I registered my account.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I do not remember when I first noticed Wikipedia on the internet, but the more I saw of it, the more I was impressed. This was in the 2005 to 2008 time period. The issue that led me to start editing is that I had completed a previous major internet commitment and the Great Recession gave me increased spare time as a self employed person. I knew a lot about notable California mountaineers as a former climber myself and owned many books on that topic area. I was like a Litle League baseball player writing biographies of Big League baseball players, but my biographies were of notable climbers instead. I also knew a lot about various California fine artists and craftspeople, having frequently visited California art museums for about 35 years. The coverage of those topic areas was mediocre at that time. So, initially, I began editing to create and improve articles in those topic areas. I quickly got "hooked" and evolved into what I call a generalist editor.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I actually received pretty favorable feedback from mountaineering oriented editors from the earliest months of my participation, because, I believe, that I was contributing pretty high quality content from the beginning. I remember an administrator (no longer active) gently cautioning me about edit warring once, when I was on the brink of edit warring with an SPA. I have rigorously avoided edit warring behavior ever since.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? My help was always observing the contributions and behavior of more experienced, productive editors, and modeling my behavior on theirs. And paying close attention to any editor feedback about my contributions, which was largely positive. Positive feedback is wonderful, but it needs to be earned.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? Yes, as long as I maintain a sound mind. I am well aware at age 71 that an unexpected health crisis could restrict or end my participation at any time. My personal inspiration in this regard is Doug Weller, who keeps contributing his wisdom under the most adverse circumstances. I will frankly admit to being proud of my contributions to the encyclopedia over nearly 14-1/2 years, but readily concede that my invidual contributions are tiny in the grand scheme of things. Whether I depart this project tomorrow or in 15 years, my only hope is to be remembered as a positive contributor.
Were you involved with WikiEd? I volunteered as an online advisor to a handful of college classes early in my time editing. One was at the University of San Francisco, where I graduated in 1982, and I actually went to San Francisco to speak to that particular class. My experience was that a large majority of students assigned to edit Wikipedia as part of a class make mediocre edits, complete only what is necessary to get a passing grade, do not engage with the Wikipedia community, and stop editing as soon as their class has ended. I wish that it was different. I have enormous respect for the wonderful people trying to guide and engage with these students, but it is very sad how uninvolved most of these students end up being.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Yes, about 99% of my editing has been on smartphones going back many years, though I edited on desktop computers in my earliest days here . I use the fully functional desktop site on my phone because, frankly, all the mobile apps and sites and so on lack the basic functionality of the poorly named "desktop" site, even when used on smartphones. Full functionality includes the ability to fully engage in collaborative, consensus-based editing with colleagues, and most mobile editors are frozen out from that, due to multiple bad decisions by the WMF going back many years. Billions of people write fairly complex content using smartphones on multiple social media type websites every single day. The notion that these people are unable to improve the encyclopedia on their phones has seemed ludicrous to me, ever since I started using my phone to edit about a dozen years ago. In my opinion, the failure of the WMF to properly support and encourage mobile editing is a shocking and ongoing dereliction of duty that has wasted countless millions of donor dollars and has erected completely unnecessary barriers to productive contributions by mobile users. It is comparable to the Visual Editor debacle. Uncounted millions of dollars spent employing countless well-meaning WMF coders, while coming nowhere close to duplicating the source editor/desktop view functionality that was already robust when I began editing in 2009, and remains so today. They cannot even track and analyze my 100,000 edits, because to them, mobile device edits to the desktop site are unworthy of analysis. Or maybe they haven't figured out how to study them after all these years. So sad and such a waste. Cullen328 (talk) 09:26, 1 December 2023 (UTC)
When did you start editing Wikipedia? When I was a teenager, in 2005. I only made occasional edits for the first few years, then became more active between 2010–2012, when I was at university, and then again after 2016... and I'm still at university.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I honestly don't remember!
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Again, I don't really remember... and Wikipedia was so different back then, I don't think it would be very relevant. In retrospect, I mostly think I was very lucky to avoid being a 'new editor' as most people experience it. That is, I started back in the days when nobody paid much attention to adolescents adding unreferenced material strewn with spelling errors, so that by the time I was properly active (and could spell better) I had an established account and knew how things worked, so I wasn't perceived as brand new.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Active help? Not that I can remember. I read the policies and guidelines thoroughly. And I tried to model my behaviour on more experienced editors that I admired, especially Doug Weller, David Eppstein and DGG.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? I don't know, which makes me a bit sad because as you've just heard editing Wikipedia is something I've done for most of my adult life. But I'll be too busy with other things to do any serious content work for the foreseeable future, and I'm feeling pretty demoralised about the way policy and community processes are developing. I hope so, but I need to find a new way to fit it in with the other things in my life.
Were you involved with WikiEd? Other than occasionally reviewing articles from their programmes and warning colleagues that it's not as good as it looks, nope.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Yes, quite often. It's not a great experience, especially if you go beyond just editing mainspace pages. I wish it were better because being able to do proper editing whilst travelling would make it much easier to fit it in alongside work and family obligations. Right now I often resort to drafting things in a text document on my phone then copying it into Wikipedia when I'm at a computer.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I think around mid-2003 as an IP; I was certainly reading articles by that time, and for some reason remember spending a few hours reading the article on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in summer 2004. Interestingly, having just now read the article as it was back then, I probably spent more time reading the external links containing further information than the article; nowadays the article is comprehensive enough to suffice just reading that.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I wanted to fix a few things in articles. I created an account in late 2005 in order to contribute to a discussion. As for why I really started editing Wikipedia in 2012, I had a lot of free time on my hands at that point, and had heard about good articles and wanted to try my hand at writing some, to show the quality of Wikipedia could be half-decent if somebody wanted it to be.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I don't think there was anything. Back in 2003, you could generally just edit articles easily, and if people thought you knew what you were talking about, there was no problem. It took a few years later to "get" what the verifiability and no original research policies actually meant, as they got more regularly pointed to from about 2007 onwards.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I guess what worked in 2003 is there was far more tolerance towards edits, but also the quality of articles was far lower. It wasn't until later that articles could be reasonably considered to want to be close to professional quality encyclopedias.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Yes, because I have always read Wikipedia articles for 20 years despite significant gaps editing them. Every time I have decided I needed a serious break from editing, I have come back because there was something in an article I wanted to fix.
Were you involved with WikiEd? What's that?
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Yes, sometimes, but I prefer desktops. My eyesight isn't great and so I prefer editing on a 27 inch 1080p monitor. Cullen328 said it best here : "We would all be better off if the WMF shut down all these poor quality smartphone/mobile apps, which are an impediment to collaborative editing. I cannot imagine the amount of money that has been wasted on these crappy apps over the years, but "small fortune" comes to mind."
Feel free to also share anything else you wish to :) Every time I'm closing AfD debates, evaluating CSDs, posting on ANI, or doing any other administrative tasks, it always come back to one simple thing - I can't think of anything to write about in the encyclopedia. I always seem to have a better time when I'm buried deep in improving an article.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? 23 March 2022
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I don't exactly remember why. I think I have always been fascinated with the collaborative editing aspect. I remember that around that time, I had stumbled across some projectspace pages and surfed through a lot of policies and guidelines. I think that got me interested and I wanted to try it out.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I'm not sure, I feel like I did pretty well getting started. I remember doing a lot of minor copyediting as suggested by the newcomer home page; maybe that could also encourage editors to get started with more major content work?
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Owing to my initial fascination with all kinds of projectspace pages, I was pretty self-sufficient in terms of learning the ropes, but the Teahouse and Help Desk were always there for when I had questions.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? My editing has its ups and downs, corresponding both to my wikistress levels and to offwiki events. Last time, I was nearly inactive for about four months, and did not expect to come back. But when I was reading about tax havens and saw some POV cruft there, I got hooked again. So I think I may be gone for even long times sometimes, but I don't think I'll completely lose the habit for a long time.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I use it to check my watchlist and eventually to respond on talk pages or revert vandalism, but very rarely for serious content work. When I do, I use the browser with desktop mode on; the mobile theme is not functional enough for me, and I have not tried editing with the app.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? Sometime in 2004. My first edits after creating an account were on 20 February 2005.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I was in law school, and I found that writing articles on the subjects of my classes was a good way to internalize the information.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? A broader sense of helping the reader in the community.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? That's an interesting question. The "help" that I had was that I would try to write an article on something and someone would instantly swoop in to try to delete it, which forced me to learn the system to defend
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? I think that eventually an AI will take over doing most of what editors currently do.
Were you involved with WikiEd? Some years ago I helped with a class to teach the archivists of the Smithsonian Institution to edit Wikipedia, but otherwise no.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I don't care for it at all.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? To vandalize it
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? When I started vandalizing Wikipedia I think I would have been excited to get more attention.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? No, other editors disrupted my acts of vandalism. The part that worked was that I could disrupt articles. The part that did not work was that reviewers reverted my edits and told me to stop.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Yes
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I do not edit on mobile because I type so much faster with keyboard and mouse.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? My account was created in 2014, and I might have done a few IP edits before then. However, I only really became active for the first time in 2017, before becoming mostly inactive again. My editing picked up again during the pandemic and I've been pretty active ever since.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? This is somewhat hard to answer. I guess because I find it fun? Also, in terms of writing articles, I like having a place to collect my research (of other sources, of course, not OR) on things and make it more accessible to others.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I joined Wikipedia when I was pretty young and made some silly mistakes and a lot of low-quality edits. Maybe a better guide for younger editors? Not sure how that would look though, but I've observed that editing in a constructive manner is something many younger editors struggle with. Fortunately, I didn't ever become too disruptive to the point of being blocked, but I still cringe when I look at my old contributions.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? To some extent, yeah. People were generally friendly and the ability to acquire permissions, such as new page patroller, was pretty motivating.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Don't see why not. There's always more articles I'd like to write, and I enjoy the behind-the-scenes work as well.
Were you involved with WikiEd? Not really, though I've interacted with WikiEd students before in my role as a new page patroller.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Yeah. I usually edit with the app, but sometimes with mobile web. I like the interface of the mobile app where it works, but it's frustratingly limited. I try to edit on my laptop when possible.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? 2009, if memory serves, on and off.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I had known about the project for a long time and kept thinking I should look into it. I started an account, but I couldn't think of anything to write about, so now and then I would make a few copyedits, and would browse articles, fixing the occasional typo or glitch. Then I came across a reference to Admiral Wake-Walker in the Bismarck article, and remembered that he had been the captain of an RN vessel in an accident in Canada that had been the subject of a court case that went all the way to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. I thought that I could do an article on that. So I did: Wake-Walker v SS Colin W Ltd.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Better automatic links to the Helpdesk, the Teahouse, and the MOS, that would pop up as soon as someone created a new account. I only found about them by accident, very gradually. I don't think I ever actually used the Helpdesk until this year, because I thought the Teahouse was the main resource. Then I noticed a pattern where the helpful Teahouse hosts would answer my questions, but express surprise that I was coming to them, since I had so many edits already... The link to the Helpdesk is buried at the bottom of the main page. I rarely read that far and didn't notice it.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Stub tags were very helpful, believe it or not. They are an express invitation to work on an article that needs development. That was an encouragement, that Wikipedia really means anyone can edit, and here was a helpful hint of where to start. What wasn't helpful was a contact I got out of the blue by another editor. Soon after I started doing some edits, I had one editor post one of those "Welcome" boxes on my Talkpage with cookies, and they said they would keep an eye on my edits. Freaked me out! An invisible ghost watching over my shoulder. I think they meant well, but that was not helpful! I blanked the Talk page. What was helpful were gentle suggestions and encouragements now and then along the way, particularly from two of the editors who have already posted on this page: @Cullen328: and @Ritchie333:. Thanks, guys! 👋 Ritchie, it is a mug's game - but it's fun!
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Yes. I mainly do content, on things I find interesting, although others in some of the Wiki groups apparently do not. So be it. I rarely get involved in discussions of deletions and other conflicts. Get enough of that sort of thing at my day job.
Were you involved with WikiEd? I've never understood what it is.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I edit in it quite a lot. Not major revisions, but responses to edits on my watch list, typos, formatting. I can do a fair bit of coding on it, in small bytes. I just use Safari on my phone. Didn't realise until browsing the answers here that there is a Wikipedia app. Never heard of it before, which is probably a measure of my lack of technical proficiency with computers.
Thanks for asking! (One day, you wake up and discover you're an "experienced editor". I worry that means I've reached the peak and am at the beginning of the inevitable downward slope...) Mr Serjeant Buzfuz (talk) 21:43, 1 December 2023 (UTC)
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I had just left my job as a college professor, and was casting around for something new to do. I had recently been using Wikipedia as a reader, and decided that getting involved in editing would be an interesting thing to do. I had seen some things that clearly, to me, needed to be corrected, and wanted to do that. I was also very worried that I didn't want to "break" anything, so I was very cautious and mostly just lurked and watched for the first several months.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I'll answer this as part of the next question.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I definitely did not! Things were so different in 2007 than they are today. Just about the first thing I did after creating my user page was speedy deleted, but my reaction was to think I must have done something wrong and try to learn how to do things correctly. (And I think the fact that I reacted that way instead of getting angry or indignant is the basic reason why I've stayed around since then.) Anyway, my "welcome to Wikipedia" talk page message was from a POV-pusher who had been topic banned from something (vaccines) where I had made an early edit. Early on, two things happened that, each, very nearly drove me off Wikipedia. In one, a prominent administrator decided that I was a sockpuppet trolling them, but instead of pursuing it through normal channels, they just kept harassing me, and frankly, scaring me. (This was someone whose user name will be readily familiar to everyone, but they are no longer alive, and I don't want to identify them. They really had been harassed a lot by other people, but of course I had nothing to do with that.) I eventually learned what ArbCom was, emailed them about it, and two then-Arbs warned this person on their user page to stop it, and it gradually quieted down. During this time, I had become interested in fixing POV problems in animal rights articles, and this was where that person had turned against me. And that was where I first learned, the hard way, how to navigate difficult content issues. The other early event was when I got targeted by a bunch of trolls from the Something Awful website, with stuff like [1]. Today, we are much better at dealing with this kind of thing, but back then, I felt quite lonely with it.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Probably, yeah. I've "quit" from time to time, but I end up coming back. Strange as it may seem to say this after my answer to the last question, I've come to value the sense of community, and I find it fascinating.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No, not directly. I'm a frequent contributor at WP:Education noticeboard, and I wrote most of WP:ASSIGN.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? No. I hate my phone.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? November 2021. Some 15 years before that I would occasionally fix typos or whatever as an IP. (I stopped doing that when I realized it logged your IP for all time alongside all your edits, which creeped me out.)
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I teach a second-year undergraduate course that involves students (who are not usually literature majors) writing about books, so I spent a lot of time skimming Wikipedia articles on modern literature. This is a dangerous thing to do if you are a person who writes about literature and also desires to remain sane. I joined Wikipedia to fix them, which is clear evidence of my failure. I'd received some other nudges Wikipediawards over the years, but this was the thing that broke me.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I don't think I needed help so much as I needed to not be driven away, and I think that's true of most new editors who are the kind of people we'd actually like to keep around. Engrave WP:BITE on the tablets of your hearts. And remember that newbies can read what you write, even when they're not visibly part of the conversation. When a newbie reads and believes WP:CIVIL and then watches established editors throw it out the window, they reconsider whether they want to stay. When a newbie sees an established editor's "polite" sexism/racism/transphobia/whatever go unchallenged, they reconsider. When a newbie sees bad behaviour excused because the editor in question has a high edit count or a lot of GA credits, they reconsider. I spent a lot of time reconsidering.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? It helped a lot that I immediately bumped into some very decent people, so I had something to counterbalance all the reconsidering. Sdkb gave me a barnstar with a really nice message, which I will probably remember for the entire time I edit here. (Hand these out liberally! I know I certainly ought to give more.) An irl friend tanked a lot of my rants. WP:WIRED and WP:@ helped a lot too. I think community is really, really important both to get people to stay and to give them somewhere they know they can ask for help. What got me feeling like "a wikipedia editor" and not just "someone with a wikipedia account" was a GA review drive. Making drives and edit-a-thons obviously open to newbies is also really helpful.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? You're stuck with me for the long haul, or at least until someone rewrites Paradise Lost.
Were you involved with WikiEd? As in, have I been a student or an instructor through WikiEd? No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? It's so much easier to edit on desktop, I don't see any reason to bother.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? - 2007, when I was just an IP. I mainly left comments on a few talk pages, but decided to start an account in 2008.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? - At first just to point out errors I'd seen, or to ask questions about some of the articles, and maybe answer those question I knew the answers to. I never gave it much thought, until the 2008 presidential election, when suddenly the state of Alaska was thrown into the spotlight. Before then, it was like most people thought Alaska was some small island out by Hawaii, because that's all they show you on the news weather-maps. I was fascinated by the talk page discussions, because it was apparent to me that the people in those discussions knew absolutely nothing about Alaska but were solely interested in jockeying for political points, so finally I couldn't take anymore and I decided to chime in.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? - Better, more concise guidelines and policies. I had just been given my first computer, which was a work computer, and knew nothing about computers or the internet. I quickly found out that people who build and program these things are definitely not writers, for they are lousy at giving instructions. You have to practically learn an entirely new language to figure out what their instructions are trying to say, and even then it's a huge mess of playing trial and error to get it right. I just wish it would've been easier to use and figure out.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? - Not really. As an IP, a kind editor helped prod me into making my first change to an article, and that really helped motivate my interest. When I opened my account, I decided to totally refrain from editing in article space, but kept my edits to the talk page. I had picked what turned out to be one of the most controversial subjects at the time. It was politics, so I didn't have much interest in the subject itself, except it's tangential relationship to my state, so it's not something I was passionate about. I kept my edits to the talk page and spent several months just learning about Wikipedia, and what an eye-opening learning experience it was! I had a lot of training and experience in writing non-fiction and in encyclopedic writing specifically, since long before the internet even existed, so when it came time to actually write and edit articles that I had some expertise on, it was a piece of cake, and I've had almost zero problems since.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? - Probably. One of the biggest problems I've seen when I watch other editors struggle is that they don't have the training nor the experience in encyclopedic writing that I have. I've found it helps to share my knowledge and experience wherever it seems like it may help, and if I have influenced even one person then it has been worth it. I've found the best way to influence people is to lead by example, so that's what I try to do, so while I doubt I have more than a few thousand edits to my count, I'm still dedicated to making the best, highest quality articles I can.
Were you involved with WikiEd? - Wiki-what? Sorry, never heard of it. There's quite a lot on Wikipedia I just don't pay attention to. I'm usually laser-focused on whatever I'm doing at the time.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? - No. I don't even own a mobile capable of getting on the internet with. Teeny, tiny screens don't interest me. Put it up on a 50" plasma TV, so I don't have to strain my eyes. Just because something is new doesn't necessarily make it better. Often it ends up being worse. For example, I still go to the library for most of my research, because, as wonderful as the internet is, more than 99% of any really good, reliable information on any given subject will not be found online. Maybe I'm just old fashioned.
I made my first edit in July 2021. I took a photo of a railroad which didn't have any photos yet, so I uploaded it to Commons. I then saw the article was in rough shape and expanded it, and then discovered lots of other railroad articles needed help or hadn't even been created yet, and here we are.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
Mostly covered in my previous answer, but the research I do to write and expand articles has allowed me to learn a great deal of train history, which is great for someone with a train obsession. Some of the stereotypes about Wikipedia editors have a bit of truth to them...
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
I think I actually had this go rather well for me, because I joined the Discord very early and was able to ask people there for advice. Infamously, one editor thought I was a sock because GE 25-ton switcher was very well written for a brand new editor. I did get bit once by an admin when I didn't understand how redirects worked and accidentally redirected a disambiguation page, when what I should have done was convert the page to a redirect. I asked for help and their answer was not helpful at resolving the simple misunderstanding on my part. Ultimately it was converted to the redirect as I had intended by a third editor.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
Yes, primarily from the Discord server, along with a few editors who overlap with my editing interests. I asked a question at the Teahouse as a new editor and the response I received was quite helpful, kudos to the people who answer questions there. I was disappointed to learn that WikiProjects are largely either dead or infrequently active, and I don't see that changing.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future?
As long as there are train articles in my area that need improvement, I doubt I'll ever really retire. There's also the reality that if I don't write some of these articles, they might never get written. It's hard to believe sometimes that two of my FAs didn't have articles at all until I started them myself (and this is an example of why I don't believe those who claim "all the articles have already been written). I'm not as active as I used to be because my job has become significantly more demanding this year, but I'm a frequent reader and with that comes the desire to improve articles that are subpar.
Were you involved with WikiEd?
No, beyond being astounded at some of the poor content they produce. I offered to help a WikiEd editor once who picked an article on my watchlist, but they ended up changing articles so that didn't go anywhere.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
Hell no. I dislike the mobile interface with a passion, and the much larger screen available to me on my PC is far easier for me to work with. My phone is also on the smaller side (iPhone 7). I also very frequently edit with multiple Wikipedia tabs open, often copying bits of wikitext like references and formatting between articles, or comparing the page I'm actively editing with the last revision in a different tab, and this is far easier on PC.
When did you start editing Wikipedia?: Is it bad that I have to look at Xtools to figure this out? I registered in early 2019, but only started seriously editing towards the end of 2020. Feels like I've been doing this forever...
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?: I registered by account after clicking on the learn how and when to remove this template message button. I promptly removed said maintenance message without an edit summary and marked my edit as minor. Not my best edit. In my next edit, I removed a ((Primary sources)) tag. This time, I left an edit summary (This is the type of thing that should rely on primary sources: it still happens to this day. So, I deleted the template message concerning this.) and did not mark the edit as minor. Progress! Both of these edits were (correctly!) reverted by User:Melcous, who then left me a template message. I eventually decided to fix problem before removing the corresponding maintenance template at synthetic element (my contribs to that page).TL;DR: to fix problems.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? the new mentorship program would have been amazing, as would the suggested edits feature. Otherwise, the biggest thing would be reform to our massive amount of rules. For one, the sheer number and length was daunting. No matter what I did, I would find out there is another rule I just broke. I firmly believe we need to cut down on the number of things we tag as PAGs, and shorten those that we keep. WP:IAR is a single sentence, but we have things like WP:IAR? which explain what it actually means. I think I would have preferred short[a] policies (e.g. WP:IAR) which also come with a how-to manual (WP:IAR?).I also think some direct encouragement/confirmation that I was doing The Right Thing would have been appreciated. I learned pretty quickly that no news means good news (c.f. WP:SILENTCONSENSUS), but an explicit "nice job you did a good thing" would have been a helpful indication that my contributions were on the right track.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I learned by watching how other people did things, but I didn't really get any explicit help. One thing I figured out early on is that typing WP:[TERM IN CAPS] into the search bar usually takes you to a page with an explanation of said term, which was really helpful. Maybe that should be added to an advice page somewhere? The welcome message I received was also a great thing; there is a reason it is still on my userpage[b] People do read those!
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Yes. I love the community of nerds that Wikipedia is: a bunch of people dedicated to maintaining the largest compilation of knowledge ever made by humans. Being a small part in maintaining what can probably be called one of humanity's greatest intellectual creations is thrilling.Additionally, I am first and foremost a reader. As long as there are still typos to fix, I'll be around .
Were you involved with WikiEd?: No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Apparently, I have used the mobile interface thrice.Otherwise, I have used the desktop site to edit from mobile occasionally, but I use my laptop for almost all editing. The main time I use my phone for editing is to respond to messages when I am otherwise taking a ((vacation)).
Other thoughts: a massive thank you to Clovermoss for organizing this. I had fun reflecting on my time here, and I look forward to continuing to do so in the future!
References
^At the absolute most a paragraph, but preferably a sentence or two
^It is a massive MOS:LTAB violation. Combining the two big... boxes? (not sure what to call them) currently on my userpage has been an on-and-off project for a little while now.
Summer of 2021 is when I actually started actively editing, although my account is older than that.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
My first edit was to add information about the university I was studying in at the time, but I started actively editing because of how infuriated I was at the state of Spanish history articles. They still, much to my regret, remain heavily politicized and biased.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
To be honest, since I had always been a big nerd I was very familiar with navigating finding sources and using academic databases to search for niche/old sources. I'm not sure most newbies can do that or that we provide that much help on that. Also Wikipedia:WikiProject Resource Exchange/Resource Request and Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library were both resources I wish had been promoted to me like, first week.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
I had some help after I found very active editors in my topic area of choice and asked them questions (shoutout Epicgenius and Gog the Mild)
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
Not in the short term.
Were you involved with WikiEd?
No, although I've interacted with students from time to time.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
Yes, very often. I feel it needs much more support for templates, but is honestly a much better experience than what many desktop-only users say. I think it really needs to become the focus of Wikimedia developers so that we can penetrate into the possible editing communities in Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and Oceania that basically skipped the PC era and rely on smartphones. If we can improve the experience, we will gain tons of great and productive editors imho.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I registered this account in 2007, although started editing more regularly only from 2017.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? Can't remember. I imagine I was reading an article and came across something that needed updating or correcting.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Better understanding of some basics around notability, referencing, etc. The first few articles I created had probably more unreferenced content than referenced, and when this was flagged up I genuinely didn't get what the problem was! The whole "anyone can edit" notion can be a bit misleading, as it suggests editing is a free-for-all where anything goes, which is obviously far from the truth. This is probably why many newbies get into trouble, and end up either getting blocked or giving up.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I didn't seek help, although probably should have.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Sure, undeniably addicted now...
Were you involved with WikiEd? No. Actually I'm not even quite sure what it is.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Tried it once or twice, but find it so awkward that have no intention to try again. I do need a proper keyboard. Barely even use Wikipedia on mobile.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? Around the beginning of the pandemic
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I was writing a book and used wikipedia a lot as a resource. Then I found that it could be improved.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Knowledge of the way wikipedia works administratively. ANI, dispute resolution board, etc
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I had an assigned mentor but didn't really interact with them
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? I think I will take a break since I passed a major milestone recently in terms of articles I managed to create and was wanting to take a break for a long time. But being such a wikipediaholic the break will probably not last
Were you involved with WikiEd? I don't know what that is but I think certain pages I made were assigned related to it
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Yeah I did. It's a big hassle but if I really messed up on a page or am really bored on a bus ride I will do it
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I was a programmer with a big American software company and decided I was sick of it and when the contract finished, I decided to leave in 2005. I thought about becoming a small business consultant, IT consultant, do some web development work. When I finally moved, I found I had a loads of time available and was twiddling my fingers. So I cast around for something else to do and I heard about Wikipedia and had a look. I was planning to start a blog and become a full-time blogger but almost immediately got involved in fixing redirects, hundreds of them. I really enjoyed it as the work made an immediate impact. It was quite cathartic really.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? A landing page possibly with links to the help system that is professionaly built by a UX team. I didn't learn about the help system until much later, it was months and months or even years later. I did get a barnstar quite early on, but didn't know what the barnstar was. It helped show that the work was appreciated.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? No help. I started reading everything I came across and slowly built up experience about how the place worked. It took a long time even to discover the noticeboard system. I used to spend most of the time just reading how other editors accomplished a particular task.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Yes, at least for another three years. I have a main article I need to complete and once thats completed, I intend to leave. It will take that long to finish it probably including several other articles associated with it. I do have a whole list of articles needing created, its quite long. I suspect many of them won't get done, unfortunately. I will probably take a look around that time, 3 years from now as a rough figure and see what happening and make a decision then. I do see a slow trickle of the old regulars disappearing now, its inevitable and I really don't want to be here when most of them are gone.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? No, I wouldn't do it. Its a pain in the ass.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I made a few edits in October 2020, though I actually started in March 2021.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? Noticing vandalism and incorrect information, then going down the rabbit hole of recent changes patrol.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I'll start by not answering the question directly first. When I tried creating an account here, my IP address was blocked, so I had to follow the WP:ACC process. That involved reading through instructions to go through a layer of bureaucracy, before even getting involved in editing. That has shaped my experience quite a bit, as I clicked on different links that had different instructions for different things when I started editing. It is quite true that few people stop to read something unless they had to, but even though going through ACC did help me get more experience, forcing everyone to be the same would be an actual nightmare. As for the original question, I wasn't particularly good at actually writing content back when I joined, and I concur with many above that the Growth Team features, including the suggested edits, would have been helpful in recommending me with what I could do for this project.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I don't think I had gotten much help as a new editor. The most help has been me clicking through links to discover interesting stuff. My first encounters with vandalism have been quite natural, by actually spotting them while reading articles. That led to me discovering the existence of page history, and through the page history I went to an IP's talk page which has a warning left on their page. That warning then gave me links to many different things including WP:Vandalism and how to leave warning templates on people's talk pages. I think instead of actually making content improvements, I got into the inner workings of Wikipedia early and worked my way from there.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Unless anything happens, I'd say I'll keep editing for another ten years.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No, other than seeing WikiEd user pages when patrolling recent changes.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Yes I have. Quite recently I started editing from my phone and I actually use the "Request desktop view" feature just to get the full feature. It's not always pleasant, and I hope WMF can actually make a mobile app that is as feature complete and as carefully laid out as the desktop site.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? Im made some edits back in 2017/2018 as a IP editor, but I formally created my account in 2019 primarily to participate in Google Summer of Code as a undergrad (shoutout to Samwilson who was a really great help helping me navigate the tech ecosystem) and made a few edits here and there, tho I was still mostly focused on the technical aspects of the project (by technical I mean Phabricator). I've recently started becoming a lot more active on the content and maintainence side of Wikipedia this year after meeting with Samwalton9, Dreamy Jazz, Novem_Linguae and Chlod (to name a few) during Wikimania 2023 :)
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? Back in my IP days, it was mostly school assignment driven. I was big into Chemistry at that point and would do a bit of copyediting and rewriting whenever I found something that needed updating. I can't find the edit anymore, but I remeber adding a link a really cool explanation about some math problem that my teacher gave me in the Further reading section of a page, that was instantly reverted as being promotional lol :(
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? The new real time preview feature is amazing, that would have been a lifesaver especially because it encourages you to test stuff out on the fly, whereas the preview and save options have a lot more of the one time only vibe to them. Also, back in 2017, the visual editor was hell of a buggy mess, it become a lot (and I mean a lot) better, to the point where I actively prefer it when I am doing content work. I wish I had all the bugfixes back then :)
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I think that I am priviledged from that point of view, I've mostly always had a lot of IRL help (cause of the peeps I mentioned above). However, navigating all the myriads of policies and guidelines and what not was (and still is) a mess. I still keep finding stuff where something contradicts my understanding of existing policies in that area. I remember my second article was nominated for deletion, and I had a really tough time navigating the maze that is notability and AFDs. In the end the article was saved since some other experienced editors jumped in and found sources for me.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Definitely (or atleast that is the plan). I've found a really cool area related to my IRL work that has not been covered well, and I'm trying to increase Wikipedia's coverage of those areas. I'm also still very much active in technical areas (come and say hi to me on phabricator :) and plan to work on technical contributions for a while (especially on the PageTriage and ProofreadPage extension). If anyone wants to get started making technical changes, let me know :)
Were you involved with WikiEd? No, I still have almost no idea what WikiEd is to be honest.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Yes, I have, it's not a best interface, but the Mobile web interface is not bad for replying to comments and generally keeping track of watchlist updates/pings etc. I don't think it's meant for any serious editing though and I personally haven't found it useful in that regard. For content-work, I still prefer using a laptop for anything more intensive than adding a link.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I think I started editing in early 2022, under various IP adresses. I registered my account in July of that year.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? Well, that's a difficult question. A mix of "because it's fun" and "because I want to help this cool project", I think. I was very into centipedes around that time, and our project's coverage of them was a little sparse. I liketothinkI'vechangedthat, atleastalittlebit.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I think I did okay as a new editor (because at the start I just wrote and submitted AfC drafts, which is moderately straightforward), but I do remember a general feeling of being intimidated by the massive system, and its associated bureaucracy, that is English Wikipedia. The policies didn't confuse me; the processes did.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I think I had pretty good support as a new editor.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?. Yes. There are times when I have considered leaving the project, usually because I'm tired of the pointless bureaucracy, the people who think everything is an RfC and who refuse to compromise, and so on...
But the advantages of contributing to the project always win me back in the end.
Were you involved with WikiEd? I've heard of it, but I don't know what it is. It's not related to WP:WikEd, is it?
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? No, I have never edited on mobile.
2006. A few edits without account, and then more and more with.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
I was the operator of a BBS but then Al Gore invented the Internet and business dwindled. Mine was one of the last in my city. I shut it down in 2005 and soon heard that there was a new online encyclopedia that anyone could edit. That was clearly absurd but I've always loved encyclopedias and been fond of absurdity, and needed an outlet for my obsessiveness.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
A bit of advice. Don't concentrate on things only a very few people (such as you) know or care about. See broadly; think macro. Also when content disputes arise, don't fight anger with anger; it's enormously unprofitable. Study your interlocutor's edit record; you may learn useful things.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
Very little help. Mostly I just struggled alone, studied the work of those who corrected errors due to my misunderstanding of methods and style, and gradually learned. One thing that helped make it easy was, Wikipedia was really quite a bad reference work in those days. You had to be really stupid to make it any worse; nowadays you must be at least moderately smart to make real improvements. Anyway it proved an excellent outlet for my obsessiveness.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
Yes. I have become one of those old guys who no longer want to learn to do a major new thing. I am pleased when I can add a small increment to my intellectual toolset, and especially when I can pass on my skills, such as they are, to younger stronger minds that can use them better.
Were you involved with WikiEd?
No; I'm considerably older than WikiEd and haven't been a student since the 1960s. In later decades I was sometimes a mentor but never, formally, a teacher. I carry a WikiEd backpack because I was once assigned to pass them out to lightning talkers and one was left over. Wikipedia has introduced me to professors and the like whom I can help, and for a semester I commuted to a college to help a professor who always has her students write a Wikipedia article instead of just a term paper.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
I have many thoughts on mobile editing. Almost every day I check my three or four main watchlists on an Android tablet. Usually I find an edit or three that ought to be reverted, corrected, or supplemented. It works well enough if it's just a bit of plain prose or simple markup. However, a multikilobyte ENWP article is commonly a complex thing, and I don't know whether it's practical to do it on a small screen. Besides, some of the lightest work is in Wikimedia Commons, but some important tools, namely Hotcat and Cat-a-lot, do not work well or sometimes at all in mobile. There ought to be an app for that. Indeed there is a Common App for Android, but it's even worse for category work. I run that app a few times a week on my Android phone, seeking photo opportunities and uploading pictures, but it suffers bugs and limitations. In searching the map for photo targets I often find that the target isn't there; it's somewhere else because of wrong coordinates in Wikidata. Such errors absolutely ought to be fixed on the spot, when I'm out in the wind and seeing the wrong building. It ought to be easy when it's just a matter of moving the dot across the street or a block away. However, neither the desktop version nor the mobile version of Wikidata works well on the smartphone browser. So, there ought to be an app that handles Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and the maps that connect them. Along with easy connection with a more geographically aware mobile Wikipedia editing app.
When did you start editing Wikipedia?: 13 December 2013 (10 years is coming up). I joined before I turned 16.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?: I believed it was morally important to give back to a resource that I had learned much from. My conception of Wikipedia changes every time my political beliefs change. But I have always believed that my drive to learn minutiae—whether of a TV programme or a field of maths—is most beneficially channelled by making that information available to others. And conveying information without spin is enough to convince others of my beliefs. Two phrases that guide me, whatever you think of their original contexts, are TELL THE TRUTH and DO WHAT MATTERS TO YOU.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?: If I could give myself advice, it would be to read a lot on what makes a source reliable for a given fact. I wish WP:RSP had existed in 2013 when I spent hours and hours reading Wikipedia namespace pages.The other changes that would have helped me would be deep institutional and cultural changes to excise the hostility in our community. While it isn't my fault that I've been distressed by people who were not sanctioned for egregiously hostile behaviour and that I've faced targeted harassment, there are things I would do differently to mitigate their impact.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?: I was mostly left alone, which was for the better. One incident from 2015 upsets me every time I think about it 8 years later, where an experienced volunteer was hostile in response to (in hindsight) disruption that I caused. What worked was feedback I sought out—I wish assessment processes like WikiProject Television's saw more traffic, but DYK and GA are good for those whose contributions are more fully formed.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?: It takes a lot of time and energy to be fully involved with editing. These are the main factors, as I know better than 10 years ago what parts of the community make me too upset and demoralised to continue (as nearly happened in 2019 and 2021). I want to keep to myself in content creation, except for participation in quality review processes, helping newcomers, and interactions designed to increase positivity (such as Challenges or giving Barnstars).
Were you involved with WikiEd?: Not except for cleaning up some of the messes left by its students. Both professors and students are typically too Wikipedia illiterate to be a net benefit in the framework used, most readily evidenced by poor choices of articles to work on. There is a lack of emphasis on verifiability and Wikipedia's tone of voice (which is not academic or essay-style). To be successful, students need a drive to learn how Wikipedia works, someone experienced to give detailed feedback, and time and patience to improve their writing after multiple iterations of such feedback.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?: Yes and it's tolerable to make simple edits or discussion comments. There are limitations in the size of a phone, but most volunteers drastically underestimate the importance of mobile. Most readers are on mobile and we exclude countries, generations and classes of people if editing is not optimised on mobile.
Feel free to also share anything else you wish to :): Wikipedia faces a crisis. We are not recruiting and retaining enough newcomers and many backlogs are out of hand. We need more volunteers who will write new content, improve existing content and check the factual accuracy of recent changes. We also need some specialised editors to do things like CCI or Lua work. We do not need hostile experienced editors who have scared away 10 of their younger selves. We do not need people with hundreds of thousands of edits who do not think through the consequences of rapid editing.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? Mid 2014, as an IP. I created an account in 2016
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? Because I noticed a link was dead and wanted to report it (without remembering to date the maintenance tag)
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Unclear. I seem to have gotten along fine without much help
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Not really? I mostly just kept going without much interaction with the community until mid 2016. Although there were at least two occasions there where I made an edit, was reverted, and then months or years later my version was reinstated, so perhaps knowing how to communicate better. I did get myself close to being blocked in late 2016 (and in hindsight I should have been blocked) for going on a crusade against things my interpretation of the rules said were forbidden but nobody else agreed with me. And, years later, the community has proven me right on one of those things. But I don't think I could have been helped there, I had to realize it with my own eyes.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Probably. I once said to myself (circa 2018) that I would stop editing when mw:Parsoid is fully-deployed, which was at the time planned for late 2020 but is still months to years away. In practice, though, unless I find something else to take up the hours of my time I spend editing each day, I will still keep editing.
Were you involved with WikiEd? Not initially. These days I spend a decent portion of my time cleaning up Wiki Ed articles, so I am involved with Wiki Ed from the other end.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? No, because I don't have (and have never had) a phone smart enough to edit Wikipedia. Which is a deliberate choice - I prefer the binary state of being at my computer or not rather than having the constant intrusion of a phone available at every moment.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? On 29 March 2006
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? Because I couldn't find information on a place which interested me, so I researched it and added it after several false starts
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? The Draft namesake and the Articles for Creation project
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I had no help, exactly. I had a few cross comments thrown at me. We had to be robust in those days!
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Certainly
Were you involved with WikiEd? No
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Gosh, yes. What an awful, awful experience. It seems to be getting better, but who woudl want to use that?
June 2004, as an IP [2]; later that month as a registered editor.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
I saw something wrong on the internet! But seriously I saw the value of a crowdsourced wide-ranging information source right away. I don't think at the time I saw the potential for it to get so comprehensive as it did; I expected something more like IMDB that covered some science and geography basics. I'm proud of my local area and kind of focused on that at first, and got a thrill when I was first to add some feature with a cool name like the Duckabush and Hamma Hamma Rivers.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
I like "cookbook" style tutorials, so maybe something that would be a guide for frequently used editor activities, like creating a new article (I don't think the wizard existed yet). Also, clearer guidance on where to go for help from other editors – I think WP:EAR (now closed!) had not yet been created when I started, and I don't think the help venues are terribly easy to find even now.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
Absolutely none, I learned the weird ways of wiki all alone. Fortunately I didn't make any unforgivable mistakes along the way.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future?
Probably, unless the editor community just peters out. I was still editing (lightly) when deployed to a war zone in 2008, so I guess that it's kind of compulsory for me. I could see getting more involved in backend stuff (data analytics and tool creation) and less on front-end article editing.
Were you involved with WikiEd?
Not directly, though I've been engaged with educators.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
I edit extensively using an iPad or a mobile phone, always in desktop mode. I don't know if that counts. Usually this is just for checking my watchlist and making minor changes and interactions with other editors; when extensive text input is required (like right now), I go to a keyboard.
Feel free to also share anything else you wish to :)
Bilorv has some good thoughts that I share about the future. There is an impending crisis, and the slowly trickling-away administrator cadre is only the most immediately measurable part of it. The wider issue is the change of the global information space itself away from text-centric (Twitter model) and towards a video-centric one (TikTok model). Without new people appearing here who are interested in writing, this project needs to reinvent itself, lest it fade away. This is compounded by the growth of what I'd call an increasingly complex on-wiki administrative practice of norms, policies, procedures, ARBCOM topic pre-emptions, etc., which have incredible momentum against change or simplification. This exists almost like its own self-sustaining organism – a wiki Administrative State if you will – and creates an even higher burden for participation by would-be editors than when I started. All of this at the same time that the Wikipedia corpus is a ripe prize for POV editors who can inject their own version of "the truth" to be regurgitated by scrapers like Google Knowledge Graph and AIs, which puts the incentives to contribute on exactly the wrong people. It's a problem and the community doesn't seem to have a clue what to do about it.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? 2019 was when I first discovered the button, and I edited sporadically as an IP for a while. Some of my changes were constructive, some were not. I created my account in March 2021.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I don't remember why I started editing, but I do know why I created an account-- 1) I was curious to see more of the inner workings of the site, and 2) I didn't want to doxx myself every time I made an edit.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? There were a lot of buttons, and I didn't know what most of them did. It might have been helpful to have a feature which gave a brief overview of their functions when I clicked on them.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Yes. I discovered talk pages fairly quickly, and would message more experienced users (sometimes via the Teahouse) whenever I had a question or comment.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Although I haven't been as active as I used to be due to my schedule becoming busier, I don't see myself going anywhere! :)
Were you involved with WikiEd? No, but I think it's a fantastic programme.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? It's a bit complicated. I do edit on a mobile device (my iPad Pro), but I don't use the mobile editor. When I edited on a computer, I noticed that the interface was the same that appeared on my iPad. So have I edited on mobile? Yes. Do I use the mobile editor? No.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I started about 2005 but really started in 2014.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I thought I knew things that should be in articles but weren't
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I didn't have much help. I don't think all of the help, though well-intentioned, was constructive.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? Yes
Were you involved with WikiEd? Never heard of it.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I never do anything on mobile. Too limited.
Boxing day 2004. It's not impossible I made some edits as an IP before then, as it surprises me that I found a talk page for my first edit, but I don't remember for certain. My first clear memory of reading Wikipedia is when searching for information online about the Ufton Nervet rail crash shortly after it happened, which was 6 November 2004. I didn't really know what it was then, but I do distinctly remember it as the website with the large sidebar on the left (i.e. Monobook skin).
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
I saw a section on the Internet article that I thought was biased and incorrect, so I complained about it on the talk page. Other people agreed and suggested I correct it. One thing led to another and here I still am!
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
It was so long ago I have no clear memories of what would have helped, and anyway things have changed so much I doubt they'd still be relevant.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
I don't think so, beyond general advice but it was a very long time ago now.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
Yes.
Were you involved with WikiEd?
No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
Yes, I do it very occasionally but it's much harder than editing with a proper keyboard. The interface on mobile is so geared towards reading that I often have to switch from the app to the webpage and then to the desktop view in order to achieve what I set out to do as an editor. How to improve this without making things harder for readers is not something I have good ideas about. Thryduulf (talk) 21:49, 2 December 2023 (UTC)
When did you start editing Wikipedia? - June 4, 2007 after I discovered that Wikipedia didn't have an article about everything.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? - I was looking for the Wikipedia article on a defunct book publisher, Book League of America, as I'm a bibliophile and collect books by it. When I sorted out that Wikipedia didn't have an article about BLA, I decided to create it myself. (My younger son had told me previously that he had edited Wikipedia, so I figured I could sort it out, too.)
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? - Learning about cite templates sooner rather than later. I used to copy them from other articles, paste them into the article I was editing, and then change up all the fields one-by-one.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? - Three months in, I created the article on Kallawaya people. Within days, someone nominated it at WP:DYK, and I was notified when it appeared on the EN-WP mainpage. I thought it was incredible that someone would think my writing was so worthy. I recognized that I wasn't writing in a vacuum. About the same time, I created the article on Nunamiut, and then hundreds of other articles about people, places, and things associated with the Arctic. CambridgeBayWeather noticed these articles, particularly those about Nunavut, and was super helpful, encouraging, and nice to me. This made for a good start.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? - Yes!
When did you start editing Wikipedia? March 5, 2010. Took about a month to get more regularly involved.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? At first it was because I found redlinks annoying in articles, and wanted to remove them, but I soon saw there was a lot going on behind the scenes. After a couple months I discovered that I liked seeing the new articles coming in, so I threw myself into NPP and went from there.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? A clearer sense of how to get involved in behind the scenes work. To this day there are times when I have an issue and absolutely no idea where to go, as an experienced user now I know where to shotgun for information; how many new users would know how to get to the Village Pump or similar? The Teahouse is a huge help in that regard, though I'm not sure how well we steer new users to it.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I was pretty free-form, I never got into any formal arrangements with other editors. In my case I generally found people wanted to help, it helped that my interests weren't really in contentious topics; I found those far too byzantine and hectic to get involved in (which isn't necessarily a bad message to send to new users), and what feedback I got was invariably helpful.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Yes. Where else can I expound upon arcana such as inau?
Were you involved with WikiEd? I was not. As stated earlier, I tend more towards free-form editing and like to go wherever I feel like at any given moment. Structure is definitely good (and would've been helpful when I started at NPP, when the interface was even less intuitive than it is today, thankfully I was quick to pick it up), but doesn't necessarily suit everyone; it's good to allow both approaches.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? The great majority of my editing is on an iPhone, I set it to desktop and it works great. I'm against downloading applications in general unless I absolutely have to, and I find Wikipedia's mobile browser borderline unusable; everything works great in desktop.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I created my account in April 2019. I'd never really considered editing before then.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I graduated from university in 2019 and was a bit aimless in the immediate aftermath, so creating a Wikipedia account was just one of many things I was doing in order to stem the boredom a bit. Then the COVID pandemic hit and suddenly I was spending a lot more time indoors, so my editing activities really took off a few months into that. When I first started editing, I really just wanted to see more of the stuff that I was interested in on the platform. But since then I've come to value quality more over quantity, so now I want to see better stuff that I'm interested in on the platform.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? This is a hard question to answer. I could say I'd teach myself how to focus my attentions better, how to research and verify information in reliable sources. But honestly, I made a lot of mistakes in my first couple years as an editor, and I don't think it would have been a good thing to deprive myself of making those mistakes. I think experience is key to anybody's education in anything, and making mistakes are a messy but effective way of educating oneself. I think what would have helped more on this would have been to have a more open space for people to make such mistakes, without being punished or shunned for doing so. A more welcoming, accepting and positive attitude towards new users would go a far further way than strictness. Civility doesn't mean much if it just means acting polite while being nasty and aggressive towards other editors (new and old).
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I think the most "help" I got was people telling me to cite sources and not copy stuff, which is important, but they didn't really help me understand why it was important to do so. I had to figure that out myself. I think what really worked for me was when I started working as part of WikiProjects, this helped me substantially as I started working more directly with people as part of a collective action, rather than individually trying to make my way through stuff completely isolated from others. Being part of a collective, having colleagues that I know and like, has been invaluable in not just keeping me on the platform but also improving the quality of my work. I think this communal aspect of Wikipedia is easily lost on new users, so it's no surprise when many feel alone against the faceless monolith that is Wikipedia policy and culture, which ends up driving them away. Figuring out a better way to onboard people into such collective projects would help a lot, I think.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? I've gone from editing occasionally as a minor hobby to fully buying into the importance of Wikipedia as a means to make information accessible to everyone. I doubt I'm going anywhere any time soon.
Were you involved with WikiEd? Nope, but I think it's an excellent thing that should keep on going.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I've only ever made minor corrections, like typos and stuff. I just don't find it feasible to do larger edits on mobile. The mobile app is very good for reading articles, but not so much for writing them.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I signed up in 2014, but didn't start editing significantly until 2018.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I'm a big nerd. I always used to just read and read and read Wikipedia in highschool, and I figured, ya know, I can contribute to this instead of just consuming this. Though what really got me into it was repeatedly reading bad Wikipedia entries. I saw some vandalism on the page for the game Destiny. I've never played Destiny, never wanted to. But I had a question about its plot, and saw some vandalism, and thought "how unprofessional! Outrageous!" and undid it. The next year, I was reading Lynching in the United States and thought...this article needs a lot of work, and said as much on the talk page, cus I had no clue how to do it myself. But that stuck with me, and a few months later on June 12, 2018 I fixed another typo, on Passenger Pigeon. And that was I guess the spark that finally lit the fire. I realized, there is so much work to be done here, and I could do it! I spent an entire week just reading backend pages about how to edit Wikipedia. I read through all the policy pages, and the guides, just nonstop (though somehow, I did not once go through any of the tutorials; I wrote them off as useless...like yeah, I knew how to type. I needed to know what the house rules of style were, and how to write in the encyclopedic style.). Finally, after a week of that, I felt like I was in a place where I could actually edit an article. And just such a page presented itself, with the Flint Water Crisis. It was one of those pages that people just add endless one-off news articles about that just...nobody cares about. So I set about trying to cut down some of the guff that was choking the article. I then thought, ya know, I have specialized knowledge, at the time I was partway through a botany degree. So I signed up for WikiProject Plants, and with that I was really hooked on editing.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I wish somebody would have said "Don't use Huggle! Wikipedia isn't an anti-vandalism game! Focus on writing, dingbat!" I think I just didn't know what the "next" step on the ladder was supposed to be. Clearly, I could tell there was some sort of ladder, and the incentive was there to climb it I guess? But I wasn't sure how to do that, and had some dead ends in the process before I finally hit upon what I was actually good at.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? A little bit? But not much. Mostly, my education in the early days came from people telling me off, which I have to admit was really discouraging and stressful. I was so afraid I was gonna get banned for breaking the smallest rule! I really valued the first few barnstars/kudos I got, because it indicated that people saw my work, and valued me. That was super encouraging. I did ask for mentorship when I did my first FA, but otherwise, I evolved as an editor without much targeted guidance (until I hit RfA, and picked up some great nominators). Early editing was a bit sink or swim, and I guess I swam, but I always worry about the editors who sunk out because nobody helped them.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? I'll stop editing when I die, or get blocked, whichever comes first. I'd keep editing after I die if I could, but for all the work they've put into the mobile interface, they don't yet have a ghost interface :P
Were you involved with WikiEd? No. I've had to fix my fair share of bad WikiEd articles though. There is just something about the process that...fails to really teach students how to make a Wikipedia article. I don't know what the issue is, since I've never been in a WikiEd course. But I've yet to see a page get edited by WikiEd students and think "wow this is really good work." Still, I like the process and would like to see it continue, especially as it might be a path to recruiting new editors.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I edit a fair bit on mobile. Old mobile was...bad. But after they revamped it a few years ago, its actually really quite decent. I can even do admin work on there. I wouldn't ever write a whole article on my phone, cus god, typing on a little phone keyboard sucks after a while. But a paragraph here or there is fine. I'd say I use mobile more to reply to discussions than anything else. I'm not saying mobile is perfect, its got some annoying bugs still. Mobile notifications are still borked. I wish they'd find a way to integrate the little featured star onto mobile. But all in all, I'm glad they spent a lot of effort to improve mobile, and hope we see another such push in a couple years.
Originally over a decade ago, but then I mostly stopped and only picked it up again April 2019 (i.e. around 4.5 years ago)
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
I noticed some of the articles on trans issues were really bad and could use major improvements. So I tried to do that. And I'm still trying to do that years later.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
A better knowledge of the social dynamics of Wikipedia, and especially how to handle bad actors that are more experienced than you are. One of the first things I did was get into a major content dispute with an experienced editor, which ultimately turned out alright but I feel was still a mistake.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
Not really. I did have half remembered memories from nearly a decade ago which meant I didn't completely faceplant.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
Yes.
Were you involved with WikiEd?
No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
Yes, fairly often. The experience could definitely be better. In particular, I think that while the addition of the built-in reply function was great, editing anything without that (especially but not exclusively talk pages) is very awkward.
2006, as an anonymous IP. Under my current name, 2010.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
For fun, mostly to edit things I had a personal interest in and was near to me, like local towns and TV shows.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
Probably would've applied for adminship earlier.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
Nope. Figured it out on my own.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
Probably.
Were you involved with WikiEd?
No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
Yes. Nice for making an edit on the spot instead of filing it away mentally and forgetting about it. Interface is horrible for doing anything substantial though, very cumbersome and clunky.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? If this is according to when I created my account, June 27, 2019, but I've been editing before that as an IP editor.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I'm pretty sure it was something along the lines to fix a typo or revert vandalism. At least I think.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Read the dang rules. This definitely would have helped me earlier on before I ran off into the Wikipedia depths of craziness. I would have also probably been able to understand Wikipedia better if I knew what happens behind the scenes (such as ANI, ArbCom, etc).
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Off the top of my head I don't believe I actually received any true help. I went through some talk boards such as the Teahouse but nothing such as a mentor or someone who was willing to help me out. I'm sure the notices on my talk page helped me but past that, I didn't really receive any big help. I just generally followed common sense and it worked for the most part.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? I hope so, never know what will happen though.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No, but I really do enjoy checking out what current students are doing.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I do occasionally if there's something I spot wrong or if I don't have access to my laptop at the time. I don't mind mobile editing, it's a bit clunkier than web editing but I really don't find anything wrong with it.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? – My first-ever edits to Wikipedia date all the way back to March 2007, when I first discovered the "edit this page" tab. I'd been using Wikipedia regularly for at least a year by that point, if not longer. It wouldn't be until June 2008 that I'd actually register an account, but I made a handful of contributions here and there during that 15-month period, mostly spelling corrections and other minor fixes.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? – Honestly, I just thought it was fun. I could think of a different way to phrase a sentence, edit it as such, and then save it—and lo and behold, there it would be, saved for the whole world to see. I have always enjoyed writing, and editing Wikipedia is one outlet for me to channel this ability.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? – I'm not sure how to answer this. Maybe taking the time to read instructions as thoroughly as possible before trying something new? For me, part of the joy was intuiting how things worked on my own. I learned the ropes mainly through observation and trial-and-error—in other words, by doing rather than reading.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? – It depends on how you'd define help. I asked people for input whenever I was confused about something, and for the most part, they were cordial and gave me useful advice. That said, I've always been a very independent person, which is why a lot of the fun is figuring out the nuts and bolts for myself.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? – Absolutely! Although my editing history has long been a bit sporadic—flurries of high activity interspersed with months where I make only a handful of edits—I've been involved with Wikipedia on a consistent basis since 2007 (2008 if you exclude my prior history as an IP editor).
Were you involved with WikiEd? – I've never even heard of that until now (or I'd forgotten about it), so no, I can't say that I was involved with WikiEd.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? – I'm literally typing all of this up on my Samsung Galaxy right now. Granted, it's currently in my phone's notes, but I'll be copying and pasting it onto Wikipedia once I'm done (which, if you're reading this, is how it got here). In short, I edit Wikipedia via mobile all the time, though I almost always use the desktop site. That still counts, right? 😁
When did you start editing Wikipedia? In 2011, with what is now my alternate account.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? After my retirement I was looking for useful things to do and started to research topics related to my hobbies. I noticed that Wikipedia had large gaps in some cases, which I filled from the sources I found. I liked the idea that my contributions would be freely available to everyone and likely to endure. In 2018 I decided to edit in the area (chemistry) in which I'm qualified and created my now-main account in my real name, since anything else I've published professionally used that.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Being pointed to the teahouse, which I only discovered much later.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I had no help but wasn't really looking for any. I was well used to experimenting with interfaces and learning by doing: I can RTFM. I was, and still am, immensely impressed by the WP software.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Yes.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No but I signed up as a mentor as soon as that scheme was implemented in 2021.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? No. Maybe the fact that my mobile is an old Nokia, not a smartphone, explains that!
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? Around that time, we moved from a place that had dial-up internet to a place with reliable and fast internet service and a human rights case with which I had been involved had successfully concluded. So, basically, I had time and resources to return to writing.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Seriously? Taking classes in coding (ugh). I knew how to write, I am really good at research, I knew exactly what areas I wanted to focus upon, but the WP technology was and still mostly is baffling to me. Searching on WP is crazy hard and trying to find policies and guidelines continues to be a struggle for me. I think one of the most important things, that I have never seen actually spelled out, is that I had to learn that writing on WP is the opposite of academic writing. For academic writing, one backtracks to the original source to confirm that no one has misrepresented or misquoted an event/viewpoint etc. WP takes secondary sourcing as gospel. I will never learn to understand the Wiki-logic that original sources, especially those created by government entities to merely record events, are bad/unreliable. It is impossible for me to undo decades of training and I still tend to confirm with multiple sources any statement before I accept it "as fact".
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Absolutely and I wouldn't have survived if I hadn't. After working on various LGBT and Indigenous topics that already existed, I wrote two articles about Native American women in quick succession. Montanabw found them in articles for creation, approved them and then took me under her wing. Her advice to never send women's articles to AfC was one of the best pieces of advice I got as a newbie. Shortly after that Dr. Blofeld found me and between the two of them, they mostly kept the unpleasant editors away. My experience was that there were an awful lot of not very civil editors who seemed to get pleasure from running newbies off of the platform. Once Women in Red was created, I found my safe-space and a whole lot of other editors who were focused on actually improving and adding content rather than policing others and telling them what to do. The incivil aspect of WP is still problematic, IMO, but it has improved from when I first started. I was introduced by them to other editors, like Rosiestep, Ipigott and Yoninah (who I sincerely miss). They taught me how to code basic refs for articles, add categories, write things in draft until I was ready for them to be in mainspace and work through the DYK process. They also shepherded my first GAs. GreenMeansGo and GRuban were so helpful and patient to teach me about images. Gog the Mild mentored me in FA, and although he tried, he failed in his many attempts to teach me to use conversion templates. I literally depended (and still do) on the generosity of so many editors to learn the ropes of this platform and am very, very grateful for their guidance.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Yes. My work mainly focuses on topics that have been un- and under-represented in the encyclopedic record and I do not see how all of the topics that should be covered will be covered in my lifetime. Barring a serious health crisis or another move to somewhere with spotty internet service, my guess is that I am likely to continue.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Absolutely not. My phone is a phone, end stop. I am a touch typist and type over 100 wpm on a Spanish keyboard configured for English.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? – I made my first edit in October 2018, but I became an active editor in November 2020.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? – I don't fully remember, but I know my first edits were about fixing or discussing minor issues I came across, so just trying to improve Wikipedia where I could. It looks like at some point I stumbled across WP:DPL, which became my first major area, and shortly after I began working on tropical cyclone articles, given I was closely following the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season at the time.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? – I don't think I personally ran into many issues early on; I'm happy with how I started, and I wouldn't change anything, because who knows if I ever get here?
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? – A lot of my early knowledge was picked up by me randomly reading projectspace and other backend pages before I really jumped into editing. As such, I knew a lot more than your average new editor probably would (even in my first day of editing, I was already concerned about getting into an edit war!). It was mostly self-taught, until I got comfortable with Wikipedia, and by that point I would just ask around and that was enough for me.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? – My current editing cycle is get really into editing for a few months, then revert to just making edits when I come across issues, then get back into editing heavily due to some event, repeat. I don't see that changing as of now.
Were you involved with WikiEd? – No, but I've always been curious about it; I don't think I've ever seen a WikiEd editor stick around.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? – I have an alternate account which tends to be my mobile edits (User:SkarmoryAlt). It's mostly gnoming, as I don't feel like making large edits on mobile; I'm not used to mobile interfaces in general, and I feel a lot more comfortable making edits on desktop.
Thanks for sending me this survey. I like it, and I do think this does have potential to be quite useful. Skarmory(talk •contribs) 23:21, 3 December 2023 (UTC)
When did you start editing Wikipedia?Under my own name, in early 2005 I had made a New Year's Resolution to start an account, since before then, throughout 2004 and maybe earlier, I had been editing anonymously. I cannot remember what my first anonymous edit was, and maybe that's just as well.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? Blogs were the big thing at the time, and I had noticed that a lot of bloggers were linking to Wikipedia pages when they wanted their readers to have a better general understanding of something. I began to understand that this was a solution to an issue that the Internet as a whole had been having for some time (and by that, I mean, since I had been on it beginning in the early 1990s) ... the lack of a site where information about some particular subject could be aggregated in one place, on one page. Before Wikipedia you usually had to search through at least three of the top Google results on, say, some historical event you wanted to understand in full. I realized that this was something I could, and should, be a part of.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Hmm. It's hard to say that since I don't see myself as I was then as a new editor as we understand that now. Basically, a lot of editors were new editors then. There were less rules, less policies ... It was sort of the late Planck time of Wikipedia (in the sense that the physical laws of the universe did not exist during the first Planck unit after the Big Bang). I didn't feel like I needed help; I got the sense that I would learn at my own pace, and if I didn't, I wouldn't edit so much.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? See above.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Yes.
Were you involved with WikiEd? Not directly. I do let instructors and students know when they've chosen to work on articles I have watchlisted, in a friendly "let me know if I can help you" way.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I have edited from my iPad, but never a phone. I just don't see a display that small as up to my editing needs.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? On 2 November 2006.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I started by expanding an article on Mamer, the place where I live in Luxembourg, as I thought it needed attention.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? It might have helped to have had access to the kind of introductory information now available in welcome messages (which I now use frequently for new users) but I was happy enough just to work on the basis of what I found other people were doing. This proved to be a pretty good way of coping with Wikipedia editing.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I had no welcome but as the months went by, I received constructive advice on my talk page. I was amazed almost a year later when Iroise Sea was promoted to DYK. I can't recall anything that didn't work but I had to overcome a few difficulties when adding images to Commons. I remember I was particularly encouraged by the interest Dr. Blofeld began to show in my articles in mid-2010.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Yes, but as I am now 80 I don't think I'll be creating as many new articles as I used to.
Were you involved with WikiEd? Not directly but I try to encourage new WikiEdu users and instructors and follow their progress. It's an excellent initiative.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? No. The screen is too small and I prefer to make use of the features available in desktop mode. Nevertheless, as it now looks as if the majority of new users come in from the mobile environment, I think every effort should be made to improve its effectiveness.--Ipigott (talk) 07:15, 4 December 2023 (UTC)
When did you start editing Wikipedia? 2018 apparently. But I really started getting involved when the Covid-19 lockdown hit.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? Well, when the lockdown hit I suddenly had a bunch of time on my hands. And since then I've really started to believe in and care about the project. Before that I had from time to time noticed that certain articles in my area of expertise, or which my students were coming to me and asking about, were slanted toward fringe POVs, but I had never really thought about making more than minor corrections. Then slowly I came to realize that there was a community here that would help me once I began to show some initiative –– that I wasn't in it alone. Over time this support gave me confidence to branch out far beyond my own academic area, which is probably my favorite thing about editing here. It challenges me to be constantly expanding my horizons.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I suppose I would have reached out for help more. I didn't even realize that Teahouse existed for a long time. Like a lot of people I learned about P&G by being told I was doing something wrong. I'm glad to see that these days so many new editors get welcome messages, but somehow that missed me.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? As I said above, not really. But I quickly identified editors I wanted to emulate. Often they were the ones who corrected me with kindness during my early talk page forays (looking at you, Crossroads) or showed tremendous wisdom and poise in the way they handle contentious topics (Doug Weller is top of my list) or toiled quietly to thwart harmful fringe-pushing in the face of relentless trolling (NightHeron deserves a freaking medal for this).
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? I do.
Were you involved with WikiEd? Nope.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Nope. I'm old-fashioned and prefer not to stare at my phone.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? To edit an article about a research subject.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? If? Time travelerist. But actually nothing, I just jumped on in without practice or much thought (essential tools for time travel).
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? No
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Sure
Were you involved with WikiEd? Never heard of it until communicating with a few students on their talk pages.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? No, mainly on chesttop, which I'd recommend for ease of ease. Have experienced the internet on a phone maybe a handful of times, and have never looked at Wikipedia on mobile (so as not to carry Wikipedia addiction around with me).
When did you start editing Wikipedia? 30 October 2012 (however I started editing as an IP in 2009)
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I've always loved writing/editing about biomedicine or any other topic (however, in 2013 the West Africa Ebola virus occurred and that's when I really took off)
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Yes there would have been a couple of editing details that would have helped to have known, however to be frank like all things we learn by doing
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Yes, Doc James (he was/is a very valuable editor)
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Yes
Were you involved with WikiEd? No
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? No, I mainly edit on laptop/desktop (its just more comfortable for me)
Feel free to also share anything else you wish to :)...I hope WikiJournal gets its own sister project [3]
Some time early in 2005 or thereabouts, as an anonymous IP user. I registered an account 2005-11-14.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
I started as an anon mostly fixing typos and other minor errors. I started an account later to work on content that needed to be created or vastly improved, mostly (in my early days) coverage of cue sports topics.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
Summaries and pointers regarding basic policies and such. We now have this pretty well covered with ((subst:Welcome)). Also more material on how the community works, socially. I think the welcome template could be improved in that regard, though it is already link-heavy.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
I didn't have anything like a mentor, but I asked for help when I needed it. I figured out how to navigate around pretty quickly. What worked well was that WP is very well-documented, and well-arranged. It's a lot of material to read and try to absorb, if you treat it like a book, but it is primarily reference material that one searches for (and inside) for answers to specific kinds of questions. (And I've devoted a substantial amount of my volunteer time to maintaining and improving it.)What didn't work too well for me at first was the subcultural learning curve, of becoming fully competent in an e-social collaboration. There wasn't much available that helped (mostly lots of rules people would throw at you, and various really sarcastic essays). I arrived here both as a long-term veteran of Usenet, which was basically a debate platform, and as a professional activist (activism is basically more debate, combined with advocacy of a viewpoint). I was extremely argumentative early on, wanted things my way, and had little respect for others' time, feelings, or reasoning; it was more about "Someone is wrong on the Internet"[4] for me at first, as a matter of habit, that on genuinely working on an encyclopedia. In 2005 to 2006, I didn't actually take the project seriously at all; the very notion of an encyclopedia anyone could edit aiming to be the repository of the entire world's knowledge seemed like a silly pipe dream and I expected it to collapse pretty quickly. I didn't get serious about it until 2007-ish, around when Wikipedia was starting to become a real force of knowledge and one of the most-used websites in the world. I didn't start moderating my tone and approach until the early 2010s, though.After a lot of adjustment and reflection, as well as absorbing the "Wiki way" a lot more, I wrote up WP:HOTHEADS, as the essay I had really needed when I first arrived here. I hope it has been and will continue to be helpful to various other people; while Usenet is not really relevant any more, social media has taken its place and is likewise dominated by "argument for sport" with little regard for others' time and sensibilities. Today, I have a lot of faith in this project as one of the premier sources of information on the planet, and I pursue WP:NPOV almost to a fault (my work as a professional activist has made me highly alert to advocacy coming from other quarters).
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
Definitely. This is a major hobby for me that, as I get on in years, is shifting more towards something that feels like a legacy. I don't have children, so doing something for the public good speaks to both my activist side and my feeling that I need to leave a positive mark with the time that I have. It's not the only project I have in this regard (e.g. I have a family-history website I run), but it is nevertheless one that is dear to me.
Were you involved with WikiEd?
I'm not sure if that means Wiki Education Foundation or Wikipedia:Education program, but I haven't really been involved with either. I did go to one of the international Wiki conferences (in DC), and some local meet-ups back in the 2010s.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
Barely. I find it pretty unmanagable, and it's unsuited (to me) for doing things much more complicated than a typo fix or a very short talk-page response. But maybe I'm just too old, with too-stubby fingers and too-poor eyesight. I gather that some younger editors who've had a cellphone in their hads since they were babies do it all the time. I use a desktop computer, with a huge monitor that is good for having sources and an article open side-by-side, and I can type (on a real keyboard) nearly as fast as I can think. — SMcCandlish☏¢ 😼 13:58, 4 December 2023 (UTC)
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I created my account in July of 2008, and other than a few intermittent bouts of editing in 2009/2010, I only really properly started editing in 2015.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I was probably bored in IT class at school to start with, but then found the idea of free to access knowledge appealed to me on a personal level.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Better tutorials, easier signposting to "things to do" other than "write an article".
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Probably, though the only name I can remember is Cobaltbluetony, to whom I will be forever grateful for welcoming me (and not blocking me for being an annoying kid way back when!)
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Quite probably, in one form or another
Were you involved with WikiEd? No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I have, quite extensively too! It's tricky to say the least (though when I do use mobile, I switch on the desktop interface — the mobile interface has always been a little rough..!)
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I consider October 2019 to be the start of my Wikipedia journey.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I started out doing anti-vandalism. Still do, rather occasionally though. I read policy pages and guidelines before doing almost anything because I was always scared of making edits, thinking someone would get mad at me for doing something wrong.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Mentorship, or at least someone to bug with "hey, am I doing this right?" Beneath the jungle of policy and guideline pages, you're mostly on your own in trial-and-error. I think the Growth team is doing valiant work in trying to remove the friction between new and experienced users; the mentorship module seems to be a step in the right direction.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I mostly had to learn everything on my own as a new editor. This sucked when it came to anything that wasn't written down. Editing in WikiProject Tropical cyclones was a memorable example of this; I had to learn a lot of things that were untold, undocumented traditions. Even then, it took a while for me to get comfortable with talking in public fora. Eventually, when I started being more active on Discord, it finally felt like I wasn't a lone editor on an island.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Definitely. Wikimedia fully aligns with my values, and I do think that free knowledge is a necessity in the modern world. Be it here or other open-source projects, I'll probably be here for the long ride.
Were you involved with WikiEd? Nope.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I have, quite a few times. There's three kinds of editing on mobile: editing with the desktop mode, editing on m.wikipedia.org, and editing on the apps. Ranking by experience, it's the reverse of the aforementioned order. Editing on the app is good; it's smooth and it's a better experience than editing without highlighting. Editing on the mobile site is somewhat okay; it's not the best but it's stable enough for any page that isn't extremely huge. Editing on desktop mode... syntax highlighting and source editor are both unusable. The only good option there is to use the old edit form, but the text is extremely tiny for a phone. Maybe when anti-vandalism rolls out on the app, I'll edit more on mobile.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?:I came to Wikipedia to find out who the new VP candidate in the American Presidential race, Sarah Palin, was.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?:I'd only been here a week or so when I discovered what I called Wikipedia's "lost souls". As with most "newbies" (I would guess) I was jumping here and there and everywhere. Reading articles, discovering the lay of the land, creating an acceptable user page, daring to make the occasional edit. And, also, looking for acceptance and maybe a little guidance. I visited many user pages to be able to get a feel for an editor and about their WP experience. All too often what I found was an editor that had given up..."I fought the good fight, but enough is enough", "..the attacks become too personal, too mean-spirited...", "...and, I didn't sign up for this". And they left...never to be seen again. So I began to reach out to the disillusioned, to be a cohort and a friend. That mindset eventually evolved into Editor Retention and the Editor of the Week awards.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?:I learned mostly by observation. I spent many hours wandering around, linking here and there in a constant state of discovery. When I found articles on my country of birth, I reached out to a veteran editor for guidance. I was lucky enough to stumble upon an editor that was entrenched in the subject, and he held my hand thru the forest of possible pitfalls. Even now, when I visit his page to respond here, I see he is still active as a teacher and guide to newbies, I'm happy to see so many editors here that assisted me along the way. Faceless teachers and friends that fill WikiWorld with goodness.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?: Other editors above have mention Legacy. I have 14 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. In some ways what I have done here is a journal to who I am. One cog in the wheels that make WP a place to be proud of.
Were you involved with WikiEd?:No. I was a WikiGuide for a short while.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?: Never even tried. Only rarely do I read articles on my cell phone.
When did you start editing Wikipedia?: November 2013
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?: I read about the controversy of women being deleted from categories, and the wider gender gap on Wikipedia, and decided to help out closing that gender gap. I started out in the Mind the Gap Wikiproject on nlwiki.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?: Don't know. I quickly became engaged with the "GA/FA" equivalent process on nlwiki, and that type of early feedback was great. I always encourage new people to take that route. Maybe I could have been encouraged to make the step towards enwiki earlier, as I was unsure about my language capabilities at the time.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Looking at my talk page at the time (nl:Overleg gebruiker:Femke/Archief 2014), I see that people were really friendly when I made mistakes, and they were okay with me as a newbie disagreeing with them. I think that many of the errors I made on nlwiki would have gotten me a templated response here, which would have been less personal and encouraging.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Yes
Were you involved with WikiEd? No, even though I am trying to involve Wikipedia in my own teaching next year, but outside WikiEd's scope in the UK.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I often edit on mobile, and I'm almost always frustrated. Sitting is occasionally difficult with long COVID, so mobile is sometimes my only option, but it's a painful experience. The 'add topic' button always blinks rapidly, it's difficult to revert edits (and quickly reverting vandalism would be an easy thing to add for mobiles), the reply-tool is buggy (when I start typing, delete my sentence, and continue anew, I can't post). I should really open some phabs for this.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? It was a distraction from a job I was in that I hated.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Nothing really. My earliest edits were about where I live, and now close to 20 years later, that's still what I write about.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I was on my own
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Yup. For a while, I went deep down the admin rabbit hole, particularly sock hunting, but recently I've gone back to content creation.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Almost never. Software issues aside, I don't see how anybody can do any serious editing on a tiny screen and no real keyboard.
Feel free to also share anything else you wish to :). Back in that very early "I hated my job" era, I remember being frustrated because our Fortune-500 IT department had spent months trying to figure out how to set up an internal wiki for the engineering team who desperately wanted one. So I grabbed some junk PC, stood up a LAMP stack and MediaWiki instance and announced it on the internal engineering mailing list. Took me about a day. It was a big hit with the engineers. Pissed off the IT folks. I considered both of those a win.
User:isaacl – December 4, 2023
When did you start editing Wikipedia? January 2006.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? To make copy edits, add information and citations, and deal with unverified information.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I can't think of what might have helped me within the specific context of how the Wikipedia community was structured then and how it evolved. I can't remember how I learned about WikiProjects (perhaps while trying to figure out how to get more contributors to a discussion on an article's talk page?). I was fortunate that some of my areas of interest had active associated WikiProjects, and so I was able to benefit from their communities.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I used the Wikipedia documentation for assistance. Once I tried to contact the person who left a welcome message on my talk page, to request advice, but never received a response.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? I don't know, as I've found it onerous to contribute, for reasons discussed at User:Isaacl/Community § Structural issues. In 2011 I posted a comment regarding the problems with good-faith editors being outnumbered, and how the joy of editing is quickly sucked away by the risk that any edit, no matter how minor, can turn into an interminable discussion. Good-faith editors are always expected to be conciliatory, which gives less-cooperative editors an innate advantage, particularly with a rotating set of discussion participants who may not know the background of earlier discussions.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? To my recollection, I've made a miniscule number of comments using a tablet, and no edits using a phone. I prefer to use a full keyboard together with a larger screen for editing.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? 2016 I think, I'd have to look it up. I feel like it was only a couple of years ago, but coming up to a decade soon. Time flies
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? Well, don't laugh, but I'm very much not fantastic with the written word. Shock. Horror. You cannot believe it. I started work on Wikipedia to bring my prose into line, or at least write about things I liked/cared about rather than irrelevant writing tasks
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? it's not a new editor thing, but I think everyone needs to hear it - it's not worth dying on a hill. Nothing is. You can't make Wikipedia "right", you need to work with others and make the page/article/item better. On the flip side, don't think that because you are just one editor, you can't make a difference to any page/project.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I don't really remember. I remember feeling like the site was a bit of a minefield and wanting to inform others of the little things and how they worked. It's why I edited the Help desk even as a new editor
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? Keep editing - yes. I have been continuously active to quite high levels since I started and recently took my first break. I'll always come here to edit, but sometimes it's prudent to re-evaluate.
Were you involved with WikiEd? I'm not involved with WikiEd, I don't really know how it works
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I suspect I am one of the primary users of mobile view on the site. I have written FAs on mobile and probably edit 80/20 on mobile/PC nowadays. I wrote this from my phone.
When did you start editing Wikipedia?: December 23rd, 2021, weird to think it's just coming up on two years. I was 18 and in college at that point.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?: Somebody was wrong on the internet! More specifically, I saw the article Conversion therapy made no references to trans people at all. Knowing that every medical organization is explicit that conversion therapy can be practiced based on gender identity as well as sexual orientation, I decided to update the article so it wasn't decades out of date. Then I saw how out of date other articles were, how some notable groups didn't have articles at all, and I just kept editing and never stopped.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?: A few things lol. 1) I wouldn't have chosen the username "TheTranarchist" - it got me a lot of flak. 2) I wish people were more honest about Wikipedia's shortcomings - if people had linked to cynical observations such as WP:POVRAILROAD, WP:CGTW, and WP:BAIT I would have learned about them the easy way instead of the hard way. Generally, there are a lot of unwritten rules about the social dynamics of this place. 3) It would have nice if I was warned that minorities documenting discrimination must be 100% perfect editors from the jump instead of 98%. 4) User:Barkeep49/Friends don't let friends get sanctioned
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?: Yes and no to the first question. My first attempt at fixing the conversion therapy article was to update the lead. Mathglot left a message on my talk page explaining why I shouldn't have done that and gave me useful tips and advice on editing Wikipedia. So I updated the body first per WP:LEADFOLLOWSBODY. Since then I did things fairly self-directedly and without input from others since I didn't find it hard to grok WP:RS and WP:NPOV. But that bit of advice helped me get there and I think speaks well to the benefit of personalized advice and tips given to newbie editors when making mistakes as opposed to biting them.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?: Absolutely! I usually love editing here, find most of my peers here collaborative and helpful, and it feels good to do good work. Our coverage of queer topics (and my secondary interest tenant activism in NYC) are still woefully behind the sources, from medical articles to those on history, so I'll do my part to help that. Not to mention, too many hate groups, LTAs, trolls, and etc want to see me gone for me to dream of giving them the satisfaction.
Were you involved with WikiEd?: No. Having seen a few classes taught through it, I think it's a valuable endeavor though prone to introducing some newbie mistakes. I think it would be best if a few experienced editors volunteered for each class to supervise and give tips/advice.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?: Yes, rarely, for the occasional reply on talk pages. I generally avoid it because it's nowhere near as powerful as a computer where I have all the functionality, the ability to have my sources/research open in the background, and a keyboard.
Other thoughts?: 1) WP:CESSPIT should not link to WP:ANI. That is to say, until ANI is fixed, we should make the main title CESSPIT and have ANI be the redirect so people know what they're getting into. 2) Relatedly, bans should be as targeted as possible and a last resort after previous warnings since punitive and overly broad bans drive editors away. 3) WP:PROFRINGE/WP:RGW editors should be shown the door, even if they're civil, as they drain editor time and enthusiasm 4) A big thanks to Clovermoss for organizing this and giving us the opportunity to reflect and share!
When did you start editing Wikipedia? 2005. During college. I had one period of activity around college where I picked up a couple thousand edits. Then I went dormant for no particular reason. Then in 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns happened, and I suddenly had all this free time, so I stumbled back into this. Have been very active ever since.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I'm a curious person. I think I would google things, and google would take me to Wikipedia articles. If I'm reading something with obvious copy editing mistakes, and you give me an edit button, it's kind of hard not to fix the mistakes :)
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Finding Discord or a Discord equivalent sooner. Onwiki has a white collar office vibe sometimes. Lots of serious business. You better not mess up or you're gonna hear about it. Discord is more like the break room, where you can casually chat with folks, have interesting conversations, go off-topic, swap gossip, and make friends. I think having that "break room" and those friendships is important for keeping people around.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I was pretty much on my own for the first 15 years. I didn't forge any strong friendships or have any mentors. Luckily I think my personality is fairly slow and careful, so my experience is atypical because my user talk page didn't get littered with warnings. I think new pages patrol was the turning point. Having WP:NPPSCHOOL with the most experienced patroller, Onel5969, gave me an actual mentor for once. Later, I was approached by the NPP coordinators and ended up being asked to join the team. That was a turning point. I'm not sure why, but after that I didn't feel like I was on a wiki-island anymore, and lots of networking happened.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Definitely. Will probably be a lifetime hobby for me. The amount of both breadth and depth of this online community is incredible. There is always something to do. There's content creation, maintenance stuff, and technical stuff. Each of those is a massive area full of adventures and things to do.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Out of necessity when I'm laying in bed or out of the house, I'll edit on mobile. I'll open Firefox for Android, tick "Desktop Mode", and turn it to landscape orientation, mimicking a desktop computer. Typing makes my fingers tired though. And the keyboard in landscape mode takes up like 75% of the screen. It's quite inefficient. Also this GBoard bug makes it hard to use DiscussionTools on mobile for anything longer than a sentence or two. Also, Firefox for Android has a bunch of bugs related to forgetting a tab is in desktop mode, which means I have to re-open my tab a lot.
I also want to say it's really cool reading everyone's stories and wiki-journeys on this page :) Feel free to contact me if you have any comments.
I first started editing Wikipedia probably when I was about 10 years old. I'm 22 now. I created this account in 2011, but then my account was blocked in 2013 for vandalism. After multiple appeals spanning 1 year, my account was successfully unblocked in 2019 and have been editing Wikipedia ever since.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
I don't know my exact reasons for why I started editing Wikipedia. I've always felt that things could get better on Wikipedia and I felt like if I didn't do something about it, it will never get done. I edit Wikipedia now because I can easily see problems in articles that can be fixed either boldly or with consensus.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
I think if I listened to other editors to begin with in 2013 regarding discussing my edits on the talk page, I would have avoided the block I got in 2013. Considering that this was before my teen years, I didn't have the maturity back then to edit Wikipedia. Nowadays, I can edit Wikipedia without any major issues. I know that I can always ask for help on Wikipedia whenever I need it now.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
I think in my five years in being active on Wikipedia, I have been a productive editor for much of my time. I have made a ton of mistakes editing Wikipedia, but the important thing is to learn from them. I have spent years working on this. There were times when other editors were frustrated with my editing and I try to explain my actions and make amends with them.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
I think for the most part, I will be an active editor for years to come. However, my activity levels will change with time depending on what my real life circumstances are.
Were you involved with WikiEd?
I was never involved with WikiEd.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
I have edited on mobile plenty of times although I prefer desktop editing. I tried using the Wikipedia app for editing, but found that I prefer editing on the mobile Wikipedia website in my mobile browser. I think it is not as user friendly as it is on the computer, but it is doable.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
There's tons of policy pages, guidelines, supplementary info pages, help pages, essays and more, but 1) they are not always easy to find, and 2) I had no sense which were the really important ones to get on board with first, so a prioritization scheme, or reading program, would've helped.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
Yes, a cross-wiki copyright issue about plagiarism at de-wiki that was then translated over to en-wiki, forced me to hit the ground running, and having to issue copyright takedowns in two languages right at the start. I had help at both ends from helpful editors, who had to research the issue themselves because they hadn't run into it before.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
Till I drop, or can't type anymore. On second thought, in the latter case, I'll use voice accessibility features, or blink my eyes or something if I have locked-in syndrome.
Were you involved with WikiEd?
Yes, a fair bit, but not in any official capacity; I just like helping out when I can, either the students directly, or occasionally supporting the Wikipedia experts with technical stuff or when they're overtaxed, and I occasionally bring stuff of general interest to the WP:ENB.
P.S. Why is this question in the past tense? Wiki Ed is alive and kicking, and I'm still (informally) involved.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
Yes. It's okay, but I prefer laptop as I touch-type rapidly on a wide kb. That said, voice-to-text is getting heaps better on mobile, including punctuation and style commands, but not quite to the point where follow-up editing to fix transcription errors is as fast as typing on a laptop, but it's getting there. I often edit articles which involve a lot of foreign phrases, and voice-to-text isn't too great for that yet. (If it's *just* a foreign language article, that works; it's when it's in two languages that it's problematic via voice; maybe there's a keyboard-switching voice command I need to learn.) Cullen328 is the go-to person for this question, and I see you already have his response above. Looks like he was too modest to link his fine essay on Smartphone editing, so I will. Mathglot (talk) 02:43, 5 December 2023 (UTC)
Feel free to also share anything else you wish to :)
Didn't see this one at first, because it isn't preloaded from your button. One of the core policies talks about cross-wiki collaboration; I forget where, or maybe it's on meta. In any case, I've always been interested in more cross-wiki collaboration, whether simple translation back and forth, or more complex issues like a triple-Afd at en-wiki, es-wiki, and fr-wiki that got rid of three articles interconnected thru Wikidata, cross-wiki spam or advocacy, such as the Organized interference at Wikipedia by the Zemmour campaign for President of France which took place (at least) at en-wiki, fr-wiki, and it-wiki. One of the tasks I've taken on is to promote more cross-wiki collaboration, although I don't have nearly as much time for it as I'd like. updated by Mathglot (talk) 04:08, 5 December 2023 (UTC)
When did you start editing Wikipedia?: I created my account on September 22, 2009 though my first edit was almost a year later on September 6, 2010.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?: I don't quite remember but I liked the idea of being able to add or fix information that I came across.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?: I don't believe I received one of those welcome templates such as Template:Welcome or Template:Welcome-retro which I think would have been helpful.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?: It was very much a "figure it out as I go along" kind of situation as I recall and figuring out where to find relevant information was the biggest hurdle. Once I had that down it became much easier.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?: I do, I've got about 10 articles in text files in various states of readiness (none of them ready) and there's always something more to do on-wiki as well.
Were you involved with WikiEd?: No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?: I have edited on a mobile device a handful of times and it's not my preferred way of doing things for sure. At this point when I do use it, it's mostly for talk page comments.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? April 2007, but got much more active in mid-2012
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I wanted to update articles about my favorite ice hockey team, the San Jose Sharks (I discussed this in a 2015 interview)
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Honestly, writing classes. I sucked at writing and now I suck a little less. Oh, I also didn't know where the "|" character was on my keyboard, I spent MONTHS copy and pasting it from other places in articles.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Kind of, I think the most important thing was that I made friends through the Artemis Fowl WikiProject (RIP) and discovered IRC, where I could chat with people. Some of the things I did back then I look back at as cringe (ugh, my signature was unreadable) but am glad that people gave me space to grow into the editor I am now.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Yep. My activity will be irregular, but it's fun.
Were you involved with WikiEd? Nope
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Yeah, I occasionally make small fixes from my phone these days, it mostly works. I'm amazed at how much people can type/input from their phones, but it's not really for me, I'm too used to having a full keyboard at my disposal.
Thanks for doing this! Legoktm (talk) 06:44, 5 December 2023 (UTC)
My initial interest in Wikipedia was reading articles on music I was interested in. When I discovered that it was an encyclopedia that "anyone can edit", I created a user and slowly began to work on some of these articles.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
An introduction to wiki markup and MOS – I had to work all this out myself. It was only later that I found pages that definitely would have helped me, but at the time I didn't know about them.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
Not at first, but it wasn't long before other editors would kindly point out mistakes I was making.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
Definitely.
Were you involved with WikiEd?
No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
I've looked at it, but haven't pursued it. I find the small screen too restrictive for content development.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? As the infobox on my user page says: 2 August 2009
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I saw a red link and thought: "Even highlighted", and clicked and found that I was expected to do that ;) - The article had several other red links to fill ... and no end in sight.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? see below
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Within minutes after I hit the help-button, I was helped by cmadler who not only rescued my deleted first article, but helped to add to it, even finding sources, and brought it to DYK. He left, and I miss him. The user who had deleted it gave me my first barnstar, for resiliance, when it appeared on 22 August. - Within days after joining, I met Michael Bednarek and Jerome Kohl, - what else would you need? Collaboration is the project's best asset.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? yes - see category on my user page
Were you involved with WikiEd? no
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? no - reading yes, to see how our articles come across there.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? Some time in 2015
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I needed something to keep myself occupied in class that didn't look like a video game...
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Having a mentor that was willing to engage in dialogue, or literally just anyone to talk to. So many questions with simple answers went unasked.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? What worked was making mistakes, and then being exceptionally polite when they were corrected.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? "If not me, then who?"
Have you ever been involved with WikiEd? Absolutely not.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Only small things. I mostly use it to keep tabs on my watchlist when I am away from a computer.
I started editing Wikipedia quite recently. I created my account on the New Year of 2022 and made my first edit two days later. (while spamming the Random article button)
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
I don't remember exactly what made me start editing Wikipedia, but it was something about a friend who also started editing 3-4 months before.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
Probably knowing the rules better.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
I didn't get too much help as a new editor, although the mistakes eventually got me to realise how Wikipedia works. I spent a long time on a userpage that eventually got deleted, and had a hard time making a draft that got rejected.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
I think so, as I usually edit on a regular basis.
Were you involved with WikiEd?
No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
In my opinion, mobile is significantly harder to edit on. I remember doing it a few times when just starting, although I prefer using my Mac to edit. I've also tried using my iPad to edit for a GA review when on holiday. 141Pr {contribs} 16:57, 5 December 2023 (UTC)
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I joined Wikipedia a little over a year ago (13 October 2022).
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I am very supportive of free knowledge and thought I could help fill in some gaps in the encyclopedia.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Not everything is notable! I dived head-first into article creation, which is ironic because I now discourage new editors from taking that path. A couple of the articles I created early on were merged on notability counts, but that was more my fault for being slightly too bold. Other than that, I remember making some NPOV mistakes based on my enthusiasm for some subjects, as well as some other mistakes that seem painful to look at now. I think the mentorship function is good for these little questions, and would have liked to have it as a beginner.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I had some help from the Teahouse (which was very helpful and friendly) and feedback from AfC, although I eventually started bypassing AfC after becoming autoconfirmed. Following an early AfD of the third article I developed, the door to the backspace of Wikipedia was blown right open: I remember a feeling of wonder at seeing a whole community with noticeboards, elections, (not)votes, an arbitration system and several help boards (which I used). Even now I consider myself a relative beginner and often seek help from admins.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? I hope to keep editing here for a while! I have a lot of things I want to share, and maintenance work always needs doing.
Were you involved with WikiEd? I have never been involved with WikiEd other than in a New Pages Patrol capacity.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? My use of mobile editing is quite strange: I started writing articles on my iPhone, spending two months before ever using the desktop editor. I didn't see mobile editing as that bad then, but now I don't use it except for talk pages and small fixes. For me, desktop editing is much more productive (even if I did write several articles solely on mobile).
I started semi-regular editing in the Summer of 2019 and my contributions increased immensely amid COVID-19 in March 2020. Apparently, I did a few random edits in 2018, which I only vaguely recall.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
I ask myself this a lot, and I'm still not really sure. The article that brought me was Orlando Gibbons. I loved some of his music and saw how poor his article was, especially compared to laudable composer FAs such as Berlioz and Monteverdi—I guess I figured if no one else had improved it ~20 years, that person had to be me. The article that made me stay though, was the Portrait of a Musician. I found the painting captivating and loved reading about it. All I figured is that if I could share the interesting things I'd read with others, why would I not?
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
The intended/ideal design of Wikipedia isn't always reflective of its reality. WikiProjects are mostly completely dead, except for a notable handful; AGF is probably the most ignored policy of all time (and unfortunately, I have succumbed to that ignorance myself many times now); the pressure put on RfA is no where near the pressure it takes to be an admin; each content area has de facto norms, that sometimes contradict site-wide norms, etc.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
I was so unbelievably lucky and grateful to find many experienced editors in my topic areas who were very generous with their time. Some of them reached out to me, but most of them I reached out to myself. I feel like I should name some of them, just because of my immense gratitude: Ceoil, Gerda Arendt, Antandrus, Johnbod, Smerus and Tim riley come to mind.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
I believe so, though I'm certain my output will fluctuate erratically. I feel I'm at a point where I can balance WP editing with much more ease, making it a more sustainable activity for me than perhaps it used to be.
Have you ever been involved with WikiEd?
No, not formally. I've discussed it with certain WikiEd instructors, especially when their students/editors make problematic edits. I think they get a bad rep though—the idea is great and they've had some successes.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
I have occasionally edited for small grammar fixes or reversing vandalism. When it comes to actual content creation, if I'm not in a space/context where I can use my computer, then I probably shouldn't be writing content to begin with. Aza24 (talk) 01:43, 6 December 2023 (UTC)
When did you start editing Wikipedia? April 20, 2020.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
Boredom in school was the reason. A Chromebook for school was my first means of personal access to the internet. It was to be used only for school work obviously, so it had a lot of restrictions, not to mention it was incredibly slow. No games for me!
I always had a fascination with knowledge, especially history. I'm fascinated by the story that's told behind even the most uninteresting things. Take a chair, for example: what is the chair made of? What company made the chair? What company made the nails in the chair? When was it bought? Who built the chair? Where did the person who built the chair go to college? My interest in knowing never stops.
Our school was smart with maintaining the academic purpose of the Chromebooks with heavy restrictions and monitoring. Some teachers were even able to keep open a tab that would show a live feed of everyone's screens. The school also had a system which blocked lots of sites. They had no choice but to keep YouTube unblocked for the teacher's sake, but it's hard to get away with watching videos. Because of all of this, Chromebooks for entertainment usage was kept to just being a wall that would cover someone's propped-up phone from the teacher so they can watch anime on Netflix. Luckily for me, I found entertainment in unentertaining things. An open Wikipedia tab just looks like I'm researching for a project; there's nothing entertaining about Wikipedia, after all. I thought, how hard could it be to edit? Many of the articles that discussed things I enjoyed had lackluster information, so I pitched in.
COVID-19 struck, and I found myself doing nothing at home except school on my Chromebook at all times. Our school's musical production of Legally Blonde was cancelled, but on the bright side virtual learning was incredibly easy. Our school used Edgenuity as our education platform of choice. Edgenuity had its problems. I was able to open up the required videos in a new window and have them play in the background, and every quiz and test had all the answers ripped and put on Quizlet. With nothing to do sitting around on my computer all day Wikipedia became much more appealing, and when I found out that Edgenuity didn't have an article, I got right on that; that's right, my first edits were creating an article for some reason, which is early signs of a WikiDragon if I've seen it. I had no idea what I was doing, but I had to write it. Edgenuity has a bunch of weird rabbit holes of lobbying, pushing Christian morals, and a whole lot of complaining nationwide. Hence, it was the perfect starting project (of course it wasn't because writing an article is the hardest thing to do on this site, but it was perfect for me).
I had two main restrictions working against: one, my computer could not handle much, so I had to keep a limited amount of tabs opens, sometimes even sacrificing unfinished schoolwork tabs just to to continue my rabbit hole of research. WP:FAC was impossible to open and would crash my computer, and Wikipedia:Nominations viewer would not run in time to save it. Two, many websites are blocked on school grounds. It was mostly an automated process of what was blocked I believe, but it was incredibly strict. I edit for WP:VG, and many reliable video game sources were blocked altogether. My workaround to this was viewing the cached versions of websites, which would give me all the information in pretty much complete unformatted text. See my first GA where IceWelder noted some of my URL refs were cached, and User:Littleghostboo/Story#Chapter XV: The Disaster where I reference this.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
Honestly, I of course made mistakes, but I wouldn't really change anything about my experience. It can be hard to get into the swing of things but I never found anything keeping me from realizing my potential.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
When did you start editing Wikipedia? On 17 February 2005, when I was aged 17.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I had always been fascinated with encyclopedias since I was young but I had very limited access to them due to my blindness. Wikipedia and the Internet in general have levelled this playing field somewhat. I'd previously been reading Wikipedia for a few months through a mirror, The Free Dictionary, so when I finally realised that anyone could correct entries on the original Wikipedia, I jumped at the chance. I love correcting people and Wikipedia's one of the few places where this trait is generally appreciated!
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I don't know, honestly. I had always thought of Wikipedia as a giant puzzle to be solved piece by piece, in terms of both figuring out what content was already there (in terms of articles and other namespaces) and how to interact with it (often by copying existing code). I had always enjoyed being an online lurker so learning as I went like this suited me.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Not a huge amount, but people were generally kind to me once they understood that some of my editing idiosyncrasies were caused by my usage of a screen reader.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Absolutely.
Have you ever been involved with WikiEd? Nope, except when edits by their students have come up on my watchlist.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Nope, I have a smartphone but I don't use it anywhere near as often as my PC. Many blind people use mobile technology more than I do, via screen readers such as VoiceOver on iOS and TalkBack on Android, but I can't deal with touchscreens well due to motor issues and using smartphones with a bluetooth keyboard is relatively clunky (compared to the desktop experience).
I saw an error and fixed it. It seems like a long time ago, it is a long time ago, and I'm not sure whether I made some IP edits before I created an account. But that edit button was an invitation to indulge my inner pedant, and still is.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
Auto sign on talkpages. Four tildas, seriously? What is a tilda, isn't that a brand of rice?
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
I got a welcome, and it did introduce me to the concept of tilda not just being a brand of rice. But it didn't directly explain how to reference an edit. Mind you this was early 2007, adding unreferenced info was still normal. Many months after the welcome I want to say Hi to my welcomer, who by then was blocked. I learned much in that incident both about the way we run internally and that whether or not a block is justified, a blocked member of the community may have done good stuff and should be treated as someone who has freely contributed time to the project.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
Yes, I have been around for sixteen years and people are still getting confused between calvary and cavalry. My mission is not yet done, and probably will outlive me.
Have you ever been involved with WikiEd?
Probably. I have helped out as a trainer at many editathons, mostly GLAM but at least two university ones which could or should have come under WikiEd. They were both very impressive events, lots of enthusiastic students editing, I would happily volunteer to help at something similar if it was in London.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
Yes, two edits, about fifteen minutes apart, the second reverting the first. I am unlikely to try again - smartphones are not my forte. I used to be proficient at making punchcards at work, so I'm not techphobic, But there was a gap of about twenty years between my last use of a punched card and my first edit on Wikipedia.
Feel free to also share anything else you wish to :)
I had no idea when I first edited that this was starting something that would become so important in my life. But we should never forget that we have a vast pool of readers out there, many of whom are or could be occasional editors. I'm part of many volunteer groups in real life, including ones where someone who turns up for a couple of hours most months is considered very active. One of my worries is that we can seem a tad cliquey to people who are happy to give us an evening every month. ϢereSpielChequers 10:28, 7 December 2023 (UTC)
My wife suggested I look up something on it. I'd vaguely heard of it. I started editing, and went "hmm, new form of online crack discovered."
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
Not sure. Everything was so new then.
I was the press volunteer in the UK in the 2000s, and one thing I'd change from then is: just don't talk to the tech press. Keep to educational and academic stuff. Wikipedia wasn't really a tech story IMO.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
By 2004 the site had a lot of its personality, but to a huge extent everyone was still making it up as we went along.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I registered on November 14, 2020, but did not make my first edit until November 20, 2020.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I often went through random pages on Pro-Football-Reference.com and came across the names of some old professional football players who I wanted to know more about. I did a Google search and for some of them I found them at Wikipedia, but others did not have articles. I registered on November 14 to start one of them, but the policies, formatting and code looked too complicated and so I gave up. On November 20, however, I noticed a typo in the article on the History of the Philadelphia Eagles and decided to log back in to correct it. I thought "are there any other articles that could use editing"? After a few other edits that day, I decided to go back and try to write articles on some of those players I had initially given up on. After awhile of comparing code with other articles, I published some of my first work (Odell Stautzenberger was the first in mainspace). I remember telling a friend a few days later "hey I started a few articles on Wikipedia! The code is really complicated though so once I get through all the articles I want I'm probably going to leave." Well, I kept finding new articles to create and about 900 in, there's still a lot more work to be done.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Well, if I knew all the policies and formatting as well as I do now that would've made it easier :) – of course that's impossible; I don't think I would change anything.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Not really to be honest! I never received one of those welcome messages and in the first month of editing I only received two messages: a bot alert notifying me of a problematic image upload and a unsourced edit warning. I only first interacted with anyone in January 2021 when I made a failed WikiProject proposal, but I did receive my first barnstar that month which was uplifting! No one really had much guidance or instruction for me, so I mainly had to learn wiki-style and those things by reading other articles and watching the edits others made to my creations.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? I expect you'll have me for awhile.
Have you ever been involved with WikiEd? No, I have not.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? My first edit, and many of my earliest ones actually were on mobile (I used a tablet of mine), although after the first few days I mostly stopped. It seems according to my contributions list I have not done one since January 2021. I find desktop much easier to use.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? Officially in 2016, but although I was occasionally active in 2019/2020, it didn't really become a hobby until 2022.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I can't actually remember. I think I was just interested in the concept of editing a website, and then gradually I became interested in editing topics—I think Formula One, and then Mongol history.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I think the way it happened worked out pretty well. I do think finding and focusing upon the GA/FA processes really helped guide my edits when I began to become more active. In that respect, I think more active WikiProjects would have helped.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Not really, and I think that helped me, personally.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? No, I intend to get Mongol history to a serviceable level; I've worked on Genghis Khan for the last year, and I think Mongol Empire will be next year's mega-project. Longer than that—who knows?
Have you ever been involved with WikiEd? Only through occasionally engaging with the content they produce. Most is low-quality, although some articles (Synoecism comes to mind) are eminently serviceable afterwards.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Pretty terrible. Referencing is a pain; you accidentally hit the rollback button every so often, etc.
I started editing for real in February 2021, although I had made around a few dozen edits over the years before then.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
I found myself with some time at work when I was monitoring testing systems, but had most of my attention free, so I figured I might as well give it a whirl. In my years of reading the back pages of Wikipedia, as well as various talk pages, I saw that in many cases just a little more input could help break a logjam or another perspective could help forge a compromise. That is why some of my earliest high attention work was with AfDs and RFCs.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
I was unusual in that I had spent years reading the back pages of Wikipedia, so I already had a fair understanding of the policies, guidelines, and culture. That helped me make it through my growing pains stage without getting into too much trouble.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
Not really, no, other than being the type of person who reads through pages of policies and guidelines. For most people I think simpler and more accessible PAGs would be helpful. Even moreso when it comes to contentious topics.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
I do the vast majority of my editing now on mobile. When I started I spent a lot more time at a PC, but circumstances have changed so that is far less common. Right now I'm using a chromebook because doing any significant amount of writing on a phone is less than ideal. I use the desktop site on my phone, as I find both the mobile site and app to offer a far worse editing experience. For most of what I do mobile editing is great. When it becomes an issue is when I'm trying to work on significant article changes or updates, as the lack of ability to quickly swap between multiple tabs, and have multiple sources open at the same time is a pain.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I created my account on the 7th of January, 2014; however, I did not become an active editor until late 2015/early 2016. I was only 16 years old at the time!
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I saw that a fact about my favourite Pokémon was missing from the article where it was listed, and wanted to add it, but noticed my school IP address was blocked. So I created an account, and the rest, as they say, is history... :-)
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Personally, I would not change a thing - I had a very positive experience as a new editor. With that being said, I am conscious of the fact my experience is not a universal one; we could all try to assume a little more good faith from new users sometimes. I'm also a big believer in not using acronyms for policies with new editors - it's much better to explain them in simpler terms so that they can understand and learn, and hopefully stay and contribute some more.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I was incredibly lucky to receive a lot of guidance and support from quite a few experienced editors when I first started out here on Wikipedia - I still recall all their usernames, in fact! I was often commended for my maturity despite my young age, and I learned a lot from them.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Absolutely. I have had to take long breaks in the past for academic reasons (school exams, my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, and my dissertations as part of those degrees), but I have left education now so can devote a lot more time to editing Wikipedia. This has been a hobby of mine for a very long time, and whilst life has its ways and I don't know what the future holds, I don't see this changing.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I have; I made a few edits on the mobile version of Wikipedia in my younger years, but personally find the desktop version of the site easier to use than the mobile version, even on a mobile device. Even then, I worry about accidentally hitting rollback on an edit with my thumb, as the interface is a bit small! On the whole, I prefer to use my computer.
Feel free to also share anything else you wish to :) I hope, going forward, that we as a community continue to work towards making Wikipedia a much more accessible place for disabled and/or neurodivergent readers and editors. There have been many strides in the right direction, however there are still huge barriers, such as new editors having to enter CAPTCHAs when they first start out, and the layout of the new Vector skin. There definitely needs to be more consultation of disabled editors before such large-scale changes are rolled out.
2006? But really, 2008. Please DON'T look at my very first edits, they're... exploratory. I became an administrator after 5 months of serious editing, because that's what you did back then. In 2010 I become a bureaucrat, and joined the Arbitration Committee. I was one of the first global renamers in 2014. I joined the Arbitration Committee again for the 2020 year. In 2021, I began contracting for Wikimedia Foundation as a facilitator and in 2022 was became full-time staff, as the manager of the Committee Support team.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
I grew up watching and re-watching movies like WarGames, Sneakers, Hackers, and spent most of my education as close to computers and "online" spaces as possible. Of course I had Encarta discs, but INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE. It was only natural I'd find my way to people being wrong on the internet Wikipedia, a place where what I know is. If I'm really honest, Wikipedia did represent a network of sorts, not quite a social network, but a knowledge network and superconnector of humans and bots alike. Wikipedia is the embodiment of one of my favourite quotes:
“
Innovation is fostered by information gathered from new connections; from insights gained by journeys into other disciplines or places; from active, collegial networks and fluid, open boundaries. Innovation arises from ongoing circles of exchange, where information is not just accumulated or stored, but created. Knowledge is generated anew from connections that weren't there before. —Meg Wheatley
”
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
There's no deadline: don't take on too much, and leave space in the margins for unexpected events. The edit you want to make can usually wait.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
Lots of help! It was a really lively and collaborative environment. Having a list of people I knew would be available, that were highly active and responsive was nice.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
Yes, though these days I find it harder to find time and space to make volunteer contributions. I'm sure my contributions will wax and wane, but hopefully never cease.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
Heck, almost exclusively these days. I prefer the mobile responsive monobooked interface (mostly because the buttons are where I've always remembered them) (though on my staff account I generally use the default UIs).
I started editing on the 10th of May, 2023, two days after the current account was created. However, I edited once on my old account which I've created in 2020, and once with an IP.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
In 2020, I enjoyed reading articles, so I created my old account but didn't knew that articles are editable. In 2022, noticed missing content, made an edit. Again in 2023, noticed language errors, so I joined Wikipedia and edited regularly.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
Nothing good that would have helped me.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
No, I didn't had help from somebody. I just learned skills as I went.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
Yes
Have you ever been involved with WikiEd?
No (and even don't know what it does).
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
Yes, and really loved editing on mobile. All of my contributions were all made on Android.
When did you start editing Wikipedia?: I made sporadic anti-vandal edits beginning in 2015. I created this account in 2018 as a “serious” attempt at getting into editing.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?: Boredom in school, and some general curiosity. Unlike other flash games and entertainment websites, Wikipedia was unblocked at my school. I had always been interested in seeing what editing “the real deal” would be like— when I was younger, I had edited Fandom Wikias.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?: Having a more senior editor watch out for me. Other than some other anti-vandal editors, I had little interaction with others.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?: Not really. If I asked an admin for help they would, but otherwise I mostly stayed to myself. I did find the Help Desk useful when I asked some questions there, and briefly volunteered for it.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future?: Of course. I might slow down a bit once I’m off Arbcom and satisfied with the state of copyright enforcement however.
Were you involved with WikiEd?: No, although I’ve found the instructors helpful when I’ve run into issues with students.
Have you ever edited on mobile? Why or why not?: Yes, and I’m actually writing this all on my phone right now! Usually I like to edit on my computer though; while mobile phones have gotten more advanced over the years, there’s still some interface issues such as copy and pasting text. For Wiki editing a with precise finger is needed and a keyboard is usually better suited for it.
Apparently, I was bothered enough by a typo on an extremely obscure page to register in 2007, although I don't remember those edits at all. I returned briefly in 2010 to write a COI article on an activity I participated in, then edited sporadically on topics pertaining to STEM women from 2014 on. In 2020 I was following WP's COVID case updates religiously and got upset when someone moved the table to the bottom of the page, so I raised it on the Talk. I also started adding case updates myself. Eventually I came across the noticeboards and discovered I have Strong Opinions on certain P&Gs I didn't know existed, and ended up sticking around to argue about them. That's what I've been doing the last three years.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
See above.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
I remember being confused about where the one article I wrote was -- for a long time I think I was confused about whether it was on my userpage or in mainspace. I did read the main rules but not the MoS, so my article was mostly templated off of related articles that were, apparently, similarly poor in sourcing and content. It would have been helpful to have a chat pop up while I was editing that explained the issues, since I didn't understand user talk pages at the time and only edited in bursts.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
No.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
There's still drama, isn't there?
Have you ever been involved with WikiEd?
No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
Mobile everything is terrible, I do not understand why anyone with the choice would ever edit on their phone. JoelleJay (talk) 21:04, 8 December 2023 (UTC)
Sometime around 2021, I'd have to check my logs to be sure. I made a few edits without an account before I created this account.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
I think I was doing minor fixes to articles and I also did some minor edits to wiktionary.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
Be more careful. I seem to recall making quite a few mistakes by running into things to carelessly. That said, they were resolved fairly easily, so it's not something to worry about too much.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
I had some friendly talk page messages (see here), which helped me with my mistakes.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
I have no plans to stop editing any time soon. If real life gets busy I might become less active, but I try to check in at least once a day.
Have you ever been involved with WikiEd?
No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
I have edited frequently on my tablet. That said, I haven't written an article (ever), which I assume would be harder to do on a mobile device. Normally I just catch up on discussions and occasionally I close CfDs.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? July 4, 2023
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? The article of a town near where I lived was out of date and it bothered me, so I fixed it. I first wanted to edit Wikipedia after someone questioned its credibility and then some Internet personality responded to those accusations and encouraged people to make Wikipedia a better place. From then on, I really wanted to start editing, but I was unsure if I was ready to become an editor quite yet, so I edited some Fandom pages first. Once I started editing, I could not stop, as I wanted to gain various user rights and improve this awesome site.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I needed to understand that Wikipedia is a team effort, and I am not going to be able to improve every article here. I've made other mistakes, but those were more out of policy ignorance than anything else.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? Sort of. I got the standard welcome message and when I made a mistake, a more experienced editor pointed it out, but I really wouldn't call it help. The warning messages looked a bit ominous (they were quite mild) but they've helped me grow in my editing journey.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? As long as I am not busy, I want to continue helping make Wikipedia a better place.
Have you ever been involved with WikiEd? No
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? No, that sounds really uncomfortable and I don't own any mobile devices that can run WP without crashing.
Registered Saturday, July 4, 2009 at 2:29:18 PM, first edit apparently 5 August 2009. It is possible that I edited earlier unlogged from IP address, but that is a long time and many edits ago.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia?
I wanted to add content that was missing, and was unsuitable for Wikitravel where I was quite active at the time. I was involved in the fork to Wikivoyage when IB ruined Wikitravel, which indirectly got me more involved in Wikimedia, and I gravitated to Wikipedia where I found a niche that fitted well. (Actually several, but there is only so much one can do).
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
I don't really know. My steep learning curve was on Wikitravel, which was a much friendlier environment, so I was already familiar with much of the software, and the policies were not incompatible, so quite an easy step. My interests on Wikipedia are mainly in technical and scientific topics, so I fitted in quite smoothly with the encyclopaedic editing environment. I still work on dive site travel articles on Wikivoyage, but they are mostly based on my own research, so get updated when I have done the necessary dives, leaving plenty of time for WP.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
I didn't need a lot. When I needed assistance with coding I asked for it, and it was given. Mostly by User:RexxS, who was unfailingly helpful, technically skilled, and we shared topic interests related to underwater diving.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
Probably, but how much of the future is foreseeable?
Have you ever been involved with WikiEd?
No. I don't think so.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
No. Mobile view is crippled, and I see no reason to punish myself when desktop is available. I had a very nice tablet for a while, but I always used desktop to edit from it. Desktop is excessively cramped on a smartphone, and my vision is not great, so I use my desktop with 23" screen and mouse when possible, and medium sized laptop at other times. I do try to make article layout user friendly for mobile when I think of it.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? Without checking contribs, I remember heavily editing sometime around 2009/2010.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I started following the discovery that articles I was reading had talkpages. Seeing people discuss how pages could be changed made me feel I could contribute.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Despite being thrown a bit into the deep end in a couple of places, I think I was quite lucky overall. The processes I was put into worked and clearly were seen to work (by me). Enough people were watching my talkpage that I received support and advice. When thinking of what I appreciated, I actually focus a bit further on. During an editing break, I received some encouraging messages on my talkpage about my editing. There should be more advantage taken of the social aspects of Wikipedia to provide support.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I was able to learn from participating in talk discussions and getting a feel from what other editors were doing. To link to above, what helped the most was having editors willing to pop into my talkpage every now and then.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? Have dropped out and in before as time has permitted, both overall and within certain areas, but certainly don't feel an urge to cease completely.
Have you ever been involved with WikiEd? I have provided advice/feedback to WikiEd representatives on issues like student topic choice, and provided some advice occasionally as an editor, but not participated outside of that.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? I have tested editing on mobile, I found it dreadful and prone to mistakes. Putting the phone into desktop mode helps a little, but editing seems a bit more complex than mobile can manage.
When did you start editing Wikipedia? I first edited on September 21, 2020.
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I stumbled onto Wikipedia to check out and update weather-related pages, including 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, where I made my first edit, but, I did not know about how to edit back then.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? I should've read notability guidelines prior to creating articles that didn't quite satisfy criteria, or were borderline. This includes several drafts about non-notable sports athletes.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? I helped out with anti-vandalism work, but I also hold myself responsible for additions of largely unsourced content on 1971 Pacific typhoon season, and likely other related pages.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the forseeable future? Of course! I can't see why I can't.
Were you involved with WikiEd? No.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? Yeah, but editing on mobile is painful and I prefer editing on desktop.
Got annoyed at typos. Registered an account because I took the "your IP address will be public" warning seriously.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor?
I think I should have been WP:TROUTed more than I have for the shoddy Great Expectations translation from fr-wiki.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't?
Not really. What worked was working in more minor areas, such that my cluelessness didn't create time-consuming cleanup for others (or future me). Trying to teach myself to write just hasn't worked—all...two? articles I've created are stubs.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future?
For the sake of my mental health—I jest, I jest. Yeah, probably. I really should take a break from it, though, and do some serious reading, so that I have something substantive from WP:RS to contribute.
Have you ever been involved with WikiEd?
No. I did join an edit-a-thon hosted by a school but was too shy to actually engage with those around me. They have an uneviable task, considering working knowledge of en-wiki is not exactly common knowledge, and (too) many teachers don't care if their students don't clean up after themselves.
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not?
I edit on mobile all the time. It just takes some getting used to, as with any other new interface you come across. I do think it's silly that the default mobile editor only previews changes and doesn't show me changes done.
Other thoughts
I think my experience has been weird (so many people start by trying to write an article or are content-oriented in some way) that I'm not sure how widely applicable it is. Not sure how helpful my answers will be, but here they are. Rotideypoc41352 (talk·contribs) 20:47, 11 December 2023 (UTC)
Why did you start editing Wikipedia? I saw a spelling mistake in an article, with an "edit" link nearby.
If you could go back in time, what do you think would've helped you as a new editor? Not sure. Once I'd found the Wikipedia:Typo Team project page I had all the help I needed.
Did you have help as a new editor? What worked and what didn't? After my second spelling fix, User:Abductive sent me a welcome message with fascinating links that set me reading dozens of help and policy pages - a whole new world behind the scenes. From there I started to read the Help Desk, and realised I could answer some of the questions. And exploring the project further I found that the portal namespace was full of rubbish, and began a Recent Changes Patrol there that I continued for several years.
Do you think you'll keep editing for the foreseeable future? I have no plans to stop, but I am getting less able to concentrate as the years go by.
Have you ever been involved with WikiEd? No
Have you ever edited on mobile? If so, what are your thoughts on it? If not, why not? No. On mobile I am a one-finger typist, so I'd need to hook up a keyboard. And a mouse. And a bigger screen.
