Community Engagement Insights/2016-17 Report/Support and Safety

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Community Engagement Insights 2016-17 Report

Key Findings from the Support and Safety team[edit]

To be filled in by the Support and Safety team

Which were your team's most important research questions?

It is very important to our team to get a more specific understanding of which areas of community governance processes are viewed by the communities as needing improvement. As we work on projects related to community health, this sort of insight is very valuable. Particularly, the statistics around tools, policies, and noticeboards indicate that there is important work needed in those areas.

To what extent were these questions answered?

The answers to some of our questions, especially around what type of community processes need improvement (Q113.01-113.07) were overall very close to one another at either around 43% or 50%. This was useful data and lets us know that a large number of people felt they all needed improvement but did not help considerably in pinpointing more specifically which ones to focus on.

What additional analyses does your team need?

Within some of the areas identified in questions 113.01 through 113.07, more layers of detail could help us understand which specific processes and tools are working well, and which are failing. This would help us better target problem areas, as well as identifying good processes to emulate and reproduce across different projects and communities.

Which questions surprised your team?

Though it shouldn’t come as a surprise, we were interested to see how many people had interacted with specific processes within our team (e.g. emergency reporting (Q. 120)). We were concerned by how many people felt they had not been consulted properly on Wikimedia Foundation decisions (Q.139.03). This number needs to be lower, and we need to play our part in improvement on that point.

How does your team you plan to use the data?

Our team, and the Anti-Harassment Tools team in Community Tech, have a fairly large number of potential areas to work on and challenges to address in regards to community health. Data like this helps greatly in the prioritization process, especially in areas where contributor opinions have not been solicited in the past in any organized way.

We are also happy for baseline answers on how the Wikimedia Foundation has helped community members in different ways. While we are certainly not the only group within staff that engages with the community on a consistent basis we do work to improve that engagement and will be aiming to improve these numbers year over year as much as possible.

What survey questions would your team like to ask next time?

As mentioned above, a more detailed set of questions around some of the topics covered in questions 113.01 through 113.07 would allow us to focus better on problem areas (i.e. for “Policies” - which policies in particular?).

Support and Safety team report[edit]

Across audiences[edit]

Question 113.01 (SS08)[edit]

The following community processes are used for dealing with user behavior. To what extent do they need improvement? -- Tools and processes for reporting users


Median = 2
38% selected "No opinion" [?]

1 – None (16%)
2 – A little (34%)
3 – Quite a bit (32%)
4 – A lot (18%)
Fifty percent of participants indicated that the tools and processes for reporting users need quite a bit or a lot of improvement.


Question 113.02 (SS08)[edit]

The following community processes are used for dealing with user behavior. To what extent do they need improvement? -- Noticeboards


Median = 2
43% selected "No opinion" [?]

1 – None (23%)
2 – A little (34%)
3 – Quite a bit (30%)
4 – A lot (13%)
Forty-three percent of participants indicated that noticeboards need quite a bit or a lot of improvement.


Question 113.03 (SS08)[edit]

The following community processes are used for dealing with user behavior. To what extent do they need improvement? -- Blocking tools/mechanisms


Median = 2
40% selected "No opinion" [?]

1 – None (26%)
2 – A little (32%)
3 – Quite a bit (30%)
4 – A lot (13%)
Forty-three percent of participants indicated that blocking tools/mechanisms need quite a bit or a lot of improvement.


Question 113.04 (SS08)[edit]

The following community processes are used for dealing with user behavior. To what extent do they need improvement? -- Administrator selection and review processes


Median = 2
36% selected "No opinion" [?]

1 – None (21%)
2 – A little (31%)
3 – Quite a bit (30%)
4 – A lot (18%)
Forty-eight percent of participants indicated that the administrative selection and review processes need quite a bit or a lot of improvement.


Question 113.05 (SS08)[edit]

The following community processes are used for dealing with user behavior. To what extent do they need improvement? -- Policies


Median = 2
33% selected "No opinion" [?]

1 – None (25%)
2 – A little (26%)
3 – Quite a bit (32%)
4 – A lot (17%)
Forty-nine percent of participants indicated that policies need quite a bit or a lot of improvement.


Question 113.06 (SS08)[edit]

The following community processes are used for dealing with user behavior. To what extent do they need improvement? -- Other (specify)


Median = 3
71% selected "No opinion" [?]

1 – None (39%)
2 – A little (3%)
3 – Quite a bit (14%)
4 – A lot (44%)


Question 113.07 (SS08)[edit]

The following community processes are used for dealing with user behavior. To what extent do they need improvement? -- Banning tools/mechanisms


Median = 2
41% selected "No opinion" [?]

1 – None (33%)
2 – A little (25%)
3 – Quite a bit (29%)
4 – A lot (14%)
Forty-three percent of participants indicated that banning tools/mechanisms need quite a bit or a lot of improvement.


Question 120 (SS03)[edit]

Have you contacted the Wikimedia Foundation or received support from the Wikimedia Foundation with the following issues? (select all that apply)

Participants could select more than one option

39% did not select an option [?]

1 – Emergencies (11%)
2 – General help (49%)
3 – Abuse investigation (5%)
4 – Abuse mitigation (3%)
5 – Dispute resolution mediation (11%)
49% of participants contacted the Wikimedia Foundation for general help.


Question 121.01 (SS04)[edit]

To what extent did the Wikimedia Foundation support help to: -- ...keep individuals in Wikimedia communities safe


Median = 4
41% selected "No opinion" [?]

1 – Very ineffective (8%)
2 – Somewhat ineffective (12%)
3 – Neither effective or ineffective (19%)
4 – Somewhat effective (38%)
5 – Very effective (23%)
Sixty-one percent of participants indicated that Wikimedia Foundation support was very effective or somewhat effective at keeping individuals in Wikimedia communities safe.


Question 121.02 (SS04)[edit]

To what extent did the Wikimedia Foundation support help to: -- ...resolve difficult situations between Wikimedia contributors


Median = 4
36% selected "No opinion" [?]

1 – Very ineffective (7%)
2 – Somewhat ineffective (16%)
3 – Neither effective or ineffective (23%)
4 – Somewhat effective (38%)
5 – Very effective (15%)
Fifty-three percent of participants indicated that the Wikimedia Foundation support was very effective or somewhat effective at resolving difficult situations between Wikimedia contributors.


Question 121.03 (SS04)[edit]

To what extent did the Wikimedia Foundation support help to: -- ...protect against abusive community members


Median = 4
39% selected "No opinion" [?]

1 – Very ineffective (15%)
2 – Somewhat ineffective (11%)
3 – Neither effective or ineffective (16%)
4 – Somewhat effective (38%)
5 – Very effective (20%)
Fifty-eight percent of participants indicated that the Wikimedia Foundation support was very effective or somewhat effective at protecting against abusive community members.


Question 130 (SS19)[edit]

Have you collaborated or engaged with any staff from the Wikimedia Foundation in the last 12 months, in any way (online, in-person, etc.)?


Mean = 0.28
14% selected "Not sure" [?]

1 – No (72%)
2 – Yes (28%)
Twenty-eight percent of participants have engaged with Wikimedia Foundation staff in the past 12 months.


Question 139.01 (SS17)[edit]

To what extent do you agree/disagree with the following statements: -- I feel well informed about projects being led by the Wikimedia Foundation


Median = 3
11% selected "No opinion" [?]

1 – Strongly disagree (4%)
2 – Disagree (23%)
3 – Neither agree nor disagree (36%)
4 – Agree (30%)
5 – Strongly agree (6%)
Thirty-six percent of participants agree or strongly agree that they are well informed about projects being led by the Wikimedia Foundation.


Question 139.02 (SS17)[edit]

To what extent do you agree/disagree with the following statements: -- I know how to contact the people I need at the Wikimedia Foundation


Median = 3
11% selected "No opinion" [?]

1 – Strongly disagree (9%)
2 – Disagree (29%)
3 – Neither agree nor disagree (23%)
4 – Agree (29%)
5 – Strongly agree (9%)
Thirty-eight percent of participants strongly agree or agree that they know how to contact people they need at the Wikimedia Foundation.


Question 139.03 (SS17)[edit]

To what extent do you agree/disagree with the following statements: -- I feel I am consulted sufficiently by the Wikimedia Foundation in decisions, through surveys, consultations or other means


Median = 3
17% selected "No opinion" [?]

1 – Strongly disagree (9%)
2 – Disagree (19%)
3 – Neither agree nor disagree (35%)
4 – Agree (31%)
5 – Strongly agree (5%)
Thirty-six percent of participants strongly agree or agree that they are sufficiently consulted by the WIkimedia Foundation in decisions.


Question 139.04 (SS17)[edit]

To what extent do you agree/disagree with the following statements: -- I feel that my voice is heard in Wikimedia Foundation decisions


Median = 3
26% selected "No opinion" [?]

1 – Strongly disagree (13%)
2 – Disagree (23%)
3 – Neither agree nor disagree (42%)
4 – Agree (18%)
5 – Strongly agree (4%)
Twenty-two percent of participants strongly agree or agree that their voice is heard in WIkimedia Foundation decisions.


Question 141 (SS15)[edit]

Which of the following channels, if any, have you used to talk to the Wikimedia Foundation staff or board? (select all that apply)

Participants could select more than one option

1% did not select an option [?]

1 – Wikimedia Meta (11%)
2 – Phabricator (9%)
3 – Community wishlist surveys (7%)
4 – Wikimedia MediaWiki (8%)
5 – Any wikimedia mailing lists (9%)
6 – Direct contact with Foundation employees, through talk pages or email (18%)
7 – In-person events and workshops (e.g. Wikimania, WikiConferences, meetups) (12%)
8 – Local project noticeboards (e.g. Cafes, Village Pumps, admin noticeboards) (8%)
9 – Other (specify) (3%)
18% of survey participants have directly contacted Wikimedia Foundation staff or board through talk pages or email.


Question 145 (SS14)[edit]

Before taking this survey, had you ever heard of the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF)?


Mean = 0.89
7% selected "Not sure" [?]

1 – No (11%)
2 – Yes (89%)
Eighty-nine percent of respondents indicated that they had heard of the WIkimedia Foundation before taking this survey.

Question links[edit]