Grants:IdeaLab/Allow Users the opportunity to Rate and Score an Article

As an avid Wikimedia Foundation editor and supporter, I personally agree with the concept of Article Assessment and Article Importance. This gives Administrators, Editors, as well as Readers, the ability to know which articles need attention, and also gives the reader the chance to go into an article with a certain expectation of the type of quality information one expects from Wikipedia.

I believe that allowing individual readers to rate an article, following the same process for current Article Assessment criteria, this would allow Wikimedia a greater understanding of a reader’s assessment compared to the current assessment model. This process would also give the reader the feeling of empowerment, in that their vote counts.

Once the reader rates an article, an Information Box should appear, as one does once done editing space on Wikimedia, detailing the feedback, and the specific reasons offered for their given rating, both for Assessment Grade and Importance. This process would achieve several key objectives. First, the content of the Reader Assessment will give the author of the article proposed suggestions, commendations, potential ideas to incorporate into the article, in order to improve said article, and others similarly written by the article’s author. Second, administrators and employees of Wikimedia can use this information to spot trends, either by commentator, or subject area. A simple Bot could be utilized to determine specific word choice, place a higher importance on the ranking given by more prolific editors, as well as administrators.

There are many takeaways from allowing readers to assess articles, especially as it pertains to the Importance Ranking, as Importance is somewhat of a Subjective interpretation. This will allow the Wikimedia Foundation employees and Administrators the cability of utilizing simple programming algorithms, likely already in place, in order to determine more up to date commentary, which can likely determine Importance Levels, and thus provide resources where they are most needed. The cost of implementing this option would be relatively low, as there are already Bots in place, which I have come across, which could accomplish this task fairly easily, without much Programming effort. From a Cost Benefit Analyses, the implementation of this Project would far outweigh not doing so, especially considering the type of useful Information which can be gleaned from reader input; the only other likely option is the use of Talk Pages, which lack the cohesion required of such data information gathering. The ongoing cost would come at the expense of Editing Man Hours, and time spent diverting Editing Resources where they are most needed.

Markhalsey (talk) 17:11, 6 August 2018 (UTC)Mark Halsey