Research:Effects of Feedback on Participation in Wikipedia/Messages

In the 80% of the time that we randomly choose to send a message, we will construct a message using the following formula. The formula is designed to choose random conditions for the article, and within those conditions, choose a more specific, appropriate message to send. Our challenge is to be able to combine each part of the message with any other message part, and be able to combine them in a wide variety of orders.

If you have suggestions for additional messages, or think we should revise the messages, please feel free to edit this page directly.

The Template

We are constructing messages with the following components:

Sociable greeting,

Base --acknowledgement of new article

Positive Feedback, Constructive Criticism, Directive Message (In that order).

Sociable closing, Jipinghe 15:44, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Such that, each message is composed in the following structure:

[sociable greeting] + [base part 1] + [positive feedback] + [constructive criticism] + [directive message] + [base part 2] + [sociable closing] + [signature]

The messages that we send will always include bases, drawn randomly from our selection of base messages.

Under the factorial design of our experiment, each of the other independent conditions has a 50% chance of selection.

Base

At least one of these components will exist in every message.

• I see you’ve created the new article XX --
• I just took a look at your recently created article XX --
• I'm posting this message on your talk page because you've recently created the new article XX --
• I saw your article XX in the new articles list --

Positive Feedback

For any message that we send, Positive Feedback has a 50% chance of inclusion. Positive Feedback has a general statement complementing the article, and then points to a specific aspect of the article that is good. A script will run through the various specific aspects in a random order, asking the researcher if that specific aspect applies to the article. This ensures that the aspect is both appropriate and randomly chosen.

General:

• This article looks very well put together for a new article:

Specific:

Image

• The image greatly improves the article.
• This image is real great.
• You did an excellent job with uploading an image to the article.

Citations

• The citations and references seem to abide to Wikipedia’s referencing guidelines.
• There is a good number of citations and references.
• The citations and references look great.
• You did an excellent job with including references and citations.

Content

• The content seems pretty substantial.
• The content seems well-organized.
• The information is presented clearly and is easy to understand.

Layout/Structure

• The layout of the article makes it very clear.
• The headings and sections seem appropriate.

Constructive Criticism

Similarly to the Positive Feedback condition, for any message that we send, Constructive Criticism has a 50% chance of inclusion. Constructive Criticism has a general statement pointing out that the article contains errors, and then points to a specific aspect of the article with errors. A script will run through the various specific aspects in a random order, asking the researcher if that specific aspect applies to the article. This ensures that the aspect is both appropriate and randomly chosen.

Before you change any of these messages, please note that they should not be directive (they should not request that the editor make a particular change). Instead they should politely critique the editor's work.

General:

• However, I noticed the article contains errors:
• However, there might be some holes that might need filling:

Specific:

Style

• The article contains spelling/grammatical error’s (specifics)
• The article does not contain any Wikilinks, and so doesn’t follow Wikipedia style guidelines.

References

• The article currently does not contain any references. As a new article, the most important thing is to find reliable references for all existing information.
• The references in the article do not follow Wikipedia guidelines. There is a tutorial on formatting citations here.
• The article does not contain in-line citations, and so doesn’t follow Wikipedia referencing guidelines.
• I don’t think your references follow Wikipedia guidelines.

Images

• The article’s image currently does not contain any captions.

Content

• The article is confusing. I do not understand what you are trying to say.

Structure/Layout

• The article’s footer sections are not in the standard order.
• The article currently does not have appropriate sections and headings to the article.

Directive Messages

Directive messages also have a 50% chance of inclusion in any message. A directive message should suggest other work for editors to do on Wikipedia without being positive or negative about the new article that the user created.

Therefore, we have asked the makers of w:User:Suggestbot at the University of Minnesota for help in finding related articles that need work. We will randomly choose a work condition, and then find the most closely related article that will fit that work condition. Although a script will randomly choose the work conditions and send an API query to the text recommender that will find a related article, the entire process will be overseen by a researcher, and no message will be sent unless the researcher decides that it is appropriate.

Possible messages include:

• It would be great if you could also improve the related article __.
• It would be great if you could also upload a picture for the related article__.
• It would be great if you could also add references to the related article __.
• It would be great if you could also clean-up the related article __.
• It would be great if you could also Wikify the related article __.

Other suggestions for messages include:

• It would be great if you could also create new articles for [the red links that do not lead to another article yet].
• It would be great if you could also help merge the related articles __ and __.
• It would be great if you could also participate in the [[discussion]] about deleting __.
• It would be great if you could also [[Talk:__|give feedback]] for the related article __.

Sociable Components

Sociable opening component:

• Greetings, XXX,
• Hi XXX,
• Hey XXX,
• Hello XXX,

Sociable closing component:

• Happy editing! Hope your day is going well and you are having fun.
• It’s nice to see you editing!
• Have a fun and productive day! Cheers,
• I’m kind of new here myself but let me know if there is any way I can help. Thanks,
• It’s always nice to see users contributing to make Wikipedia better!
• And have a beautiful day, cheers.
• Kind regards and happy editing!
• Have a good day!

Examples for All 16 Message Conditions

Examples of complete messages.

Null	I see you’ve created the new article XX-- ~~~~
Null, Sociable	Hi XXX, I see you’ve created the new article XX-- Happy editing! Hope your day is going well and you are having fun. ~~~~
Postive	I just took a look at your recently created article XX -- This article looks very well put together for a new article: the image is really great. ~~~~
Positive, Sociable	Hey XXX! I just took a look at your recently created article XX -- This article looks very well put together for a new article: the image is really great. Have a beautiful day, cheers ~~~~
Criticism	I'm posting this message on your talk page because you've recently created the new article XX -- However, I noticed the article contains errors: the article currently does not contain any references. As a new article, the most important thing is to find reliable references for all existing information. ~~~~
Criticism, Sociable	Hey XXX, I'm posting this message on your talk page because you've recently created the new article XX -- However, I noticed the article contains errors: the article currently does not contain any references. As a new article, the most important thing is to find reliable references for all existing information. Kind regards and happy editing! ~~~~
Directive	I saw your article XX in the new articles list -- It would be great if you could also upload a picture for the related article XX. ~~~~
Directive, Sociable	Greetings XXX, I saw your article XX in the new articles list -- It would be great if you could also upload a picture for the related article XX. I’m kind of new here myself but let me know if there is any way I can help. Thanks,~~~~
Positive, Criticism	I just took a look at your recently created article XX-- This article looks very well put together for a new article: the content seems pretty substantial. However, there might be some holes that might need filling: the article does not contain in-line citations, and so doesn’t follow Wikipedia referencing guidelines. ~~~~
Positive, Criticism, Sociable	Hey XXX, I just took a look at your recently created article XX -- This article looks very well put together for a new article : the content seems pretty substantial. However, there might be some holes that might need filling : the article does not contain in-line citations, and so doesn’t follow Wikipedia referencing guidelines. Kind regards and happy editing! ~~~~
Positive, Directive	I just took a look at your recently created article XX -- This article looks very well put together for a new article: the content seems pretty substantial. It would be great if you could also Wikify the related article __. ~~~~
Positive, Directive, Sociable	Hey XXX, I just took a look at your recently created article XX -- This article looks very well put together for a new article : the content seems pretty substantial. It would be great if you could also Wikify the related article __. Kind regards and happy editing! ~~~~
Criticism, Directive	I just took a look at your recently created article XX -- However, there might be some holes that might need filling: the article does not contain in-line citations, and so doesn’t follow Wikipedia referencing guidelines. It would be great if you could also upload a picture for the related article__. ~~~~
Criticism, Directive, Sociable	Hey XXX, I just took a look at your recently created article XX -- However, there might be some holes that might need filling: the article does not contain in-line citations, and so doesn’t follow Wikipedia referencing guidelines. It would be great if you could also upload a picture for the related article__. Kind regards and happy editing! ~~~~
Positive, Criticism, Directive	I just took a look at your recently created article XX -- This article looks very well put together for a new article: the citations and references look great. However, I noticed that the article contains some errors: the article contains spelling/grammatical error’s. It would be great if you could also upload a picture for the related article__. ~~~~
Positive, Criticism, Directive, Sociable	Greetings XX, I see you’ve created the new article XX--This article looks very well put together for a new article: The citations and references look great. However, I noticed that the article contains some errors: the article contains spelling/grammatical error’s. It would be great if you could also upload a picture for the related article__. It’s always nice to see users contributing to make Wikipedia better! ~~~~