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Research:Spring 2015 Inspire campaign/Survey

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A survey was conducted in April 2015 to evaluate the experience of participating in the Inspire Campaign, which focused on the gender gap and was hosted on the IdeaLab. The survey was conducted by the Wikimedia Foundation Community Resources team.

The survey was delivered to editors' talk pages on Metawiki. It was open between April 13th and April 20th. Editors were selected to receive the survey if they had edited any pages within the IdeaLab from a dedicated Wikimedia account between March 1st and April 1st. Every attempt was made to exclude Wikimedia staff accounts and bot accounts.

In all, the survey was delivered to 698 editors, and 145 valid responses were recorded, for a response rate of 21%.

Overview of findings

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  • 34% of respondents were women
  • 78% of respondents were veteran Wikipedians (1+ years editing)
  • 44% of respondents were recruited through Central Notice banners
  • At least 47% of respondents listed English Wikipedia as their home project
  • Commenting on ideas was the most popular way of participating (70% of respondents), followed by endorsing ideas (50%)
  • 38% of respondents submitted at least 1 idea during the campaign
    • 37% of these idea-creators turned their idea into a grant proposal
    • Only 21% of respondents joined an idea created by someone else
  • Satisfaction ratings averaged between 3.2 and 3.6 (out of 5) for all measures
  • No significant differences existed between the satisfaction ratings of:
    • idea-creators vs. other respondents
    • men vs. women
    • veteran editors vs. those with less than 1 year of editing experience

Key outcomes

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Caveat: the survey was delivered to each participating editor's Metawiki talk page, rather than the talk page on the editor's home wiki. As such, veteran Wikimedians, and especially Meta-pedians, are likely over-represented in the response set.

Women were well-represented
Women participated at roughly double the rate of (estimated) female participation in English and other major Wikipedias.
Most respondents were experienced Wikipedians
The vast majority of respondents (78%) had edited Wikimedia projects for more than a year.
Around half of respondents were not English Wikipedians
Although English Wikipedia, the largest Wikimedia project by far, was well represented, approximately half of the respondents listed another project as their home wiki. Coupled with the high percentage of respondents recruited through Central Notice banners (44%), this suggests that Central Notice is an effective strategy for encouraging participation by editors from a diverse set of Wikimedia projects.
Idea creators generally appreciated feedback
Endorsements were motivating and criticism of the idea was valued, as long as it was constructive.
  • "My core Idea was challenged for being essentialist, which had the effect of having to better understand what I was trying to do."
  • "yeah very legitimate queries I received / endorsements were encouraging."
  • "I liked that discouragement and opposition was moved away to talk page. That really helped others to analyze the ideas without bias."
However, lack of feedback was powerfully demotivating for idea creators.
  • "No feedback, no help, from anyone. no instructions on how to turn it into a grant proposal... no guidelines."
  • "one person responded in terms of participation and i got no feedback on my request for information about how to apply, how much money to request and how to implement my idea... I am new here but at least i was trying..."
And incivility and was a major issue.
  • " I was deeply offput by the commentary around the project from Wikimedians opposed to this idea and preferred not to get involved."
  • "The opposition posts were many and nasty."
  • "The amount of anti-woman sentiment was very distressing."
Some commenters objected strenuously to the concept of endorsements
Although there was almost no negative feedback on the endorsement process from respondents who also created ideas
  • "Facebook syndrome: You can state your enthusiasm, but not your dislike."
  • "The problem with this campaign, is that there's not really a metric of disagreement."
  • "Discontent on ideas is shifted out of view."
Many idea creators were unsure about expectations, next steps
Respondents expressed frustration about a lack of clear instructions, and confusion about what was expected from them after they initially submitted their idea.
  • "I was confused that no-one followed up with me after I submitted an idea."
  • "It was a difficult process to navigate in terms of understanding what the steps were, what exactly were the phases, when to add what additional templates."
  • "Information was scattered across many pages. I did not realize that there were special granting abilities related to Inspire. Wikimedia grant stuff in general was confusing for me, and I was unsure of what scale of project to propose for any sort of grant."
  • "I didn't understand what it would have implied to join an idea."
Others felt that the grantmaking process lacked transparency.
  • "No indication on how Wikimedia would respond to the ideas. Would a response be offered to every idea? I find WM's lack of transparency frustrating."
  • "I wasn't convinced by the process that this was a worthwhile endeavor. The selection criteria was absent, the reviewers invisible, and the credibility of the existence of funding sources wasn't established."
Profiles and matching were relatively unseen and under-utilized
very few people created profiles. One participant that did create a profile appreciated the ability to see other users' faces. However, other profile-creators were confused by the recommendations, and by the fact that their profile was not visible in other parts of the IdeaLab instantaneously.
Participants appreciated the gadgets... when they worked
several respondents indicated that they appreciated the ease of use of gadgets such as the FormWizard and AddMe gadgets, which facilitated idea creation, expansion, endorsement, and joining. However, other participants found these gadgets to be buggy and inconsistent.
Some commenters objected to the campaign as a whole
some respondents considered the Gender Gap theme of the campaign to be illegitimate, and/or the Wikimedia Foundation's role in soliciting ideas to fund gender-gap focused projects to be inappropriate.
  • "I found the campaign insulting to all genders of editors."
  • "I'd be pleased if IdeaLab ceased to exist."
Editors have lots of intriguing ideas for future campaigns
respondents suggested a diverse set of topics for future Inspire campaigns.
  • "I'd like to see more multimedia projects."
  • "Combating systematic bias with regards to low editing habits of Global south Wikimedians."
  • "Paid editing, adminship reform, civility"
  • "intellectual property/copyright issues, human resource-type processes and infrastructure for open communities, small language communities, open education, better coverage of marginalized forms of knowledge, gender gap again!"
Most respondents would participate in a future Inspire campaign
of the 93 respondents who answered the question "would you participate in another campaign?", 82 responded yes or maybe, only two responded negatively or expressed reservations. Among those who responded positively, some of the primary considerations were the topic chosen for the campaign, and having enough time to participate.


Basic information

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Gender

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What is your gender?

10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
  •   Female
  •   Male
  •   Another gender
  •   Rather not say
Answer # responses
Female 45
Male 83
Another gender 4
Rather not say 13
Total 145

Level of experience

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How long have you been editing?

25
50
75
100
125
150
  •   less than 6 months
  •   6 months to 1 year
  •   more than 1 year
  •   I have never edited
Answer # responses
<6 months 14
6 months - 1 year 5
> 1 year 114
I have never edited 12
Total 145

Home wiki

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What is your home wiki?

Answer # responses
English Wikipedia 51
Wikipedia (no language specified) 18
Wikipedia (non-eng) 15
Wikimedia Commons 9
Wikisource (any language) 4
Meta 2
Mediawiki 2
Wikidata 2
Wikiversity (any language) 2
Wiktionary (any language) 2
Wikivoyage (any language) 2
Total 109

Referred by

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How did you find out about the campaign?

Answer # responses
banner on a wiki 63
mailing list 12
blog post 1
social media 3
friend/colleague 12
WMF staff 10
can't remember 18
other 12
can't remember 18
Total 144

Creating an idea

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Did you submit a idea?

10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
  •   Yes
  •   No
Answer # responses
Yes 54
No 90
Total 144

How satisfied were you with the process of submitting your idea?

5
10
15
20
25
30
  •   very dissatisfied
  •   dissatisfied
  •   neutral
  •   satisfied
  •   very satisfied
Answer Response %
Very Dissatisfied 3
Dissatisfied 3
Neutral 15
Satisfied 22
Very Satisfied 11
Total 54 100%
Average 3.6


Was there anything in particular you liked about the Idea creation and submission process?

I was gratified and surprised by the amount of support provided by the community to help get my proposal up and running.

Was there anything in particular you disliked about the Idea creation and submission process?

It's rigged to favor "Diversity" promoters. They don't have to prove their case, but we who are opposed to using phony stats to justify some new way to impose arbitrary and unjustified policies, have to tiptoe thru their tulips, lest we get deleted.

Submitting a grant proposal

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Did you turn your idea into a grant proposal?

5
10
15
20
25
30
  •   Yes
  •   No
Answer # responses
Yes 20
No 29
Total 49


Why did you choose to not submit your idea as a grant proposal?

I wasn't convinced by the process that this was a worthwhile endeavor. The selection criteria was absent, the reviewers invisible, and the credibility of the existence of funding sources wasn't established. I am very used to submitting non-profit style grant requests and this system bore no resemblance to that. I was also deeply offput by the commentary around the project from Wikimedians opposed to this idea and preferred not to get involved.

How satisfied were you with the process of turning your idea into a grant proposal?

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
  •   very dissatisfied
  •   dissatisfied
  •   neutral
  •   satisfied
  •   very satisfied
Answer Response
Very Dissatisfied 1
Dissatisfied 4
Neutral 4
Satisfied 7
Very Satisfied 4
Total 20
Average 3.4

Was there anything you particularly disliked or found frustrating about the process of turning your idea into a grant proposal?

No feedback, no help, from anyone. no instructions on how to turn it into a grant proposal... no guidelines

Was there anything you particularly liked or found rewarding about the process of turning your idea into a grant proposal?

I got very helpful technical support from the coordinator.

Collaboration and interaction

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Receiving feedback

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Did any other editors comment on your idea?

10
20
30
40
  •   Yes
  •   No
Answer # responses
Yes 35
No 15
Total 50

Did any other editors endorse your idea?

5
10
15
20
25
30
  •   Yes
  •   No
Answer # responses
Yes 29
No 21
Total 50

Did any other editors join your idea?

5
10
15
20
25
30
  •   Yes
  •   No
Answer # responses
Yes 24
No 23
Total 47

How satisfied were you with the endorsements, comments or participation you received from other participants?

2.5
5
7.5
10
12.5
15
  •   very dissatisfied
  •   dissatisfied
  •   neutral
  •   satisfied
  •   very satisfied
Answer Response
Very Dissatisfied 1
Dissatisfied 3
Neutral 12
Satisfied 13
Very Satisfied 8
Total 37
Average 3.6

Was there anything in particular you liked about the comments, endorsements and participation around your idea?

I had very substantial conversations with other editors/participants both on and off the IdeaLab Wiki. It's sharpened my thinking about the issues at hand here, helped me identify the people who are really interested, and think with a broader perspective about the range of issues and strategies for addressing them.

Was there anything in particular you disliked about the comments, endorsements and participation around your idea?

The opposition posts were many and nasty.

Providing feedback

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Did you comment on any ideas?

10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
  •   Yes
  •   No
Answer # responses
Yes 95
No 40
Total 135


Did you endorse any ideas?

10
20
30
40
50
60
70
  •   Yes
  •   No
Answer # responses
Yes 67
No 68
Total 135


Did you join any ideas?

25
50
75
100
125
150
  •   Yes
  •   No
Answer # responses
Yes 29
No 106
Total 135

How satisfied were you with process of endorsing, commenting on, and joining ideas?

10
20
30
40
50
  •   very dissatisfied
  •   dissatisfied
  •   neutral
  •   satisfied
  •   very satisfied
Answer Response
Very Dissatisfied 7
Dissatisfied 14
Neutral 28
Satisfied 46
Very Satisfied 10
Total 105
Average 3.4


Was there anything in particular you liked about process of endorsing, commenting on, or joining ideas?

I had very substantial conversations with other editors/participants both on and off the IdeaLab Wiki. It's sharpened my thinking about the issues at hand here, helped me identify the people who are really interested, and think with a broader perspective about the range of issues and strategies for addressing them.

Was there anything in particular you disliked about process of endorsing, commenting on, or joining ideas?

The process was unfamiliar, very different from discussions that take place in the various wikis.

Creating a profile

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Did you turn create a profile on the IdeaLab?

Answer # responses
Yes 17
No 39
Total 56

Did you receive recommendations for ideas to check out on your profile talk page?

Answer # responses
Yes 4
No 0
Total 4

Was there anything you particularly liked or disliked about the process of creating a profile?

I liked seeing pictures of other people, it is very comforting to know that behind the nicks there is a real person

Overall experience and opinions

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Overall, how satisfied were you with your experience as a participant in the Inspire campaign?

10
20
30
40
50
  •   very dissatisfied
  •   dissatisfied
  •   neutral
  •   satisfied
  •   very satisfied
Overall, how satisfied were you with your experience as a participant in the Inspire campaign?
Answer Response
Very Dissatisfied 12
Dissatisfied 14
Neutral 47
Satisfied 46
Very Satisfied 12
Total 131
Average 3.2

Future campaign topics

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What other topics or issues would you like to see an IdeaLab campaign focus on in the future?

I would like to see some focus on attrition of editors, abusiveness in the community, administrative abuse and its effects on retention, the growing toxicity of the editing culture.

Future campaign participation

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Would you be interested in participating in a future IdeaLab campaign? Why or why not?

Yes - Very interested to help identify possible ways to improve and expand the Wikimedia community and movement.

Suggestions for improvement

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Do you have any other suggestions for improvements to the IdeaLab experience?

Criticisms of the campaign itself, even those which call for the termination or opposition of the campaign, should be considered.

Additional comments

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Do you have any other questions, comments, or concerns?

I probably wouldn't have bothered to write down or think deeply about this idea without the Inspire campaign prompting me to try to come up with something, so I do appreciate that the campaign exists...