I know there have been threads on “adding friends” but how about adding someone as a favourite? When you do this, you can see their newest articles, etc. Just an idea and feel free to add to this :3 Thoughts?
I actually think this is a decent idea- I don’t think it should be turned down so fast. I know we aren’t going for the social networking look but I think this could be a neat add-on to the watch list.
Thanks guys^^ Another idea: when someone “adds” you, they then become your “fan” which is shown on your user page.
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I like it so far- haven’t spotted anything wrong with it- but I do not think your ‘favorites’ should be public (for example, you don’t want a girl seeing her boyfriend be a fan of another girl, and starting a huge mess…). I think it should be more like a watchlist. Also, would you have to get the person who’s your ‘favorites’ permission before doing this?
I understand the idea behind it, but I would only be okay with it if people opt out. I wouldn’t want people following everything I edit because of the potential for wiki stalking. I think a lot of new editors already feel like they are being watched because they don’t understand how RC patrol works and they think they are being singled out. I think the “friends” list has the same potential to deter editors if people can’t opt-out. Update: I changed “I don’t want people following everything I write” to “I don’t want people following everything I edit”. I don’t mind people seeing all the articles I’ve started. I just want to avoid receiving more accusatory talk page messages assuming that because I edited an article, I condone certain activities or have certain viewpoints.
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I agree with this. I sometimes get talk page messages such as, “Why are you editing my article?”, “What did you do to my article?”, or even “How are you seeing what I write?” from people I request to calm down any chatting. I think the easiest way to do this without the engineers assistance would be to share your articles and other information on your user page. Everything can be found via contribution lists, etc already.
I use the Twitter sharing link for articles I write, for the people that follow me on there to see. Every person is different on how they share their contributions/what they do on the site. I’d also like to see an opt-out option.
I agree with this. The engineers have a lot of demands on their time and I’d rather see them working on things that improve the content here on wikiHow and make the day-to-day activities of patrolling and editing easier.
Hmm. To me, this sounds quite a bit like following someone on Twitter, or subscribing to someone on YouTube. It definitely has it’s pros and cons. Also, what exactly is wikiStalking? It’s not something I have seen. Pros: I don’t really believe it is ‘stalking’ to know if someone has written an article. It may help to bring friendship. It has a purpose, which has been mentioned above. Cons: It promotes the idea of a more ‘social networking’ site, rather than a how-to manual. It has the potential for so called ‘wikiStalking’. (not sure about this, but it was above so…) It may make newcomers feel strange.
I think that’s a good idea and may help to solve con #3
. I don’t really know if I can establish a good vote for this or not. On one hand, you could use the {{friend|list friends here}} template. On the other, read the list above…
Definition of wiki stalking: From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki Source: WikiStalking - Meta
The term “wiki-stalking” has been coined to describe following a contributor around the wiki, editing the same articles as the target, with the intent of causing annoyance or distress to another contributor. Maybe it’s that you haven’t been around as long as I have, but I’ve seen it happen, especially with controversial topics. I’ve also gotten harassing emails and talk page messages when I’ve done things that vandals and trolls didn’t agree with. This kind of behavior is also called WikiHounding: Wikipedia:Harassment - Wikipedia
I have fostered many friendships on wikiHow without feeling that I have to list them for others or formally declare them. And I feel that it’s easy to find people doing good stuff through the tools already here. German Wikipedia tried friends and foes list and that feature has been around since at least 2006. Wikia attempted this and it hasn’t really spread. Another con is that it could become a popularity contest for some people.
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Like in many real life situations, the term “friend” can either really be a love to someone or break someone. Many times, I’ve seen people create really quick “friendships” before getting to know them (usually the ones that ask “will u be my friend” on talk pages). These people “watch” edits or watch their article discussion pages - if their “friends” support deletion or do anything remotely “against” them, they’ll go on a rage. Even if it’s explained to them that they’re just going by wikiHow’s Deletion Policy guidelines/rules, they always feel that the people they “believed” in, turned on them instead.
@AndrewG1999
The pros and cons is a great idea. @Elocina
I got wikiStalked before.
@Maluniu
That is agreeable. @Rangers31
, @TheMartian
, @WikiRicardo
, @Isabelle
Zita This idea will enforce arguments and unessicary stuff. @Maluniu
I HATE those messages!
So that’s not a good idea.
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If we ever do something like this, we’ll likely make it so that if you don’t want people to be able to follow you, you can make your edits “private”. There are people on wikiHow who write awesome articles and I *love* seeing their new stuff. @Maluniu
, @ttrimm
, and @dvortygirl
come to mind. It would be nice to check their new articles easily in one place.
This idea is pretty cool. There are a few kinks to be worked out, but right now we should start dreaming up the positives.
Guys… you did notice this thread actually ended 5 weeks ago, right?
