Hi!
I am quite new to the wiki concept, although I have written for several other community based sites. But, wikiHow isn’t same with the complete involvement of users around the clock. I was just wondering, what the was factor that made you stick to this community. I have come across the word workrather than volunteerat several instances (in wikiHow forums specifically). So, do you consider wikiHow as work or is it where you spend your spare time and have fun with the awesome tools?
I am aware of the community spirit and love(if you have a look closely, the basis of all the content sites is its community), but is there any other adhesive feature which made you fall in love with wikiHow? PS: If you find this thread irrelevant, annoying or anything similar, feel free to delete. I write for several techguru websites and at times, I get to handle studies about SEO in wikis and the community related stuff, so I have always been curious about the wiki way of life!
system
2
Stress reliever and a learning experience for me. Before editing on wikiHow 4 years ago, I have nevermanually used “wiki” code/formatting (another wiki that I used to edit was all automatic with that), never used the metric system (as in grams & mL), and other stuff. I very much consider it “fun time” speaking in terms as “work” & always tell people that this is a volunteer website.
I like to learn new things on wikiHow, and I love editing.
I volunteer 'cause I learn new things, work with others to build wikiHow, and share my knowledge.
Ttrimm
5
I call it work, but I enjoy it. I also enjoy my work.
I don’t know. It would be odd to say “nice volunteering on that article”, or “does anyone want to volunteer their time to work on this?”.
- We’re focused on getting shit done, rather than on bureaucracy and process like some other communities. Our standards are simple and transparent, and I don’t have to worry about some 13 year old on a power trip nominating whatever I write for deletion because it’s not, say, “notable” enough (guess which wiki I’m taking a not-so-subtle dig at!). 2) You mentioned the community, but I’ll go with that theme anyway: I’ve made several good friends here which is one thing that motivates me. And because of the great community here, I get feedback, solicited or otherwise, on what I’ve done, very quickly. Maybe it’s because we’re not so big that great work can go unnoticed. 3) I can write something and if it’s awesome, it’ll be seen by thousands or tens of thousands of people. I’d like to think this is because I like helping people, but the truth is probably that I’m a massive egotist (I’m not kidding; ask around) and having my stuff read by a bunch of people is awesome
.
You worry too much.
system
7
Hmm your third is the same as mine. I want people to notice what i write and i couldnt find a website i could that on so i bumped into wikihow and ehow. I preferred Wikihow over ehow because that website was a bit complicated as i have not found how to register on that website yet so i joined this. As for work, no it is not serious, it is fun and also if you want to improve your english, writing will help you. So for educational purposes and fun to write, i joined Wikihow. I also joined to improve my grammar as i make small spelling mistakes.
system
8
I’m on the site to practice writing and reading (I’m dyslexic). Plus, I truly think the whole idea behind the site is amazing: a community of believers coming together to create the world’s how-to manual. It’s fasinating to me, how much the site has grown and changed in the-what? two?- months that I’ve been on here. I’m more than proud to contribute the eensy amount that I do.
I believe in the free sharing of information (Go Creative Commons! =]), and on wikiHow I can do this, receive info from others (i.e. a learning experience everyday), and oh, have I mentioned helping to build a how-to manual that will help the rest of the world every day?
system
10
For me; it’s a lot. I’m a most-of-the-time perfectionist, I like to help people, I like to show/share knowledge in my expertise, and I love to help and socialize with other people.
I’m definitely a volunteer, not a worker. I’m paid like a volunteer (thanks for the t-shirt), and I act like a volunteer. I sometimes disappear for weeks at a time without warning, and even when I do log in, I usually notice and ignore things that need fixing, but just don’t interest me enough to do anything about. As a volunteer, I can do that without feeling guilty, but an employee couldn’t. As for why I’m here at all … I probably discovered the site after searching for some obscure topic that I couldn’t find any information on elsewhere. Looking around the site, I noticed a bunch of really awful articles that even I was qualified to fix, and some really cool members trying to make the place suck less and who I wanted to support. I made major rewrites to a few articles and eventually registered so I could do RC patrols. Although it wasn’t my intention when I joined, at some point I’d seen enough scummy marketing tactics by promoters of fraudulent products that I morphed into a consumer advocate. I think I’m also interested in wikiHow itself - can someone like me, without edit warring or shouting down everyone who disagrees with me, but just by occasionally nudging articles towards higher quality, really make a noticeable difference in the site as a whole?
system
12
I love to learn new things and teach new things. I also just enjoy writing and editing.
system
13
I started editing wikihow because I started reading wikihow. I learned cool new stuff, and was motivated to share interesting/ cool ideas with others. I continued to edit because the community encouraged and supported my fumbling attempts… and made my learning curve shallower and easier than I could have ever expected. (Notable thanks go to Krystle, KIS, Elocina, D-Rae, and some others who helped me get where I am today.) We do what we do on this site because we like to… because we get recognition for it… because we enjoy helping others in one way or another. So whether you call it “play”… or “work” … or “volunteer”… it’s all semantics. We enjoy it, therefore we do it. Calling it “work” doesn’t detract from the satisfaction and pride of a job well done whether our payscale is dollars or kudos.
I’m a sort-of perfectionist. Now that I’ve been let loose on this site I always find myself correcting typos/formatting errors that I see. Also, it’s cool how I can write articles that a lot of people read, as simple as that sounds.
