Topic on Talk:Article feedback

The absence of any opportunity for the reader to actually make a suggestion for improvement of the articles is a critical absence in this "feature", and is antithetical to the processes that make Wikipedia what it is. We already see articles heavily watched by fans receiving ratings that clearly have no basis in the quality of the article, and I have had four FA-level writers state that they will be stopping participation in the project because their articles, already assessed for quality, are now being "rated" without any rationale for these ratings and completely absent any comments that could explain the ratings. They feel it is one more step toward the facebook-ization of Wikipedia, and it is hard to say they're wrong when there's no reason to believe that rating of articles will result in increased contributions or increased quality.

Please add a free-text box labeled "suggestions for article improvement" or the like, with the written commentary being fed to the article talk page and signed "Article rater" or the like. (Do not use IP addresses, because people responding to this section will not be editing per se but responding to a survey. Their identifying information should not be exposed publicly.) Yes, we'll still get a pile of "fanboy" or "anti-fanboy" comments, but these can be moved off the talk pages as needed. This will serve to introduce the readers to the concept of actively participating, while also giving editors information to improve articles. As it is, this feature is more likely to increase the gulf between readers and editors than it is to bridge the gap, and has little likelihood of turning readers into editors. Risker 04:26, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the thoughtful note Risker.

"Suggestions for improvement" is a great idea. During the office hours we held to discuss this feature, I asked what input from readers would be most helpful for editors. What's missing/are there holes/etc. was a theme that came up. I also think that engaging readers in thoughtful commenting could put them one step closer to becoming contributors.

There are a number of ways to get this type of feedback. A free-text box, as you mention is one. Jorm lists a few others in a different thread on this topic (e.g., article needs more photographs, references, etc.). The trickier part IMHO is where to surface the reader input. The downside of directly entering comments directly on the talk page is that, as you say, editors will then need to move the superfluous comments off the talk page. This strikes me as potentially creating a lot of work for with uncertain payoff for editors. One idea that has been discussed is the idea of a “parking lot” for comments. This “parking lot” would be a separate space for comments where editors can then review and then promote helpful comments as needed. I think suggestions for improvement make a ton of sense – it would be good if we could implement the feature in way that doesn’t create unnecessary work for our editors.

We could certainly use your perspective in further developing this feature -- would you like to be part of the workgroup that helps design the commenting function? Or if you think the community would be okay with having comments directly on the talk page, we should discuss this option in greater detail.

This post was posted by Howief (WMF), but signed as Howief.

Comments directly on the talk page would be a problem I believe. Some would undoubtedly just be forum style comments which should be removed, as you say giving editors more work. But some would almost certainly be BLP violations and that concerns me a lot more. Sure, readers can edit the talk page now, but I think you'd see a lot more BLP problems if it was easier to get your opinion onto the talk page. 81.109.118.115 12:15, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

Risker, that's a very important suggestion and one that we see frequently mentioned in the survey data. How to make reader feedback specific and actionable and how to further engage with the reader after the rating is submitted are two of the main problems we need to focus on for further development. I added some ideas and suggestions in this sense to the call to action review page and I'd love to hear your thoughts.