Submissions:2025/The Encyclopedia Always Wins: Community-Side Content Moderation on Wikipedia
This submission has been noted and is pending review for WikiConference North America 2025.
Title:
- The Encyclopedia Always Wins: Community-Side Content Moderation on Wikipedia
Type of session:
- Lecture (15-30 min)
Session theme(s):
- Credibility, Missing pieces
Abstract:
Relatively little research about content moderation (the way a platform screens user-generated content to determine its appropriateness) focuses on non-profit, volunteer-run projects like Wikipedia. Studies that do focus on Wikipedia tend look exclusively at moderation of its article content, but a substantial amount of the site's activity takes place elsewhere, on discussion pages where contributors debate not just article content but the development and enactment of a range of policies and guidelines. In this talk, we examine situations where the community has struggled to apply its behavioral policies to community-side content moderation decisions. By analyzing four high-profile cases (the "userbox wars," Project Esperanza, the "civility enforcement" Arbitration Committee case, and discourse regarding the essay "No Nazis"), we find a recurring theme of competing sociotechnical imaginaries (visions of what Wikipedia should be): Wikipedia as a community and Wikipedia as an encyclopedia. The first advocates prioritizing collegiality, fostering a welcoming atmosphere, and community health in general, while the second prioritizes the production of high-quality encyclopedia articles. In each of these cases, arguments associated with the community-oriented imaginary tend to be most effective when they are subordinated to a secondary goal. In other words, concerns for issues like civility become strongest when framed in terms of their effect on the encyclopedic project, rather than upheld for their own sake.
Author name(s):
Wikimedia username(s):
- User:Rhododendrites, User:Matthewvetter
Affiliated organization(s):
- University of Massachusetts Amherst, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Estimated length of session
- 15-30 minutes (flexible)
Will you be presenting remotely?
- I will present in-person
Okay to livestream?
- Livestreaming is okay
Previously presented?
Special requests: