Help:Wiki Reputation

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BASIC POLICY

This is Capital Market Wiki fundamental policy, associated with the semantic knowledge-model — Capital Market Taxonomy — and with built-in systems and critical templates. Because modification of this page could result in contradictions in a closely-knit set of policies, this page may be protected. Senior editors with taxonomist privileges may edit this page. Please suggest changes and improvements on the discussion page. See: Help:Semantic policy change and Help:Lock-Unlock Policy.

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I n Capital Market Wiki all editors must be registered and we recommend that all editors use a randomly generated pseudonym. Once you register, you start building a "wiki reputation". Every edit you make to this wiki is recorded permanently. If your pseudonym is "abcdef", this becomes your "wiki identity" and any reader or editor can see every edit you ever made.

Wiki reputation is based entirely on the quality and quantity of documented work that an editor contributes to this encyclopedia.

How Wiki Reputations Develop

B ecause of the collaborative nature of a wiki, a social network naturally forms among editors and this network has its natural "pecking order" based on the contributions and behavior of each editor. Since anyone can register anonymously to edit articles, users can be expected to fall into various categories:  

• Active "serious editors": This group are the true "owners" of the wiki. They believe in the goals of the wiki and spend a lot of time making worthwhile additions to the encyclopedia. Some focus on developing articles, others on cleanup and administrative tasks, but all make substantial contributions in time and effort.
• Casual "serious editors": This group consists of editors who write one or two articles, but generally are not able to spend much time working on the wiki. However, their work is appreciated by active "serious editors".
• Transient editors: This group consists of readers who spot errors in grammar or fact and make useful corrections, but do not do this regularly. There contributions are appreciated, but they are not active enough to become part of the social network.
• Lurking editors: Many people will register but never edit the wiki. Their status is essentially the same as readers. Their main contribution is in viewing pages.
• Anti-social editors: As in any group, a wiki attracts individuals with anti-social tendencies, manifested by spamming, vandalism, flaming, and other forms of "bad behavior". This group is looked down upon by serious editors and administrators because of their anti-social actions and destructive behavior. Serious editors and administrators generally work together to ban and ostracize such editors.

A common trait among "serious editors" is the desire to see the wiki succeed, sharing concern for the continuity of the work, the quality of the articles, and the completeness of the encyclopedia. Editors have different reasons for collaborating in this enterprise; some may be interested in promoting particular institutions or market segments, other seek business contacts or employment opportunities, while others see educational value or simply the pleasure of doing something worthwhile. However, every serious editor wants the wiki to succeed and therefore appreciates and is willing to help others with the same goal.

Casual and transient readers of this wiki will generally not be aware of the wiki reputation of the editors. This requires familiarity with how a wiki works and the facilities that allow one to discover who has contributed to each article. A "wiki reputation" therefore is something that exists among the "insiders" — the "serious editors". It is based on the perceptions of "serious editors" regarding the contributions made by other "serious editors" towards the common goals. Casual readers and lurking editors cannot really have a "wiki reputation" because their contributions are not sufficient to draw attention from the "serious editors". Anti-social editors, on the other hand, definitely have a "wiki reputation", albeit negative.

Why a Wiki Reputation Is Important

I f you are a "serious editor" — that is, someone who wants to see this wiki succeed — you know that you can't do the job alone. You want to find and support others who can help in the task. Now, you don't know the "real world" reputation of another editor — "abcde" may be a vice president of an investment bank, or a freshmen college student — you can't be sure. However, what you can see is the quantity and quality of work that others contribute to this wiki and this must be the basis for your judgment. In fact, if someone comes right out and reveals his or her credentials, you have no way of being sure that these are not false. Reality is the actual edits one has made to the wiki.

Your "wiki reputation" consists of the perception that other "serious editors" have about your contributions to this wiki:

• The amount of work you have done;
• The areas in which you have specialized;
• The quality of your work;
• Your ability to work well with other serious editors;
• Your knowledge of how a wiki works and advanced technical details;
• Your knowledge of Capital Market Wiki policy, Wikipedia policy (when applicable), Capital Market Taxonomy, and semantic classification.
• The quality, civility, and intellectual depth of your comments on the discussion pages.
• Your willingness to help and work with other editors. For example, when an editor asks for help in setting up inline queries, were you able or willing to help? An editor needs help in translation, or special knowledge of accounting, financial math, or a legal issue — could you help?
• Your willingness to assist in group projects, organized on the community portal.

There are two kinds of advantage of having a positive "wiki reputation". First, you will find it much easier to get cooperation from other editors, and this will make your own work easier. If you are trying to improve the articles that deal with your own country or market segment, you'll find it easier to enlist help of other editors is you are perceived as a "heavy hitter" — someone who has "paid his or her dues" in terms of past contributions. If you are perceived as someone with expertise is a certain field, by helping others to improve articles they are working on, you will find it easier to enlist help of other types of expertise you need for an article you are working on.

The second advantage of a "wiki reputation" is economic or social advantage outside the wiki. Capital Market Wiki is set up as a social network for job hunting and business contacts. Your "wiki reputation" as an expert in tax law in Indonesia may lead to a "real world" contact from another "serious editor" who needs such help outside of the wiki environment.

How Your "Wiki Reputation" Is Revealed

A ll articles in the main encyclopedia have a "Main contributors" link in the sidebar. This links to a page listing the most active contributors to the article, with a link to the editor's page, a list of all that editor's contributions, and a link to the editor's talk page where you can see discussions between that editor and others, merit awards, and other information. This list of each editor's contributions, in turn, shows the time, date, history (hist), exact edit (diff), and page edited (linked). The list of editor contributions can be filtered by namespace, so that you can see all edits by that editor in the markets, instruments or other namespace.

See: Merit awards.

Since this is a semantic wiki, you can go to any category page an find links to articles in that category, and from those pages find who are the principal contributors to that category. Use the Semantic Search, Search by attribute, and Search by relation links in the sidebar to find pages in any particular area, and from these pages, find the main contributors.

A typical merit award

The primary means for recognition for an enhanced "wiki reputation" is a Capital Market Wiki merit award which can only be granted by another editor by means of a posting to the receiving editor's talk page. It is very simple to post a merit award. Just use the merit button and follow the instructions on the user's talk page. This will produce nice picture of a medal on the user's talk page, along with a formal citation, but — what is more important — the award will be entered into the semantic database and opportunity network.

Based on this, an inline query for all users with awards for merit on a certain topic would include users with that merit award The database also records who gave the award.

You can't give an award to yourself and editors can join together to criticize and even revoke an award that was falsely given.

Even though award giving may be subjective, all editors have an interest in not debasing the awards system by giving awards for bad work or trivial edits.

The award system is a sound way to build cooperative relationships between editors; you should not hesitate to give an award to an editor that seems to you to have done a good job with regards to a specific article and topic. There is no limit on the amount of awards that you can grant, other than commonsense and the general consensus among "serious editors" as what effort deserves an award.

Building a Favorable "Wiki Reputation"

T he only way to build a favorable "wiki reputation" is to become a "serious editor" and create a history of useful and valuable edits and comments on discussion pages.

See also

• Help:Respect for Intrinsic Value