Good points, Lane. Such things were possibly discussed before, but it's the first time that I see it it spelled out like this.
This approach should be advertised a bit somehow, so that the researchers know how to do it ethically and for everybody's benefit, and so that the experienced Wikipedians would know not to start answering such surveys. -- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore 2014-07-16 14:39 GMT+03:00 Lane Rasberry <l...@bluerasberry.com>: > Hello, > > I feel that this is an unethical research project and I have told the > researcher so. We exchanged several emails and were unable to understand > each other. I asked them to please have their university ethics board > contact me. > > I asked the researcher about RCOM and other things. This person said they > posted to RCOM, but "the Meta page states that submissions should receive > responses within 1-2 weeks, and yet our messages went unanswered. We have > institutional ethics approval, but that doesn't last indefinitely, and so > after receiving no response we opted to go ahead." > > I am not going to share more than this publicly, but in short, I talked > with the researcher to the limit of their interest and they feel that they > must proceed with the research. Their oversight is at > <http://www.uwo.ca/research/about/research_offices.html> > Their RCOM page is at > < > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:The_Use_of_Rationales_in_Wikipedia_Articles_for_Deletion_Discussions_and_in_Group_Decision_Making > > > > My concern here, as with many surveys, is that the researcher greatly > values their time and assigns less value to Wikipedia community time, and > is comfortable asking for lots of volunteer time on the pretense of helping > our community. This kind of research is, in my opinion, not helpful to > Wikipedians because the questions make no sense due to having been designed > by an outsider, and additionally so many people have these same questions > and only want to target our most active and busiest and valuable > volunteers. Furthermore there is no compliance here with community values > in research. Bad surveys create "survey fatigue", in which volunteers are > later disinclined to participate in good and useful community-approved > research. > > If anyone sees research problems in the future I am interested in talking > about these things. I have been thinking of becoming more involved in > supporting RCOM for some time. > > The basic problem is that practically all researchers assume that the > number of highly active Wikipedians is huge, and therefore, they imagine no > problem for them to ask for any amount of volunteer time to be diverted > from Wikipedia to their personal and private collection of survey data. The > reality is that there are not more than hundreds or low thousands of > Wikipedians who are active to the extent they imagine. This survey is > targeting English AfD, where I imagine there are only low hundreds of at > most of continually active participants, and the reality may be much lower > participation than that. > > I asked this researcher to discontinue the survey pending a check on the > impact of it on the Wikipedia community. I said this because I feel they > are out of compliance with even the soft suggestions in research that are > available, and they know this. > > yours, > > > On Wed, Jul 16, 2014 at 6:53 AM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan < > srik.r...@wikimedia.in> wrote: > > > If the people who have created this survey can fix the problems raised by > > Fae, I'd be happy to share this with several language Wikipedians in > India. > > I'm sure that at this point nobody would want to be part of it. > > On Jul 16, 2014 1:54 PM, "Tomasz Ganicz" <polime...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > In Polish Wikipedia there is no voting for deletion for around 3-4 > > > years. There is discussion and then final decission is made by one of > > > admins who regularly maintains the deletion process. > > > > > > 2014-07-16 10:20 GMT+02:00 Federico Leva (Nemo) <nemow...@gmail.com>: > > > > Thanks. All questions were generic and about "Wikipedia", so I > answered > > > > with the Italian Wikipedia in mind. Also note that it.wiki is perhaps > > > > the only wiki which switched deletions from voting to non-voting: the > > > > experiment was already done, you only need to measure and interpret > it. > > > > :-) See > > > > > > > > > > http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2013-January/123334.html > > > > > > > > I had problems with two questions: > > > > * "Are you concerned that somebody would change or remove your > > > > rationale? Please choose the most applicable response." This question > > > > assumes that removing a comment is bad; I would have answered "Yes > when > > > > appropriate per law or policy" but there was no such option. > > > > * "Do you read the rationales in the discussion before making the > final > > > > decision?" This assumes that this is just a matter of personal taste; > > > > sometimes policy and process requires it, sometimes not. (For > instance > > > > in the classic it.wiki deletion process, but certainly also in some > > > > specific sub-process triggers on en.wiki and others.) > > > > > > > > Nemo > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > > > > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > > > Unsubscribe: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > Tomek "Polimerek" Ganicz > > > http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Polimerek > > > http://www.ganicz.pl/poli/ > > > http://www.cbmm.lodz.pl/work.php?id=29&title=tomasz-ganicz > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > > > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > < > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/guidelineswikimedi...@lists.wikimedia.org > > > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > > > > > -- > Lane Rasberry > user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia > 206.801.0814 > l...@bluerasberry.com > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
