Hi Vito, I believe it depends on the way it is done. An edithaton on rappers & pop stars with high-school students could be a great way to get them into the project in a fun way. Then as they keep developing and diversifying their interests, as generally happens with growing kids, they have a never ending source of inspiration at Wikipedia, even to use as a train ground for school/university.
I would like to note that, contrary to what seems to be happening in other projects, and possibly related with some kind of Internet boom in Brazil, Angola and other Portuguese-speaking countries, the Wikipedia in Portuguese shows (at least empirically) a very high proportion of kids, mostly teens, but some as young as 10 or 11, mostly editing in animation series & computer games initially, and then progressing into other fields as they grow. I've been watching this for 10 years already. A significant number of those little kids that were there in 2009 are now sysops and regular editors on Wikipedia, and part of the regular community. In a number of cases I know Wikipedia was decisive to develop their skills at school, sometimes even in their lives in general. It is a good thing. And it all started with pokemons, Naruto, Saint Seiya and all the stuff that is often derided as mostly useless in an encyclopedia, but that worked as a learning school for that young generation, helping them learning how to edit Wikipedia in a fun way. I would not go as far as saying we should be doing edithatons about Naruto and Pokemons, but I do believe we should be helping those kids editing those articles, instead of chasing them away as "useless newbies only interested in pop stuff" as often happens. They are the future generations of Wikipedians. Best, Paulo - DarwIn Wikimedia Portugal Vi to <vituzzu.w...@gmail.com> escreveu no dia terça, 12/03/2019 à(s) 10:22: > Il giorno mar 12 mar 2019 alle ore 06:16 David Goodman <dgge...@gmail.com> > ha scritto: > > > "with popular topics cannibalizing resources." > > > > What resources can be cannibalized? The limiting resource in WP is > > interested people writing, improving, and validating articles. People > > choose their own topics. This is different from an organization where > > staff can be directed to work on what the management think is important. > > > I was exactly making reference to this. > Editors' interests are hard to change and, actually, it wouldn't be > auspicable to do it. > > The only resources which can be moved are those related to outreaching, > editathons, various kinds of online and offline projects. > > Keeping it short I disagree with choosing topics for editathons and similar > initiatives basing on topic popularity since this will be in contrast with > any commitment to diversity, even more it will push a wrong model of > encyclopedia. > > > When you state that Mr Trump does not know about Indian-Pakistan conflicts, > > does he know that a Nigerian governor outspends presidents of > neighbouring > > countries.. There are elections for Nigerian governors... > > > > I didn't wrote this actually, inaccurate quoting of others' opinions can > poison any discussion. > Trying to rephrase, I wrote it would be better to cover things which suits > more the mission of an encyclopedia and which get less attention by media, > as Indian-Paki conflicts background, rather than mr. Trump's covfefes. > > > > > > What is the propblem with providing what people are looking for? > > > > I often look for bus schedule 😉 > > Vito > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: 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 and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
