Grants:IdeaLab/Assembly line editing

Inspire campaign

Assembly line editing

Rather than one editor being responsible for every aspect of an article, they may (if they so choose) instead focus on the one thing they are good at. When each editor chooses their lane, they become more efficient at it, and it encourages collaboration.

countryAustralia

themesocial factors

contact email• coin945wikipedia@gmail.com

idea creator• Coin945

this project needs...

community organizer

volunteer

designer

project manager

created on23:12, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

Project idea

What Wikimedia project(s) and specific areas will you be evaluating?

Is this project measuring a specific space on a project (e.g. deletion discussions), or the project as a whole?
This could be applied to all Wikiprojects

Describe your idea. How might it be implemented?

Provide details about the method or process of how you will evaluate your community or collect data. Does your idea involve private or personally identifying information? Take a look at the Privacy Policy for Wikimedia’s guidelines in this area.
In my case my skill is in gathering sources on obscure games and writing up a first draft. Adding templates, categories, wikilinks etc. isn't my passion, but if that's all another editor does, it should be easy for them to add them to my article.

Are there experienced Wikimedians who can help implement this project?

If applicable, please list groups or usernames of individuals who you can work with on this project, and what kind of work they will do.

How would your measurement idea help your community make better decisions?

After you are finished measuring or evaluating your Wikimedia project, how do you expect that information to be used to benefit the project?

Do you think you can implement this idea? What support do you need?

Do you need people with specific skills to complete this idea? Are there any financial needs for this project? If you can’t implement this project, can you scale down your project so it is doable?
Right now, the term 'Wikipedia editor' is vague and could mean many different things. Breaking down that definition into the actual things you enjoy doing - whether it be researching, adding tags and categories, copyediting etc. will help to create a more productive workflow. In any business you have your marketers, lawyers, accountants, salespeople - not everybody has the same skills and nor should each employee be expected to do the same work - but together they make magic happen. A similar assembly line concept could be applied here.

Get Involved

About the idea creator

I'm a 24 year old editor from Melbourne, Australia, and I've been a writer for Wikipedia since 2006ǃ I love to create articles on video games from the 80s-00s - particularly those that are nostalgic for me - and I've recently been writing articles on Eastern European video games, an area than is sorely underrepresented.

Endorsements

• I support this idea because it makes a ton of sense - all people do not like all things and this would let editors focus on what they most enjoy. The claim that it would encourage collaboration also sounds very plausible. Moebeus (talk) 06:27, 21 July 2018 (UTC)
• Excellent idea! You get the tasks you want and are good at, can collaborate efficiently, and you can avoid the stuff you don't like. Jjjjjjdddddd (talk) 08:03, 23 July 2018 (UTC)
• Not a very fleshed-out idea but very helpful. Right now people tend to organize by topical interest (i.e. WikiProjects). This can make editors who focus on say, template maintenance feel left out. Assembly-line editing could be both efficient and a great way to make maintenance or typo editors feel appreciated. Perhaps we could have a series of checkboxes on the "Preferences" page so users can classify themselves by interest? (Online video games use similar systems to great effect.) 2ReinreB2 (talk) 01:21, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
•  Support good idea ! Ne0Freedom (talk) 13:24, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
•  Support This could be a really awesome method of developing articles! ZfJames (talk) 19:28, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
•  Support This is a wonderful idea. In articles about musicians for example, four would collaborate in launching page on a single artist. One could pitch in with the musical career of the artist, another one would work on the personal life, charity, activism by the celebrity, a third would pitch in with the discography, listing of albums, singles, peak positions in charts, a fourth would establish the infobox and inserting of photos. Werldwayd (talk) 14:06, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
•  Oppose Some editors are proficient in multiple areas of a topic. Limiting access to only a single area suggests that this can't be possible, thus defeating the egalitarian objective of Wikipedia. Moreover, if someone is pigeon-holed into one area but wants to add to another, how do they do so? And if an independent editor wants to contribute, can they? I imagine there would be push-back by the established assembly-line. In a professional setting, this idea is effective, but Wikipedia is voluntary and better off because it is. Ouranista (talk) 15:59, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
  • You're missing the point. This is a totally voluntary way to choose the tasks you like while avoiding ones you don't. No pressure, and an approach to multiple things is good! PrussianOwl (talk) 21:03, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

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