Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Helping Give Away Psychological Science/Leveraging Wiki Platforms for Academic Conferences

Question about endorsements

With many of the projects that HGAPS is facilitating with professional societies, many of the contributors of content knowledge or support do not have Wiki accounts (so we are seeing a lot of IP and MAC addresses in the signatures). Would it be helpful if they included their name, degree, or title? Or is that counterproductive? We recognize that a bunch of IP address, un-attributed comments could look like ballot-box stuffing, and also that signing real names goes against some of Wiki norms and culture, so we welcome any thoughts about how best to proceed! Eyoungstrom (talk) 13:30, 16 February 2022 (UTC)

@Eyoungstrom: Thanks for this question. I definitely acknowledge how in many on-wiki discussions (such as requests for deletion or article proposals) lots of unregistered accounts participating in a single discussion can sometimes have an illegitimate appearance. As it happens, we have no specific requirements or expectations around this practice as it concerns endorsements, because endorsements are not usually a major factor when it comes to our funding decisions. We look more closely at how applicants engage with relevant communities in relation to their proposal and prior work, and less on how many or what specific people voluntarily endorse a proposal. (Like other on-wiki discussions on some Wikimedia projects, funding decisions are not a vote.) Another factor here is that volunteer communities do not always have the benefit of time and attention to review every proposal that comes our way, which is understandable. Given all that, if any individual wants to provide any information that could help contextualize their endorsement, they are welcome to do so, but our review of your proposal will be unaffected if this is not done. Let me know if you have any other questions. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 20:13, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

@User:JethroBT: Thanks, this is detailed, transparent, clear (and a relief!). Much appreciated! Eyoungstrom (talk) 21:57, 17 February 2022 (UTC)