Wikimedia Deutschland/Editor Survey 2016

Contact

Wikimedia Germany

This page documents a completed research project.

The Editor Survey 2016 was a survey conducted by Wikimedia Deutschland with focus on the German speaking active editor community.

Summary

Key Facts

It was conducted from January 22nd - January 31st 2016. 686 active members of the community took the survey. The initial deadline could be antedated because the aimed number of participants was reached earlier than expected.

Questionnaire

The complete questionnaire is available here.

Core Findings

High number of participants (n = 686) despite short survey time: topic seems very relevant.
High number of comments provides many and diverse suggestions and remarks.
Results confirm the necessity to improve the communication culture and the support offered to new editors within the German Wikipedia.
Potential: 42% of the participants are willing to commit to support new editors, another 32% have not decided yet - this poses a great potential for offering special support to new editors. The 42% are those who are very active, communicative editors that also meet other editors personally.

Results

Analysis of the results of the Wikimedia Germany Editor Survey 2016 on Welcoming Culture

WMDE input presentation with key findings, held at WMF, June 2016

General questions about the survey

What are the objectives of this survey?

One of the goals of Wikimedia Deutschland for 2016 is to attract new editors and to keep them contributing. With this goal in mind we want to evaluate the openness of the German-speaking community for a social approach to new editor support and assumed higher rate of surviving new editors. There are several many-to-many or one-to-one settings in the German Wikipedia which provide on-wiki answers, encouragement and peer support to new editors but have not been analyzed before with a focus on the German Wikipedia. Therefore the survey focused on these issues:

Understanding current commitment of active community to support new editors
Gathering experiences and opinions of active editors
Increasing understanding of (perceived) welcome-culture / culture of openness
Information regarding commitment to support new editors

Which Wikimedia projects does the survey cover?

The survey focused on German Wikipedia.

How could participants take the survey?

Via a central notice banner participants were invited. The central noticed was targeted on logged-in users with at least 5 monthly edits for the past 6 months.

How will the survey data be handled? What about privacy?

The survey was administered via an anonymized survey link leading to the survey. No personal data was collected automatically. The response data was anonymized before conducting analysis to ensure that individual responses cannot be associated with specific respondents. The data was analyzed collectively and responses were not associated with individual respondents.

How can I provide feedback?

You can provide feedback about the survey on the talk page.

Survey design

Who designed the survey, and how?

The questions are the outcome of a collaboration of Wikimedia Deutschland with a research service provider and members of the German speaking community, reviewing and testing the questionnaire. It incorporated several questions taken from the editor survey conducted by WMNL in 2015. Several questions were added adapted to the special research question of WMDE (e.g. about welcoming culture and support offers for new editors). The questionnaire consisted of 19 questions (17 closed, 2 open questions).

Survey implementation

What software was used?

The survey was conducted using Qualtrics, a proprietary service that is regularly used for surveys by the WMF.

Further materials

Presentation about WMDE editor survey, presented at meeting with WMF teams on June, 14th 2016.