Deliberation in Wikipedia: Rationales in Article Deletion Discussions

1. Deliberation in Wikipedia: Rationales in Article Deletion Discussions Lu Xiao and Nicole Askin May 29, 2012

2. Wikipedia is… • The world’s largest online encyclopedia • A consensus-driven distributed community • Dynamic – hundreds of contributions are added (and deleted) daily • Open – anyone can edit. One process for the removal of articles is by debate. The debate process serves as a window for understanding distributed collaboration and the socio-technical framework in which this occurs

3. Project introduction • Purpose: to evaluate the means by which articles are kept or deleted on Wikipedia. • Means: identify and classify rationales used in article deletion discussions • Builds on previous examinations of the Wikipedia consensus approach

4. Methodology • Two independent coders examined recent deletion debates and developed a consensus coding schema to identify reasons used to justify keeping or deleting articles • These codes were used to classify rationales used in deletion debates on three selected dates

5. Coding schema • Notability • Credibility • Policy • Precedent • Procedural • Richness • Utility • Agree • Disagree • None

6. Sample • Date selection

7. Findings 1 June 2010: 443 unique votes for 89 debates, 813 coded rationales

8. Conclusions • Multiple rationales per vote • Rationales reflect community conventions • “Arguments to avoid in deletion discussions” • Notability most common rationale cited for keeping or deleting article • Topic carries more weight than quality of article

9. Implications • Aids in evaluating rationality of policies and community deliberation • Provides an understanding of cooperation on Wikipedia • Next steps: examine impact of external influences on decision-making, consider potential sociotechnical aids to collaborative processes

10. Thank you