![]() | This is an
essay on
civility. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
![]() | This page in a nutshell: A theory about what causes edit warring and how to lessen it. |
.
Ever noticed there are lots of fights in hockey but few in American football? They're both contact sports. Why hockey and not football? Same thing with transportation by car or by walking -- there are numerous instances of road rage but few between pedestrians, even if pedestrians bump into each other. And there is substantial Edit warring here in Wikipedia, but much less animosity when, for example, people discuss politics face-to-face in a coffeehouse.
What's going on?
What's common to all three -- hockey, car travel, and Wikipedia -- is that (1) anonymous competitors can (2) come on suddenly with (3) little or no warning and (4) cause big damage to us. We can not read their faces to get cues about their emotional state. It happens fast, with little warning. And the damage can be substantial -- flipped lying on one's back, crushed in a car accident, an article deleted. The four circumstances create fear, and we deal with the fear by becoming angry, by lashing out, by wikibattling. Maybe we might call it the Wikipedia road rage effect?
If this is right -- a big if -- there may be ways to lessen the wikibattling by adjusting the Wikipedia interface in subtle ways with technology. Any means to make users more identifiable, more human-looking, with faces perhaps, might help, as well as lessening the suddenness, or reminding users that changes are not permanent (that in Wikipedia, cars can be uncrashed.) Here are a few:
There still will be back-and-forth challenges, but there may be ways such as these to limit the anger by modifying the software interface.
![]() | This is an
essay on
civility. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
![]() | This page in a nutshell: A theory about what causes edit warring and how to lessen it. |
.
Ever noticed there are lots of fights in hockey but few in American football? They're both contact sports. Why hockey and not football? Same thing with transportation by car or by walking -- there are numerous instances of road rage but few between pedestrians, even if pedestrians bump into each other. And there is substantial Edit warring here in Wikipedia, but much less animosity when, for example, people discuss politics face-to-face in a coffeehouse.
What's going on?
What's common to all three -- hockey, car travel, and Wikipedia -- is that (1) anonymous competitors can (2) come on suddenly with (3) little or no warning and (4) cause big damage to us. We can not read their faces to get cues about their emotional state. It happens fast, with little warning. And the damage can be substantial -- flipped lying on one's back, crushed in a car accident, an article deleted. The four circumstances create fear, and we deal with the fear by becoming angry, by lashing out, by wikibattling. Maybe we might call it the Wikipedia road rage effect?
If this is right -- a big if -- there may be ways to lessen the wikibattling by adjusting the Wikipedia interface in subtle ways with technology. Any means to make users more identifiable, more human-looking, with faces perhaps, might help, as well as lessening the suddenness, or reminding users that changes are not permanent (that in Wikipedia, cars can be uncrashed.) Here are a few:
There still will be back-and-forth challenges, but there may be ways such as these to limit the anger by modifying the software interface.