Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-07-11/WikiProject report

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I find the Wikiproject interviews quite good. The interviewer doesn't just ask the same questions each time, but comes up with interesting ones that are specific to the topic at hand. Sometimes they are thoughtful ("more meta") and the responses of editors are as well.

I think some "what I've learned from interviewing and looking at Wikiprojects" feature by the main interviewer might be interesting. I realize this would be some work of analysis and writing, but I think the interviewer may have a more informed perspective than anyone on Wiki for what makes Projects tick (or not). Obviously this would be a bit more of an opinion or analysis piece...and I think on the individual interviews, they are (wisely) pretty neutral, just with good tee-up questions to get the subjects to opine.

TCO (reviews needed) 16:27, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your kind comments. Coming up with neutral-yet-interesting questions is one of the most challenging parts of writing for the WikiProject Report. For the best results, you have to figure out what motivates the project's members long before you write a question asking them about their motivations. Figure out what things aggravate them before you ask about the obstacles they have to overcome. You'll learn a lot from poking around the project's subpages and talk pages.

As to "what I've learned from interviewing and looking at Wikiprojects", I wrote an article on reviving WikiProjects a couple months ago that might interest you. There's also a retrospective each year called "Where are they now?" that allows for some analysis of the success and failure of projects. I'd like to do more of these "special" reports in the future, so check back in September for a big birthday bash... -Mabeenot (talk) 01:58, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]