A plethora of articles in the press recently have bashed Wikipedia for the organization’s lack of female editorship - a project that is supposedly “open to all” without female membership is clearly doin’ it rong. Por ejemplo:

Last week, I wrote my first Wikipedia article (check it out!) as part of a class project for Brian Carver’s Cyberlaw course in the Berkeley I-School. After reading all of the above articles, I didn’t feel particularly keen to edit but for class, I did as I was asked. As I clicked “submit” to save my article for the first time, I braced myself for an onslaught of nitpicky editors, legal activists with an axe to grind, or… something.

TLDR? I did indeed interact with a bunch of Wikipedia editors, and they were all supportive and kind. At first blush (or prima facie, as I’m learning to say in my law class), I think they’re doing the right thing - or at least, it’s clear that there are parts of the community who are trying to change things.

Editor Interaction #1: Nice guy! Welcomed me to Wikipedia, explained to me how Talk pages and Sandboxes worked as I got started writing my article.

Editor Interaction #2: A form asked me how I felt after posting my first article - I mentioned that I had been nervous that I might break the Wikipedia formatting rules. Someone responded on my talk page, and told me to check out Wikipeda’s “Be Bold” policy.

Editor Interaction #3: An editor posts to my talk page inviting me to the Wikipedia Teahouse. Editor Interaction #4 came today, similarly inviting me to the Teahouse.

If you click through to the Teahouse, it’s clearly aiming to broaden female participation - just look at the pastel background and references to tea. However, in substance, it does a lot of good not only to make Wikipedia more inviting to women, but to new editors in general. First, it provides profiles of Wikipedia editors, aiming to present well-rounded individuals with diverse backgrounds so that any new editor can feel like he or she “fits in”. Second, it provides a Q&A for new Wikipedia users to ask questions and chat with current editors. I didn’t feel patronized flipping through it, rather, I learned some useful information - and started to feel like I would like some of these other Wikipedia editors.

We’ll see how my development as a Wikipedian goes. I’m already eyeing some of the technical pages I think could use a fixup. But so far, so good, Wikipedia. I laud your efforts to welcome new users in to your community!