Moving to Real People
OurWork > Projects > Moving to Real People
Brainstorming all that needs to be done, or all that we want to happen. We can prioritize later.
- All functions appear on site even for IP, and when a person clicks "edit" or "move page" or "InfluenceUs" or "add claim" or any other button that requires login, they are asked to log in or signup.
- Video about real-people that appears on the sign-up screen.
- The sign-up screen needs to be re-designed so we get real people automatically. We shouldn't have a "username" field at all.
- Encourage people to upload portraits. With a real name should follow someone's face too and add a human presence to a page.
10-11am Portland Friday 14 March 2008 agenda
- (5 minutes) framing talking about login to edit and the larger issues
- (5 minutes) brainstorm where are real people in use?
- Facebook, Twitter, C2, LinkedIn, some MySpace, Meatball wiki, CommunityWiki, Citizendium, some weblogs, most general news sources in bylines & letters to editor and op eds and etsy (artists) - Recent Visitors, omidyar.net
- (15 minutes) technical brainstorming/planning
- Name or first name, last name, add contacts from real people sites, lose username, login via email address - restricted profile
- (15 minutes) messaging brainstorming/planning
- (10 minutes) next actions
Discussion/Thoughts/Comments
- Asking people for their first and last name instead of user name should get us real names. But whats to make sure that people don't use fake names? Obed
- Also we ought to find out why people do not use real names online. And the ones who do, what made them use it. This way we will know what worked for the ones who did use real names (so we can do more of it). Saad
- We ought to move away from even using 'username'. One way of doing this is that instead of User:FirstnameLastname edited a page we always display FirstName LastName left an Influence Us message, Billy Bob removed Related Domains, Bill McFlyerypants created a new page. And when you look at the history, these changes are also reflected there that we see Real Names. Saad
- Another way of enforcing real names is that by default your signature is enabled as FirstnameLastname and it prompts you to sign your comment when you leave a talk page message. Ideally this would only work in the following areas: When you are leaving a message in someone's talk page, when you are participating in a poll, when you leave an influence us comment and when you claim something. Saad
- People may start using their real names if they see other people doing the same on AboutUs. So we need to make sure that the new people get a glimpse of our "Real People" culture at the start, through some sort of site messaging maybe. Also, we need to be clear on why we are encouraging people to use their real names in the first place, i.e. how does it help AboutUs and the AboutUsCommunity. Obed Suhail
- One of the ways to do this is by taking the Real Names of these new sign ups and adding a new feed to the front page of Newly Signed up Community members: Su Tuoba, Jim Grey, Art Van Dalay, Tim McBurger, John Dope, Shaikh Rasheed Saad
- Review and propagate Category:IPreferRealPeople badge. Obed Suhail
- Allow people to badge their personal pages? Or manually badge people's personal pages if they use real name? Later would involve lots of manpower. Saad
- Consider how wikipedia community offers badges which people put on their personal pages. We do the same but we have not encouraged badge usage that much. One of the ways we know of a real person (and his real life) is by seeing the sort of projects, areas of interest, and things that he is involved in. Saad
- How do we encourage existing community members to use their real names? Obed Suhail
- Writing a blog post? Obed Suhail
- (Warning: Brace yourself for a shot in the wild) One of the ways that will encourage people's use of real name is if we start to feature people as well. For example, high profile people have their pages on wikipedia. We have already stated that we are open to everybody which includes People,' Businesses and Organizations. That means that CEO of John Doe's personal page would actually be a wiki article on John Doe which he can reference and present. We can also then expand the Writing articles for companies business to Writing articles on people which is already a by-product of wiki coaching. For example, I know more about the CEO of my very first wiki coach client now to write an article just on him on his own page! Saad
- I second this idea! Obed Suhail
- We have always been doing this. It just never happens that anyone nominates a user page worthy of featuring. The big thing here is that the user needs to be contacted before featuring so that they understand how much a front page feature will juke their SEO (potentially in ways they don't want). -- TakKendrick | talk
10:27, 14 March 2008 (PDT)
- We've been talking about this for a while- now is the time. Kasey 10:20, 14 March 2008 (PDT) Also, we have done at least one user interview feature. Kasey
- I see it going two ways, 1) someone nominates a user page thats they have built which is really great 2) a company's CEO asks us to write an article on him (like PromoteMe). With the earlier option, one may run into this paradox. The later option however one can be an add-on for PromoteMe. Tak im not comprehending the effects of this on their SEO. Explain more? Not every CEO can have an article on Wikipedia. But they can at AboutUs. --Sa'ad talk•email•chat 06:19, 17 March 2008 (PDT)
- I mean effect their SEO in ways they don't want. There are users that don't want their names (especially their real names) to come up high in Google. As soon as we feature them, this really becomes an issue. I'm mostly flagging this from this angle, but the move to real names in general should discuss this: by being transparent on AboutUs and giving your name out here, you're also opening yourself up to extra visibility on the rest of the web, due to our Google-juice. For businesses, this is a win-win situation, but some of our users have in the past been concerned when they've built out great pages on themselves only to find that now their personal info is being floating into the internet. We need to be sensitive here. -- TakKendrick | talk 17:05, 17 March 2008 (PDT)
- I mean effect their SEO in ways they don't want. There are users that don't want their names (especially their real names) to come up high in Google. As soon as we feature them, this really becomes an issue. I'm mostly flagging this from this angle, but the move to real names in general should discuss this: by being transparent on AboutUs and giving your name out here, you're also opening yourself up to extra visibility on the rest of the web, due to our Google-juice. For businesses, this is a win-win situation, but some of our users have in the past been concerned when they've built out great pages on themselves only to find that now their personal info is being floating into the internet. We need to be sensitive here. -- TakKendrick | talk
- I see it going two ways, 1) someone nominates a user page thats they have built which is really great 2) a company's CEO asks us to write an article on him (like PromoteMe). With the earlier option, one may run into this paradox. The later option however one can be an add-on for PromoteMe. Tak im not comprehending the effects of this on their SEO. Explain more? Not every CEO can have an article on Wikipedia. But they can at AboutUs. --Sa'ad talk•email•chat 06:19, 17 March 2008 (PDT)
- We've been talking about this for a while- now is the time. Kasey 10:20, 14 March 2008 (PDT) Also, we have done at least one user interview feature. Kasey
- I'm not sure if we have time or resources for this but we can also promote "Real People" culture by making a widget (displayed on the top right corner of the page under login info) which shows people currently visiting the page that you too are on. We can also expand this by showing Real Names (or thumbnail of their portraits) who have been editing the page. Thoughts? Obed Suhail
- Have you been seeing this feature in the compostus skin? Check down in the footer.
- Nice!
- Have you been seeing this feature in the compostus skin? Check down in the footer.
- I'd like to draw a fuller line here between "Real People" and "Real Names". This pages is technically about "Real People" but the discussion last night centered around "Real Names". While "Real Names" can be "Real People" they don't always mean the same thing. We have people in the community and on staff that don't use their full name (ie. "Real Name") or even use a common "user name" but they are in fact very much "Real People" (and I think this is a good thing and what we really want). While I'm not overwhelmingly wanting to be involved in the "Moving to Real People" conversation, I think this line should be discussed and defined (better than I'm doing here). And, then whichever of the two we do, we should make sure community understands this distinction as well. -- TakKendrick | talk 10:28, 14 March 2008 (PDT)
- The idea of enforcing is pretty unsettling. Real names and Real People are not the same thing, so a move to Real People is not necessarily achieved by a move to Real Names.
- We are attempting two things here:
- A move to log in to edit.
- A push toward Real Names (Real People for those that see them as the same)
- Something else to consider is that other sites have the option to make one's profile private; we do not provide that. Not only are all the edits a person makes visible, but all personal pages are as well, so the dynamic is different. Kasey 14:19, 14 March 2008 (PDT)
Ted's Notes, to be re-factored in
- (5 minutes) framing talking about login to edit and the larger issues
- Login to edit isn't the real issue, it could be part of the issue
- Name, rather than real name - then how to enforce
- Are companies people too? No, people that represent
- (5 minutes) brainstorm where are real people in use?
- Some MySpace
- Ward's wiki
- Meatball
- Community Wiki
- Citizendium
- Many blogs
- Bylines and letters to editor and opt-eds in newspapers and magazines
- etsy.com website for artists - their brand is their identity
- Recent Visitors
- omidyar.net
- look at the above, reputation matters
- (15 minutes) technical brainstorming/planning
- First Name Last Name
- Name
- add contact from real people sites like LinkedIn, Facebook
- is there a way for the mediawiki Real Name field we have so far to actually be useful
- idea that unique identifier is email or something else and then the actual name is user configurable
- what about if people's real names were used as the linktext for signatures
- cookie that says we've moved to a Real People place - please give us your first name, last name, email
- portraits, other real-world connections
- portraits of people with influence us and claims and recently edited this page
- people without portraits have a question mark which is embarrassing
- restricting profiles as an option?
- (15 minutes) messaging brainstorming/planning
- first names alone okay? we don't always use our whole name all the time in the real world
- Real names and real people are not necessarily the same thing
- If RedDog88 points to MarkDilley, then the nickname refers to a real person
- why do we want real names?
- edits are better
- are we asking more from people than we are from companies
- should we be building pages for people that are principles in companies? or should that info go on the company page? and if the person then comes and edits, they can make their own pages?
- the messaging is really simple things that are technical maybe
- images attached to actions are messaging
- can we verify real people and somehow highlight those people?
- for example, pictures of the real people currently online on the front page or on every page
- what about age or location or any other fields that encourage real people?
- interests or tags with people
- people don't read - they just look to see what the norms are and they follow
- (10 minutes) next actions
- is there a timeline?
- what is dev working on that relates to this that we need to know about and can be involved in?
- let's make a meeting with dev where we see what they've decided already and what still needs to be decided
