Start Date

10-12-2017 12:00 AM

Description

This paper examines “Requests for Adminship (RfA)” in Wikipedia. RfAs are elections in Wikipedia by which authors can gain additional technical features that help them in editing Wikipedia. Particularly, we answer the research question what increases the likelihood of people to cast a neutral vote for a potential administrator. In order to do so, we draw on reciprocity theory and balance theory. Our results indicate a strong tendency for neutral reciprocity (i.e. a greater likelihood that a user i casts a neutral vote for another user j that also cast a neutral vote for the first user i), as well as for neutral balance (i.e. a greater likelihood that a user i casts a neutral vote for another user j that has received an opposing vote by a user h that the first user i cast with an opposing vote).

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Dec 10th, 12:00 AM

Stated Neutrality in Voting Networks – The Case of Wikipedia’s Request for Adminship

This paper examines “Requests for Adminship (RfA)” in Wikipedia. RfAs are elections in Wikipedia by which authors can gain additional technical features that help them in editing Wikipedia. Particularly, we answer the research question what increases the likelihood of people to cast a neutral vote for a potential administrator. In order to do so, we draw on reciprocity theory and balance theory. Our results indicate a strong tendency for neutral reciprocity (i.e. a greater likelihood that a user i casts a neutral vote for another user j that also cast a neutral vote for the first user i), as well as for neutral balance (i.e. a greater likelihood that a user i casts a neutral vote for another user j that has received an opposing vote by a user h that the first user i cast with an opposing vote).