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).
Recommended Citation
Putzke, Johannes and Takeda, Hideaki, "Stated Neutrality in Voting Networks – The Case of Wikipedia’s Request for Adminship" (2017). ICIS 2017 Proceedings. 5.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2017/SocialMedia/Presentations/5
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).