| Title: |
Who Gets Rejected? An Exploratory Look at Wikipedian Socialization by Its Dark Side |
| Authors: |
Joubert, Léo |
| Contributors: |
Laboratoire d'Economie et de Sociologie du Travail (LEST); Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Laboratoire des Dynamiques Sociales (DySoLab); Université de Rouen Normandie (UNIROUEN); Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU)-Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire Homme et Société (IRIHS); Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU)-Université de Rouen Normandie (UNIROUEN); Normandie Université (NU); Wikimedia Foundation |
| Source: |
13th WikiWorkshop; https://hal.science/hal-05555674; 13th WikiWorkshop, Wikimedia Foundation, Mar 2026, En ligne, France |
| Publisher Information: |
CCSD |
| Publication Year: |
2026 |
| Collection: |
Aix-Marseille Université: HAL |
| Subject Terms: |
[SHS.SOCIO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Sociology |
| Subject Geographic: |
En ligne; France |
| Description: |
International audience ; Reverts constitute one of the central mechanisms of editorial regulation on Wikipedia. By undoing edits deemed problematic, they contribute to content stabilization, rule enforcement, and coordination among contributors. However, reverts also represent a potentially costly social experience for contributors—especially newcomers—since they materialize a form of public rejection of participation. This article proposes an empirical analysis of reverts as a privileged vantage point from which to observe processes of Wikipedian socialization, focusing on the social and editorial conditions that make a contribution more or less likely to be reverted.Drawing on an analysis of French-language Wikipedia dumps, we model the probability that a contribution is reverted using logistic regression models that incorporate variables related to contributors’ trajectories, page-level local dynamics, and the normative characteristics of produced content. This approach moves beyond a strictly interactional or moral reading of reverts, situating them instead within a set of relational and temporal structures that shape opportunities for acceptance or rejection.Our results first highlight a protective effect of experience within the community: as contributors accumulate edits, their contributions become less likely to be reverted. However, this effect is strongly conditioned by local embeddedness on pages. Contributions made on pages in which a contributor has been involved for a long time are significantly less exposed to reversion, suggesting that Wikipedian integration does not occur solely at the global level of the community, but also within specific editorial spaces. Conversely, intervening late on a page without sustained prior involvement increases the risk of rejection, even for experienced contributors.The analysis also shows that reverts are closely tied to conflictual contexts. Pages characterized by a high rate of past reverts constitute more hostile environments, in which any new contribution is ... |
| Document Type: |
conference object |
| Language: |
English |
| Availability: |
https://hal.science/hal-05555674; https://hal.science/hal-05555674v1/document; https://hal.science/hal-05555674v1/file/WikiWorkshop2026_reverts%20%2811%29.pdf |
| Rights: |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ ; info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.53B2EDC7 |
| Database: |
BASE |