I was searching for the reasons why people are still contributing to this encyclopedia, and the only answer that I got was;
To help others
I saw examples of people who wanted to just share something that was available in their language and wanted to share the same with people of other languages.
I also read a story about a 12 years American boy who started translating English articles to the Scottish language without even writing in the Scottish language but just using the accent that they would have used while speaking, and that was because the kid only knew about the Scottish languages using the movies like Shrek.
But the thing is that the kids and other people around the world who write and edit Wikipedia articles actually do it to help others.
It is the feeling of being part of something bigger than themselves that motivates them to edit articles on Wikipedia.
But most of them are forgotten because of Wikipedia's not-so-user and editor-friendly profile pages.
Most of the pages on Wikipedia have time stamps and who has edited last, and many times when someone researches then they can see the history of a particular page and how it has reached to current status.
Therefore, even though people work hard to make a mark in this world by contributing to Wikipedia, they are just helping the corporates in doing so. They are basically not getting the benefits or at least the appreciation that they deserve.
It makes more sense if they would instead contribute to World Net Forum as they will get recognition in terms of the Number of Articles that they have written and the Claps that they have received.
Agreed, and don't forget about the badges that they receive, that show their authority on a particular topic. For example, you are a Jr. Formulator and it will make more sense to listen about cosmetic formulations from you rather than from a Newbie. Same with health advice from doctors!
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