The Wikistress Reduction Initiative is a project comprising interested Wikipedians to reduce the psychological strain imposed by the Wikipedia project on its editors, and find new ways in order to lessen the emotional impact it has on project participants in order to ensure their continued participation and well-being. As Wikipedia grows in scope and scale, psychological issues become worse due to increased levels of interpersonal conflict and pressure on editors; thus, implementing ways of reducing stress is essential to the ongoing success of the Wikipedia encyclopaedia project.

Tasks carried out by this initiative will include the formulation of policy changes (or elimination of policies found to be psychologically detrimental), improvement to the MediaWiki software, the foundation of new anti-stress initiatives and investigation into psychological issues on Wikipedia. This will involve continual liaison with the community, the MediaWiki development team, and the Wikimedia Board.

In alphabetical order:

• 1bookfan
• Jet123
• Rob Church - MediaWiki Developer
• Nicholas Turnbull

Observation: Browsing and editing Wikipedia using the text-mode browser Lynx feels much less stressful, and generally gives the appearance of less pressure on the user.

Application: How can we apply the differences between the graphical MediaWiki interface and its text-mode appearance to reduce stress?

Solution: Develop a new skin for MediaWiki which combines elements observed in the Lynx browser with the existing Monobook interface in order to reduce the psychological impact caused by the MediaWiki interface.

Observation: Increasingly, as the project progresses, an unprecedented level of users are beginning to leave Wikipedia via "wikisuicide" (blanking, or changing to an emotional leaving message, of their user pages) which usually can be traced back to psychological issues (interpersonal conflict, stress, criticism of their actions, perceived unfairness, behaviour of other users etc.) At present, provisions are available for comment, mediation and arbitration of conflicts and matters relating to Wikipedia conduct, but no service for providing specific emotional support to affected users (with the exception of Esperanza).

Application: How could we implement an initiative to provide counselling to individuals who are under psychological strain from Wikipedia, in order to prevent them from leaving and/or receiving psychological trauma due to their work on Wikipedia?

Solution: Implement a Counselling Committee / Counselling Cabal? (There are however serious legal implications to this that would have to be thought through, and there are problems of mental health being at stake if this is done badly).

Observation: Wikipedia can be a very harsh and psychologically demanding place to work in, which may make it extremely difficult for those suffering mental health issues to cope with its demands. In the interests of opening up editing to as many competent editors as possible, this should be drawn to the attention of the community to prevent misunderstandings and assumptions of bad faith as a consequence of difficulties encountered due to the mental health problems.

Application: People who suffer mental health issues in real life could do with some sort of message box on their user page, in order to let people know that they might have difficulties on Wikipedia from time to time and to perhaps get people to take their issues into account should their difficulties cause problems with Wikipedia interaction. Note, however, that this shouldn't mean a carte blanche for those suffering mental health issues to be able to behave poorly on Wikipedia.

Solution: Implement a banner and category as above.

Result: Completed as of 6th March 2006. {{User-warning-mentalhealth}} produces the following:

This user is currently experiencing mental health issues that may affect his or her ability to work on Wikipedia. Please bear in mind that these issues may temporarily affect this user's judgement, and the user may occasionally be unable to carry out their usual Wikipedia duties. This user may not consequently be able to respond to talk page messages or e-mails in a timely manner during affected periods, and your patience is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

--NicholasTurnbull | (talk) 20:57, 5 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]