To encourage more editors, Wikipedia is launching a ‘love’ button in their site which is similar to the ‘like’ option in Facebook. Citing a survey of Wikipedia editors, the company said a majority of people edit more frequently when they feel appreciated. As the digital pages of Wikipedia continue to be filled, editors are praised by commentors less and less, but are criticized and corrected more frequently.

Wikipedia said that new editors’ experiences on the site are increasingly dominated by warnings, criticism, and teaching, and this new feature is an effort to quell the negative effects of those responses.

The WikiLove button, once it is rolled out to the main Wikipedia site, will appear in the right-hand corner of every user’s page. It takes the form of a tiny red heart. Clicking on the button, which readers are encouraged to do when they come across something they find deserving of praise, will pull up the Love Interface, a crude pop-up window. There, users can select from a number of options for images and add their own note. The tool was first built by Wikimedia Foundation developer and Wikimedian Ryan Kaldari as a small gadget, and the new editor engagement team at the Wikimedia Foundation has developed it into a full feature over the last few weeks.

The WikiLove button is scheduled to go live on Wednesday, June 29. You should be able to use the WikiLove extension, or disable it. The Wikimedia Foundation has also built-in metrics to the tool so that they’ll be able to measure how frequently it’s used and how it affects new editor activity. They also want to explore ways to engage new users and make the site more inviting.

Via Msnbc