Wikipedia introduces WikiLove button

The Internet is an extremely social construct – that would explain the explosion of sites that tend to border on the personal, alongside social networks and microblogging services that keep your family and friends updated on your latest escapades. Wikipedia wants you to show your “love” to select articles through the introduction of a “WikiLove” button which has the aim of encouraging its contributors to keep on editing, never mind the increase of corrections and criticism.

The Wikimedia Foundation that runs Wikipedia, recently published a blog post that introduced the button as part of a new feature which will be deployed on its prototype site. Users can send one another messages of encouragement just when they feel like giving up after receiving far too many brickbats instead of bouquets. Wikimedia has started to request for users to create a test account, give WikiLove some, er, love, and deliver feedback over at the WikiLove talk page.

To put it in a nutshell, WikiLove is a simple experiment in appreciation. Like or Love? Since the former has already been booked (pun intended), we will just have to settle on the stuff that makes the world go round.