Exactly. IRC is for the old school and ubergeek. And as Sue has said in the past - we're only going to "retain" specific types of people to be long term editors (ubergeeks like us) but, if we can figure out a solution to help out the "average joe/sphine" editor...

then huzzah. That's what the Teahouse helped do, but what is the next step to supporting people who haven't quite passed the barrier to "editing" Wikipedia. 

And expecting people to want to "join the ranks" through OTRS emails surely isn't the ultimate goal..

-Sarah

On Sat, Aug 2, 2014 at 7:02 PM, Michael J. Lowrey <orangemike@gmail.com> wrote:

That's exactly my point, Pine. This kind of inside-baseball geekery is
so much Choctaw to the ordinary new editor we are trying to recruit
and retain, people more likely to be using Pinterest or Skype or
Ravelry to communicate with peers and mentors.

On Sat, Aug 2, 2014 at 8:54 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine@gmail.com> wrote:
> You might be surprised how widely and how much Freenode is used for open
> source projects. The Blender main and dev channels were even more active
> than English Wikipedia's equivalents when I visited a few days ago.
> Pine
>
> On Aug 2, 2014 6:38 PM, "Michael J. Lowrey" <orangemike@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> IRC is almost embarrassingly old technology; Wikimedia Foundation
>> projects are the only place I've seen it mentioned in the last five
>> years or more.
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Aug 2, 2014 at 7:29 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > We already have #wikipedia-en-help which is remarkably good for a
>> > volunteer
>> > help project. Links to join that IRC channel could be offered in
>> > multiple
>> > places. Other languages may have similar channels.
>> >
>> > Pine
>> >
>> > On Aug 2, 2014 8:42 AM, "Jeremy Baron" <jeremy@tuxmachine.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> On Aug 2, 2014 11:01 AM, "LtPowers" <LtPowers_Wiki@rochester.rr.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >> > And then there could be a little chat window allowing real-time
>> >> > communication while the editor walks through her first edit.
>> >>
>> >> [originally didn't realize who you were replying to… also haven't read
>> >> the
>> >> whole thread yet]
>> >>
>> >> That is technically feasible. Maybe would have new implications for
>> >> privacy (including WMF privacy policy). Unless the realtime chats were
>> >> publicly logged. (then same privacy as existing teahouse, etc)
>> >>
>> >> Essentially would be a more interactive version of teahouse? (i.e.
>> >> shorter
>> >> wait for a reply and you're paired with someone that's known to be
>> >> available
>> >> at that moment) would be a part of teahouse?
>> >>
>> >> How would you staff it? Shifts?
>> >>
>> >> Anyway, that does nothing for the case Kathleen describes. 25 people
>> >> (20f:5m) in a class and everyone getting that introduction to all
>> >> things
>> >> wiki. Then 7 stay active for a year including all the men. (and only 2
>> >> of
>> >> the 20 women)
>> >>
>> >> I'm leaning towards thinking we as a community should (for now) focus
>> >> more
>> >> on the retention gap than the recruitment gap. Then we're not
>> >> recruiting
>> >> people just to (mostly) lose them in a month or two. But would be
>> >> interested
>> >> to hear thoughts on that from someone with a more rigorous analysis.
>> >>
>> >> -Jeremy (jeremyb)
>> >>
>> >> P.S. http://www.onthemedia.org/story/31-race-swap-experiment/
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
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>> >> Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org
>> >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap
>> >>
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Michael J. "Orange Mike" Lowrey
>>
>> "When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food
>> and clothes."
>>      --  Desiderius Erasmus
>>
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--
Michael J. "Orange Mike" Lowrey

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food
and clothes."
     --  Desiderius Erasmus

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--

Sarah Stierch

-----

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