Interestingly, Howie Fung's survey (which was conducted without a gender entry) identified "complexity" of the editing process, be it through the GUI or the editorial hoop-jumping, to be one of the two most prominent reasons for users retiring or leaving the community disenchanted. This kind of links in with that.
On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 3:28 AM, Lady of Shalott <ladyofshalott.wp@gmail.com
wrote:
The other day it occurred to me that a particular friend of mine could be a great contributor to Wikipedia, and so I asked her if she ever did. She said that she used to, and in fact started an article about a particular topic (a particular biological taxon - I won't be more specific at this point, but it is an extant article). I asked her if there was a particular reason she stopped, and her answer was,
"Yes, the last time I tried to, though admittedly that has been a few years ago, I was unable to. I can't remember what the impediment was but I'm basically a lazy person. If I have to jump through even one hoop, I lose my passion."
Now perhaps she tried to edit an article protected for a very good reason, or who knows what happened, but this event was enough to make her stop. I imagine she's not the only person to react this way. Is this reaction more typical of one sex than another? I have no idea. I just thought I'd throw it into the mix of known reasons some people don't edit Wikipedia.
Aleta/LadyofShalott
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