From: Steven Walling <swalling@wikimedia.org>
Date: Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 9:41 PM
Subject: Re: Actual Inactive Wikipedia administrator survey (swalling@wikimedia.org)
To: "James Salsman (Google Docs)" <jsalsman@gmail.com>
Cc: Dario Taraborelli <dtaraborelli@wikimedia.org>
Dear James,
Please do not continue to send out this survey as is. This is extremely problematic for a variety of reasons:
First and foremost, as you are well aware, you did not ask me whether I would like to sign my name as the point of contact for a survey. This is disingenuous, as it implies that I had prior knowledge of the survey and its questions. I did not, and I have already received emails directed at me personally inquiring about the survey.
Second, and just as important, all surveys of Wikipedians that use special methods such as mass emailing or talk page messaging not only should be approved in advance by the Research Committee, a group of both Wikimedia Foundation staff, independent researchers, and Wikimedians. This is to ensure that the vast number of researchers interested in contacting editors do not abuse the trust of our community (including ex-editors). I strongly urge you to seek RCOM approval before going further, and have CC'd Dario Taraborelli, the Foundation point of contact for RCOM.
Last, and definitely not least, running a successful survey is dependent on the goodwill and cooperation of Wikipedians. As a user banned from English Wikipedia, I do not think that the community would feel very comfortable with you email hundreds of people through Wikipedia.
Once again, please halt surveying people until the consensus process required by the community and the Research Committee has been followed and the survey has been approved.
On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 4:59 PM, James Salsman (Google Docs) <jsalsman@gmail.com> wrote:
I've shared Actual Inactive Wikipedia administrator survey Message from jsalsman@gmail.com:Steven, Thanks for being the point of contact for this survey. The real "live" survey URL is http://j.mp/inactiveadminsurvey The responses are starting to come in (the first on Line 2 is my "test-ignore). Please let me know if you have any trouble reading the spreadsheet. I will summarize it with R in a week or two. I sent out probably exactly 99 emails (plus a test to me) from the first 112 of the 286 listed on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Former_administrators#Desysopped_for_inactivity but then I got email-throttled, so it looks like it will take the whole weekend to cover all on that list, which is the most I can hope for. The rest didn't have emails or set preferences to refuse email. This is easy enough I'm not going to ask for sysadmin help to BCC them all at once (but I'm not adverse to that if you want to ask around. The email text is below, and the next on the list is # 113, User:Jersyko.) Best regards, James Salsman --- email text --- Subject: Wikipedia e-mail: inactive administrator survey Dear Wikipedia Administrator: Please respond to this survey: http://j.mp/inactiveadminsurvey A few years ago, the Wikimedia Strategic Planning Task Force on Community Health noted the troubling decline in administrator participation in the English Wikipedia and resolved to survey inactive administrators to identify the reasons that admins leave the project, in hopes that would help improve the associated issues. By mid-2010 a survey was drafted but resourcing and other issues prevented action until recently when a statistical analysis revealed a 96% chance that administrator inactivity is causing the decline in active English Wikipedia editors as a whole. Therefore, this survey is being distributed to you so that the reasons for administrator attrition can be better understood and acted on. Individual responses will be kept anonymous, but aggregate summaries will be published as soon as they are available. The goal of this research is to get broad, qualitative information about why administrators have stopped contributing, in hopes that we can use it to revitalize both the administrator and editor community. If you have questions, please reply by email to surveyrole@gmail.com or the Wikimedia Foundation Community editor retention point of contact for this survey, Steven Walling: swalling@wikimedia.org. The direct administration of this survey is being performed by a Community Health Task Force volunteer who wishes to remain anonymous at this time. Thank you very much for your service to the community and your help with this survey response.
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Steven Walling