And I would comment that I don't see why the foundation should respect the autonomy
and social processes of any group that's effectively working against the
foundation's objectives through the group's norms. I would be inclined to say
"our platform, our rules" in that case.
I find it fascinating
Sent from my iPad
On 11 Sep 2014, at 4:00 pm, Pine W
<wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hello research colleagues,
When I look at the WMF Report Card, it appears to me that the global active editor stats
and the number of new accounts being registered per month has been relatively flat since
at least 2011.
Those of you who work in EE research and analytics, I would like to ask if there is a
summary of techniques that you have found that do produce statistically significant
results in improving editor retention. I know that some of you write tools, design
projects, or pull and analyze data about editors. It looks to me like WMF is investing
significant effort in research and tool creation, but we're not moving the needle to
create the results that we had hoped to achieve. So I'd like to ask what have we
learned from all of our time working on editor engagement about techniques and programs
that do improve the EE stats significant ways, so that we can hopefully accelerate the
implementation of programs and techniques that have demonstrated success.
I'd also like to ask what barriers you think prevent us from becoming more effective
at improving the number of users who register and the number of active editors. For
example, are users who go through GettingStarted often being deterred by quickly being
confronted by experienced editors in ways that make the newbies want to leave? If that is
a significant problem, how do you suggest addressing this?
One of my concerns about investing further in developing Flow, analytics tools like like
WIkimetrics, and further complex editor engagement research projects, is that the most
important challenges related to editor engagement may be problems that can only be solved
through primarily interpersonal and social means rather than the use of software tools and
mass communications. I like Wikimetrics and I use it, and I think there's an important
place for analytics and tool development in EE work, but I wonder if WMF should scale up
the emphasis on grassroots social and interpersonal efforts, particularly in the context
of the 2015+ Strategic Plan and Jimmy's speech at the 2014 Wikimania. What do you
think,and if your answer is yes, how do you think WMF can do this while respecting the
autonomy and social processes of the volunteer projects?
Thanks,
Pine
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