WereSpielChequers werespielchequers@gmail.com writes:
Yes, but may I also point out that one of our biggest problems on EN wiki is that even good faith newbies will often have their edits reverted. [...] By contrast commons is a relatively lonely place.
This comment reminds me that for large wikis things can be quite heterogenous across different parts of the wiki (different subject matter, popular vs. obscure articles, etc.), which entire-wiki-level analyses tend to obscure. For example in my own editing, EN-wiki is also "a relatively lonely place"--- most articles I've created *years* ago have gotten no feedback at all in the time since (no comments on the talk page, no non-housekeeping edits, etc.). For other people, of course, it feels like a crowded place where someone is always stepping on your toes, presumably because they edit different kinds of articles. To understand exactly what's going on with editor culture/retention/etc., I think we need to analyze therefore at a finer level of granularity than "the English Wikipedia" (or "the German Wikipedia", etc.).
-Mark