On 10/05/07, MacGyverMagic/Mgm macgyvermagic@gmail.com wrote:
Has there ever been research about how many vandals reform and become good editors? I would be very surprised if this was any significant percentage of the total. It's worth more to keep current editors than to help out people who are currently a nuisance and may or may not become helpful later.
It's certainly worth more in the short term. In the long term, it is one element in leading to a stagnant inward-facing culture, which is - to my eyes - the absolute root of all enwiki's current problems.
(I'm feeling cynical this week - but, in all seriousness, we are gradually becoming more and more assuming of bad faith from "external" contributors, and this is not a good thing - and a lot of other problems can be traced to it)