On 5/17/07, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:
The other problem is that it's pretty much never 1000. Almost all
votelike things on Wikipedia have participation rates in the single
digits for any individual discussion.
Well, a funny thought about that. RfAs from back in the day had what, 5-10
to pass? A bit more? 100+ supports now isn't uncommon, a couple of years
later. A heated AfD might get 50-100 total nowadays. Policy discussions are
limited to the cliques that want to enforce them for whatever (good or bad)
reason, that are interested in that given one for some reason
(badlydrawnjeff and notability/DRV stuff for example), and general policy
wonks like Sidaway and Radiant.
Imagine how crazy it could be by 2010 if the participation continues to
scale as it has. You might have AfD numbers (50-100) on a typical policy
chat, and numbers like that ATT poll on RfA. At some tipping point,
discussion in the sense it's known as now will become impractical and
unrealistic, and the system will become geared to a vote-like mentality out
of sheer practicality, which would devalue individual voices (not
particularly a bad thing, but that's an old bone of mine) and enhance the
value of community trends. I could be wrong, though.
Regards,
Joe
http://www.joeszilagyi.com