There's a new question of the week at Strategy wiki - http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Question_of_the_week
This week's question is: The Wall Street Journal published an article last week detailing the research of Felipe Ortega, indicating that the number of editors has declined in recent years. Representatives from the Wikimedia Foundation, meanwhile, noted that a different methodology indicates that the number of active editors has in fact stabilized in the same time period--as opposed to having declined.
Regardless of the methodological differences, there appears to be a consensus that the Wikipedia community is becoming less friendly, particularly for new users. A few relevant data points:
Ed Chi's research (at the Palo Alto Research Center) indicates that new editors see 25% of their edits reverted Comments left on the blog for the WSJ article indicate that a number of editors have left because of unfriendly treatment from other editors (e.g., edits reverted without explanations of why), and comments on this Wiki have echoed this impression Proposals on this Wiki have indicated that a good reward system for contributions does not exist Given all of the above, how could the community better reward contributions and nurture new editors? How can the Wikimedia projects become a friendlier and more welcoming place to share knowledge?
We'd love to have your input on the talk page of that question!
Philippe
____________________ Philippe Beaudette Facilitator, Strategy Project Wikimedia Foundation
philippe@wikimedia.org
mobile: 918 200-WIKI (9454)
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Philippe Beaudette wrote:
Given all of the above, how could the community better reward contributions and nurture new editors? How can the Wikimedia projects become a friendlier and more welcoming place to share knowledge?
We'd love to have your input on the talk page of that question!
Apparently people should use edit summaries and only use American English. Agree with the first, disagree with the second (Americans asserting ownership on spelling is a negative rather than a positive factor); but both these matters were settled five years ago. I do think it's a mistake to be so reactive in terms of what is in the newspapers, for a strategy discussion; that's a PR matter.
Charles