On 12/7/05, Jimmy Wales jwales@wikia.com wrote:
Delirium wrote:
Jimmy Wales wrote:
Well at least so far, it seems that there have been two effects:
- fewer crappy pages created
- the ones that are create are as easy to identify as ever, since some
of the anons are converting into 'anonymous redshirts' (i.e. users with no userpage).
You forgot: 3. more crappy edits to existing articles (anecdotally).
I agree we should collect more data, but we can't forget collecting data on #3, or else it will be pretty useless.
I agee. There are probably a number of other small second-order effects as well. For example, by encouraging new users to register when they want to create a page, are we positively increasing the number of "good wikipedians" by transforming good people from "well, I edit sometimes, but I'm not a wikipedian, I don't have an account" to "Hey, I guess I'm a wikipedian, I'll do more good work"?
I doubt if we are in a position to figure that out.
"Encouraging new users to register"? When did Jimbo start using doublespeak? Try "forcing" or "compelling". Honesty and precision in language are our weapons in the fight against unmeaning.
One of the potential negative consequences of creating a barrier to entry is that fewer good people will become editors because they will have been discouraged from creating a new article.