On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 11:10, Jan-Bart de
Vreede<janbart(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
It seems that our natural reaction is to
immediately question the numbers and the underlying studies. We are Wikimedians and will
not rest until we are sure that we are looking at 100% accurate numbers.
We could also look at this another way. Looking around me and talking to people about
Wikipedia (and sometimes the other projects) I hear a lot of stories which demonstrate our
inability to welcome everyone and motivate them to become regular contributors. The data
strongly suggests the same thing. Instead of doubting the numbers, lets just assume that
we are not doing well enough in this department.
Similarly, regular editors will tell you there's a serious problem of
established editors leaving, because the quality of editing is still
too low. The problem with the survey is that it highlights the need to
attract new editors, based on some doubtful figures, without
addressing that experienced editors are becoming disillusioned.
That is the same with everywhere. There are countless websites where one
once spent an inordinate amount of time, adding content day by day, but
which slowly but surely one visited less and less until one day one
realizes that one has been gone a year or more.