Denny Vrandečić wrote:
... Is the graph http://i.imgur.com/TfaD99V.png based on actual data?
Yes, the precise sizes for the dumps.wikimedia.org/enwiki/YYYYMMDD/enwiki-YYYYMMDD-pages-articles-multistream.xml.bz2 files are:
2012-07-02 9524994664 2012-08-02 9824345489 2012-09-02 9929910893 2012-10-01 10015876877 2012-11-01 10124555675 2012-12-01 10220499338 2013-01-02 10315766966 2013-02-04 10425240648 2013-03-04 10430830645 2013-04-03 10433658645 2013-05-03 10525475953 2013-06-04 10617572833 2013-07-08 10721955835
The byte count approximations from multiplying columns 'E' and 'I' from http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm are at the end of this message. Again, that data best fits two linear trends, with a cusp around 2006.
our content is increasing... but the number of active contributors is not.
I'm becoming increasingly convinced that as contributors become more experienced, they choose to do most of their work logged out. What are the advantages of using a registered account? Theoretically you can prove that you made contributions, but as far as I know only one person so far has ever obtained professional credit for their contributions (there is a recent thread on wiki-research-l about this.) What are the disadvantages of using a registered account to edit? Anyone who opposes an edit politically is likely to examine the entirety of the editor's contribution history and will all too often stalk, punish by reverting old edits, or dispute the contributor's work. Anonymous IP editors rarely face such time wasting scrutiny and hassles. For anyone whose primary goal is to build an encyclopedia as opposed to socializing, amassing administrative power, or obtaining a job with the Foundation, the choice is obvious. Those who wish their contributions to be remembered for posterity are more likely to become serial puppeteers than registered editors, unless they want to spend most of their time being hassled in article space.
John Vandenberg wrote:
... I would love to see stats about quality rather than quantity....
It would be a mistake to rely on volunteer or Foundation assessments of quality, because the likelihood that they would be biased is far to great. We should rely only on third party assessments of article quality, such as those in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia#Assessments nearly all of which show continuous ongoing improvement.
Automatic measures of quality proposed so far have not really impressed me, but I think http://arxiv.org/pdf/1206.2517.pdf has huge potential and I am confident that the ideas it promotes will be easily automated by bots after it is proven through peer review.
Does anyone have stats for the number of blocked users per month
Yes, but it's almost meaningless because the vast majority of blocks are for persistent vandalism, often at schools or libraries where we really have no way to determine whether the editors involved ever returned to do productive work.
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Products of columns 'E' and 'I' from http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm :
Jan-10 11330500000 Dec-09 11262300000 Nov-09 11206500000 Oct-09 10788000000 Sep-09 10725000000 Aug-09 10653000000 Jul-09 10263100000 Jun-09 10213800000 May-09 9791600000 Apr-09 9718800000 Mar-09 9328500000 Feb-09 9301500000 Jan-09 9250200000 Dec-08 8855600000 Nov-08 8806200000 Oct-08 8415000000 Sep-08 8375000000 Aug-08 8317500000 Jul-08 7960800000 Jun-08 7941600000 May-08 7557800000 Apr-08 7498000000 Mar-08 7112600000 Feb-08 7068600000 Jan-08 6738900000 Dec-07 6699000000 Nov-07 6318000000 Oct-07 6256000000 Sep-07 5859600000 Aug-07 5823500000 Jul-07 5499000000 Jun-07 5181600000 May-07 5140800000 Apr-07 4793600000 Mar-07 4724800000 Feb-07 4662400000 Jan-07 4320000000 Dec-06 4257000000 Nov-06 3917200000 Oct-06 3871000000 Sep-06 3551600000 Aug-06 3510000000 Jul-06 3195600000 Jun-06 2896300000 May-06 2856700000 Apr-06 2557000000 Mar-06 2476177000 Feb-06 2312907000 Jan-06 2170049000 Dec-05 2013600000 Nov-05 1869076000 Oct-05 1746960000 Sep-05 1627864000 Aug-05 1526784000 Jul-05 1407976000 Jun-05 1300334000 May-05 1209984000 Apr-05 1002925000 Mar-05 924630000 Feb-05 872320000 Jan-05 838272000 Dec-04 861724000 Nov-04 806195000 Oct-04 743904000 Sep-04 689924000 Aug-04 644502000 Jul-04 595665000 Jun-04 552900000 May-04 511038000 Apr-04 476750000 Mar-04 440286000 Feb-04 403010000 Jan-04 375536000 Dec-03 350336000 Nov-03 329219000 Oct-03 310616000 Sep-03 294689000 Aug-03 278630000 Jul-03 261555000 Jun-03 244454000 May-03 230328000 Apr-03 217200000 Mar-03 204630000 Feb-03 193475000 Jan-03 182936000 Dec-02 171010000 Nov-02 162150000 Oct-02 150480000 Sep-02 80733000 Aug-02 66990000 Jul-02 59755000 Jun-02 55420000 May-02 49259000 Apr-02 47790000 Mar-02 44968000 Feb-02 39350000 Jan-02 30582000 Dec-01 26832000 Nov-01 21994000 Oct-01 17244000 Sep-01 10982000 Aug-01 7100000 Jul-01 4186000 Jun-01 3240000 May-01 2373600 Apr-01 1295800 Mar-01 596904 Feb-01 186636 Jan-01 33800