[Foundation-l] Analysis of lists statistics: community in decline

[Robert Rohde]

On Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 8:06 AM, Milos Rancic <millosh at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 4:31 PM, Pharos <pharosofalexandria at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 9:13 AM, Brianna Laugher
>> <brianna.laugher at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Is it too much to say we need our own Facebook? If only Ning was open source.
>>
>> I've done some a little research on this issue, and this appears to be
>> the most promising option:
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgg_(software)
>>
>> It's open source, relatively popular, and is used in academic communities.
>
> I think that it should be solved differently. Wikia already has some
> kind of extended profile which includes some basic social networking
> abilities.
>
> It is expensive (in the sense of contributors' attention) to run two
> different models. Even keeping blogs at Planet Wikimedia (officially)
> and at Open Wiki Blog Planet (unofficially), as well as at some other
> places (unofficially in different languages; I know, at least, for
> French version) -- is expensive.
>
> At the other hand, MediaWiki is able to be extended in that direction
> (which Wikia used extension shows). Also, contributors would be able
> to ask for new features more dynamically, as well as it would be a
> significant development path for MediaWiki itself.
>
> In other words, I would like to see a very rudimentary extension (like
> Wikia's) with solved inter-project issues for the beginning. When we
> have that, we would be able to think about improvements.

Personally, I'd like to see more social interaction/networking tools
built into Mediawiki.  However, after seeing the incredible pushback
on enwiki surrounding things like Esperanza [1] and to a lesser degree
Userboxes [2], I am somewhat skeptical about whether the community
would actually embrace social networking tools.

There are many who seem to feel that using Wikipedia for socializing
and fun is contrary to our mission, especially if it attracts people
who aren't contributors to the encyclopedia.  Personally, I think
that's nonsense, and the community benefits from increased cohesion
when there is fun and socializing to be had, but I realize that many
people don't see it that way.

-Robert Rohde

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Esperanza
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Userboxes