[Foundation-l] Analysis of statistics

[Yaroslav M. Blanter]

> Henning Schlottmann wrote:
>
>> Who are our actual users?
>
> This is a good question, not only with respect to level (youth or
> academic), but also for topics (academic subjects like medicine,
> or popular culture).  Retired academics might provide useful input
> on how to treat cancer, but might be out of touch with trends in
> manga or cooking.  If we discourage teenagers from writing about
> their favorite artists, they will find Wikipedia less useful.
>

I think this is a perfectly valid point, but it does not take into account
that the number of teenagers willing to write on their favorite artists,
manga or cooking, is two orders of magnitude more than the number of
retired academics able to write an article on how to treat cancer. This is
why is two orders of magnitude more important to look for new editors who
are retired academics than for new editors who are teenagers. Having said
this I must emphasize that this is a difference in strategy, not in a
treatment of users. Once the users are there they should not be treated
differently depending on their age or topics they are interested in.

Cheers
Yaroslav