[Foundation-l] Friendliness (was: Missing Wikipedians: An Essay)

[Aaron Adrignola]

From: Andrew Gray <andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk>

>
> The absolute number of "active" community members on enwp peaked in
> early 2007 and has been in a slow decline more or less steadily since
> then; it's currently about two thirds what it was.
>
>
I was given permission to forward any portion of an email I received from
MZMcbride, and this is a relevant portion:

"Sure, but there is a more fundamental question about what the goal and
mission actually is. I see it as about content creation. Wikimedia's focus
should primarily be creating the best free content it can. Others seem far
more interested in creating a "movement" (a large social network)."


From: Andrew Gray <andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk>

If we don't increase the rate at which we attract and retain new
> contributors while we can, there's a real danger we could end up by
> 2020 or 2025 with a virtually moribund community - a small handful of
> devoted vandal-fighters spending their days trying to keep millions of
> pages clean and stable, and no influx of new users worth mentioning
> because no-one has the time to cultivate it.
>
>
That proportion of active administrators to content pages is already the
case at Wikibooks.  It pains me to say it as a heavy contributor, but the
number of admins has fallen to a third of what it was in 2007.  [1]  While I
could hope for content growth instead, that's also stagnated. [2]


From: WJhonson at aol.com

>
> It's fine to say nothing's wrong as the Titanic sinks, but it's still
> sinking.
>
>
If Wikipedia is the Titanic, the sister projects are the Britannic. [3]  I
mourn the loss of many "missing Wikibookians" myself who were seriously
involved in the community, helped mentor me and give me the enthusiasm I
have for the project, but have since left.  Nowadays I feel alone and the
discussion rooms are nearly empty.  I was disappointed that the usability
initiative and outreach focused solely on Wikipedia.

-- Adrignola


[1] http://www.wikistatistics.net/wikibooks/en/admins/full
[2] http://www.wikistatistics.net/wikibooks/en/articles/full
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMHS_Britannic