[Foundation-l] Message to community about community decline

[Sarah]

On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 18:20, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:
> Going along with this
> theory that we've brought in a majority of the people who are willing to
> work on these free projects already, perhaps the focus should shift to
> making their lives easier? And maybe from there, the pool of those willing
> to get involved might grow a bit.

It's been a regular theme since I joined in 2004 that people have
minimized the contribution of established editors. We highlight
research emphasizing the percentage of edits made by anons; or studies
showing the real problem is that newbies don't stay long. And we
emphasize an ideology that ignores creativity and talent by saying it
doesn't matter who writes articles -- which amounts to saying that
people don't matter as individuals. All are replaceable.

But I believe that when the history of Wikipedia is eventually
written, we'll be astonished by the very small number of people who
created, wrote and maintained this project. And every time one of
those people leaves, real damage is inflicted on Wikipedia's future.

I wish the Foundation would focus on nurturing those people. The
difference that would make would be truly amazing.

Sarah