I've been attending London Meetups for over three years, and anecdotally I'd say there was a high correlation between repeat or even regular attendance at meetups and editor retention. Of course it is possible there are some editors who spot us, leave the pub and stop editing..... I also think that the "typical wiki career = 18 months" myth that was quoted a few years ago is long gone.
What I don't know is whether meetups are more attractive to the older editors who have settled on editing as a hobby and have a very high retention rate and less attractive to the younger editors with their shorter retention rate. Though obviously pub based meetups do exclude those who are clearly below the legal drinking age.
As for advertising meetups in ways unlikely to reach newer editors, nowadays all UK meetups are advertised on people's watchlists via geo lookup. So we get a mix, and some of the editors we get are quite new. But I'd agree back in the days when it was only advertised on Meta and invitations to people with London userboxes the London Meetup was far more cliquey. In some of my first meetups I was in minority as being a non-admin, nowadays most attendees are not admins.
WSC
On 19 November 2012 03:58, Kerry Raymond kerry.raymond@gmail.com wrote:
I suspect that its only fairly well-entrenched editors who attend meetups, but I agree it would be interesting data. I rather suspect that meetups are advertised in ways unlikely to reach newer editors.
Sent from my iPad
On 19/11/2012, at 10:16 AM, Laura Hale laura@fanhistory.com wrote:
Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone knows of any research on Wikimedia meetups and the effects on editor retention?
Sincerely, Laura Hale
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