[WikiEN-l] The Statistical Decline of the English Wikipedia Community

[charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com]

"Andrew Gray" 

> How many of our
> contributors are here to write about what they know, not primarily
> here to build "an encyclopedia"?

The argument on finitude applies much better to individuals than to the project as a whole. A natural "encyclopedist" would be someone willing to write stubs, at least, outside their comfort zone of familiar knowledge. So the point becomes that there are relatively few of those. Yes, but WP has actually come this far because such people are many more than Britannica's view would suggest. Professional reference book writers are not so many, though I did meet one at Wikimania. The issue is of recruiting and retaining the right people, who can learn on the job. The scope of Wikipedia is not really the point.

Charles

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