[WikiEN-l] The story of an article

[Gwern Branwen]

On Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 9:51 AM, altally <altallym at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 12:23 AM, Apoc 2400 <apoc2400 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> >
>> > Yes, it's not that difficult to create an account and wait a few days is
>> > it?
>> >
>> You are making the mistake of assuming newcomers think like "addicted"
>> Wikipedians or persistent troublemakers. This user only ever made about 25
>> edits and stayed just over a month, unless he or she got an account or
>> switched IP.
>>
>> This goes in the same category as:
>> "Anyone with good intentions can get through the 6757836 step New Article
>> Wizard, so it's not too complicated"
>> "It doesn't matter if someone gets wrongly blocked, because they can just
>> request to be unblocked."
>>
>
> When I started, I created an account from the beginning. Why? Because it
> wasn't hard to notice the big "Sign in/create account" link in the corner.
> Newbies aren't all clueless idiots. You are making the mistake of assuming
> newcomers all have no idea what they are doing.
>
> --Majorly

Is it enough that *some* users are savvy enough to make an account
right from the start? No one is saying that such barriers would stop
*all* new editors. Even small percentages matter over the long run.

I suspect many old editors are more like me, who made a few anonymous
edits and only eventually committed to an account, than like you.

-- 
gwern