[WikiEN-l] Chile earthquake article vs Haiti earthquake article

[Nathan]

I suspect the semiprotection has a lot to do with it. If our policies
were more clear, we wouldn't have a debate every time a high profile
event leads to a higher rate of editing. But we do, and a good portion
(maybe even a majority) of the time the related article(s) end up
protected in some fashion.

This is a problem; high profile articles have a great deal more
attention from experienced Wikipedians than most, and also are a great
draw for new editors. The no-protection pattern includes lots of
quickly reverted vandalism, and a lot of useful new content added by
new users that is then molded by veteran editors. The common pattern
for protected articles is a steep drop-off in editing (even through
semi-protection for autoconfirmed users), preventing the normal bump
in article comprehensiveness and quality that should come when a
subject hits the news.

I'm sure the other factors are important as well in comparing the two
- proximity to large English editing populations, severity, news
coverage, etc. I do wish we were more consistent with best practices
when it comes to protection, though.

Nathan