[Wikimedia-l] The new narrowed focus by WMF

[James Salsman]

> Why when we talk about "editor engagement" we think exclusively about new
> editors?  How about retaining people, who already made Wikipedia (= the
> product) and keep maintaining it?

Retention of people who have made dozens of edits is about the same as
it's ever been. Retention of people who've made a handful of edits has
declined substantially since 2005, even though new users still show up
at the same rate.

> I believe sister projects are deeply important....

All of them have much more popular alternatives doing the same thing
they do. For example, PeerWise is vastly more popular than
Wikiversity, and is being integrated into thousands of existing
institutions' courses far faster than the
http://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz site can keep up with. On the other
hand, the many commercial Commons alternatives are doing fine on their
own. It would be more appropriate to reach out to existing non-profit,
wiki-like organizations such as PeerWise and simply offer them hosting
support than try to pour resources into Wikiversity.