[Wikimedia-l] Visual Editor "temporary" opt-out

[David Gerard]

On 6 August 2013 07:44, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:

> That said, this doubt is tempered by the _enormous_ selection bias we see
> in the on-wiki discussion. Namely that (a) the discussion has only been
> advertised to logged-in users, and (b) that nearly everyone participating
> in the on-wiki discussion is someone who has figured out wikitext. That
> is, the people who would most benefit from a visual editor right now are
> the silent majority who are unaware of, and in many cases incapable of,
> participating in the discussion about whether VisualEditor should be
> opt-in or opt-out.


This becomes the "supporters of the gaps" argument - in which it goes:

1. "This is for the silent majority, the data will show they love it!
You'll see!"
2. Data comes out, seems to show they don't, and it's pushed anonymous
editors down.
3. "That data is bad, there could be supporters there!"

That is, the arguments tend towards saying "you can't philosophically
prove there aren't supporters!" This is unconvincing for a number of
reasons.


- d.