[Wikimedia-l] Editor retention (was Re: "Big data" benefits and limitations (relevance: WMF editor engagement, fundraising, and HR practices))

[George Herbert]

On Fri, Jan 4, 2013 at 3:56 PM, Martijn Hoekstra
<martijnhoekstra at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 5, 2013 12:51 AM, "George Herbert" <george.herbert at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 4, 2013 at 10:05 AM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > On 4 January 2013 17:56, Mark <delirium at hackish.org> wrote:
>> >
>> >> 1a. Do *not* pick a source that you have a particularly close personal
> or
>> >> emotional connection to: it is not good to start with your own
> research,
>> >> your supervisor's or colleague's research, a project of yours or that
> you're
>> >> involved with, a nationalist/political/religious subject you feel
> strongly
>> >> about, the history of your own family, etc.
>> >
>> >
>> > This can be a problem in that people will become interested first in
>> > fixing something they think is wrong because they know about it. I do
>> > realise all the steps from that to here, and that a list of
>> > instructions pretty much won't be read.
>>
>> Along the lines of noneuclidian geometry...
>>
>> What if we experiment (at least conceptually) with inverting that
>> instruction?  Encourage people to write on subjects they know...
>>
>> Normal people won't be so much of an expert that using their own
>> professional or academic work as a reference is even applicable.
>>
>> Actual experts, we can include a "Please cite your sources, rather
>> than your own work, thanks!" and leave it at that.
>>
>> Actual experts who fail to heed that are a problem, but a much smaller
>> and easier to communicate with and explain problem than the no-newbies
>> one.
>> .
>>
>
> Please resubmit this suggestion after three hours of AfC work

You think I haven't done hours (days, weeks, at one point a month)
worth of AfC work?

I thought AfC was a great place to ramp up my WP skills when I was
getting in sync.  Pick something I knew about but not enough to write
an article, go research it, zap.


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com