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

[Fred Bauder]

> On 09/01/13 10:03, Kim Bruning wrote:
>> On Wed, Jan 09, 2013 at 07:45:41AM +0000, David Gerard wrote:
>>> Right. So anyone in this thread going into detail about en:wp policies
>>> is actually not addressing this, and the problem is on a higher level?
>>
>> :-/	Back to the drawing board. That actually makes
>> the problem a lot harder!
>>
>> (does mean we know where to start looking though)
>
> I am not sure that Facebook is the problem.
> http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=wikipedia,facebook does show that
> Facebook overtook Wikipedia sometime in 2007, but that happened
> relatively slowly.
>
> Having said that, there have been suggestions to introduce social
> networking features in Wikipedia. WikiLove is a step in that direction.
> So, what could be the next step? Befriend users and see their edits and
> new articles? Like edits and articles?

We could have lists of friends. Although some would actually be enemies
lists. 172 continues to edit under several names. If I wanted to spend
all my time reversing his point of view edits a friends list with his
socks on it would be useful. This nicely illustrates the problem that
making the editing atmosphere better for some requires making it
punishing for others.

Fred