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

[Andreas Kolbe]

On Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 5:59 PM, Federico Leva (Nemo) <nemowiki at gmail.com>wrote:

> Andreas Kolbe, 10/01/2013 18:09:
>
>  Here are the French charts:
>> http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/**ChartsWikipediaFR.htm<http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/ChartsWikipediaFR.htm>
>> Here are the English ones:
>> http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/**ChartsWikipediaFR.htm<http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/ChartsWikipediaFR.htm>
>>
>> Compare the third and fourth charts (for editors making more than 5 and
>> more than 100 edits per month respectively). The height of the bars in the
>> French charts is still rising. It's a continuous upward trend.
>>
>
> Sorry, I've no idea what you're looking at: I don't see any continuous
> upward trend, as I said in the previous message. Sure, if you compare the
> last month of each wiki with the month of en.wiki's highest peak you can
> prove whatever you want.
>

Open these two pages:

http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/ChartsWikipediaFR.htm
http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/ChartsWikipediaEN.htm

Each has four bar charts with yellow bars. Ignore the top two charts. Focus
on the third and fourth charts with yellow bars.

Random fluctuations aside, the ones for French show a consistent upward
trend. The ones for English show a peak in 2007, and then a consistent
downward trend. That is the difference I was pointing out.

If we are talking about the purely statistical side of things, then
statistically these projects do not conform to the same trend as the
English Wikipedia.


On Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 6:04 PM, Yann Forget <yannfo at gmail.com> wrote:

> I agree totally with Tim's assessments of the situation, and it is
> quite the same on the French WP, and that's why I stopped editing
> there.
> Some people like power more than anything else (well, that's not
> surprising, because it is quite the same IRL), including the growth of
> the project.
>

I am quite sure the French and other Wikipedias have broadly similar social
problems to the English one (the German one certainly has a few), and I too
agree with Tim's earlier comments in that regard.

Andreas