Research:First messages to new users
Topic edit
Who is sending messages to new users, and what tools and scripts are they using? This sprint will break down these figures, particularly along the subjects of:
- First messages sent to new users
Process edit
Using a live replicating copy of the English Wikipedia database, these types of first messages can be acquired through a few basic steps:
- Get every distinct user_name from enwiki.user
- Join enwiki.user.user_name with enwiki.page.page_title to get all user talk pages
- Join enwiki.revision.rev_page with enwiki.page.page_id to get all the first revisions to a user talk page
- Parse rev_comment to determine tool and message type (requires a list of all tools, their names, and the automated edit summaries they leave)
- Parse rev_user and user_id to determine metadata
Results and discussion edit
Future work edit
Does the tool used and/or message type predict retention? Tricky, because tool users are selecting from different populations to begin with.