Grants:IdeaLab/Monitoring of new editors - Analyzes of the editing behavior of new users in the German Wikipedia
Project idea edit
What Wikimedia project(s) and specific areas will you be evaluating? edit
Is this project measuring a specific space on a project (e.g. deletion discussions), or the project as a whole?
German Wikipedia - New User profiles
Describe your idea. How might it be implemented? edit
Provide details about the method or process of how you will evaluate your community or collect data. Does your idea involve private or personally identifying information? Take a look at the Privacy Policy for Wikimedia’s guidelines in this area.
The German Wikipedia is seriously ill. The expression for this is the year-long decline in the number of authors, in contrast to the English Wikipedia. This applies to all types of editors, from the IP’s to the very active registered users. The number of newcomers no longer compensates for the departure of authors and decreases as well. But as the number of new registrations increases slightly, it can be assumed that newcomers in their first steps in the Wikipedia universe literally scared off. Almost 50% of the new user accounts become active somehow, but most of them only with one edit or remain only a few days. A detailed analysis of the more than 200,000 new user profiles created manually in 2017/2018 will bring frightening facts to light and can open the eyes to new ways.
Die deutschsprachige Wikipedia ist schwer erkrankt. Ausdruck dafür ist der jahrelange Rückgang der Autorenzahl, im Unterschied zur englischen Wikipedia. Dies gilt für alle Arten der Editoren, von den IPs bis hin auch zu den sehr aktiven registrierten Benutzern. Die Zahl der Neulinge kompensiert nicht mehr den Abgang von Autoren und nimmt ebenso ab. Da aber die Zahl der neuen Account-registrierungen leicht zunimmt, kann angenommen werden, dass Neulinge bei den ersten Schritten im Wikipedia-Universum regelrecht vergrault werden. Knapp 50 % der neuen User-Accounts wird irgendwie aktiv, der größte Teil aber nur mit einem edit bzw. verbleibt nur wenige Tage. Eine detaillierte Analyse der mehr als 200.000 neuen Benutzerprofile 2017/2018 wird erschreckende Fakten ans Tageslicht bringen und soll die Augen für neue Wege öffnen.
Are there experienced Wikimedians who can help implement this project? edit
If applicable, please list groups or usernames of individuals who you can work with on this project, and what kind of work they will do.
Hopefully! Erik Zachte et al
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The analysis should help to gain a better understanding of the editing behavior of newcomers and to identify causes for the editor's loss. This is to open up ways to productively integrate newcomers into the community and to create a friendlier welcome culture.
Die Analyse soll helfen, ein besseres Verständnis des Editierverhaltens von Neulingen zu erreichen und Ursachen für den Autorenschwund aufzuzeigen. Dadurch sollen Wege erschlossen werden, um Neulinge produktiv in die Community zu integrieren und eine freundlichere Willkommenskultur zu schaffen.
How would your measurement idea help your community make better decisions? edit
After you are finished measuring or evaluating your Wikimedia project, how do you expect that information to be used to benefit the project?
We must realize that we do not need more user registrations in the first place, but better care and integration; as well as the separation of such users, the newbies arrogant and non-collegial encounter. The gap between a slightly increasing number of registered users and the decreasing number of new users editing is to be overcome. Especially the banner campaigns of the chapter WMDE can be recognized as senseless use of donations and should be stopped.
Wir müssen erkennen, dass wir nicht in erster Linie mehr user-Registrierungen brauchen, sondern eine bessere Betreuung und Integration; ebenso die Trennung von solchen Benutzern, die Neulingen arrogant und unkollegial begegnen. Die Kluft zwischen einer leicht steigenden Zahl von registrierten Usern und der abnehmenden Zahl editierender neuer Benutzer ist zu überwinden. Speziell die Banner-Kampagnen von WMDE sind als sinnlose Verwendung von Spendengeldern zu erkennen und zu beenden.
Do you think you can implement this idea? What support do you need? edit
Do you need people with specific skills to complete this idea? Are there any financial needs for this project? If you can’t implement this project, can you scale down your project so it is doable?
A start of the analyzes can be seen here: [1] Like-minded people are welcome, both in the German Wikipedia and in other Wikimedia projects. Parallel or similar analyzes can help to verify or deepen the results. Support is also desirable in the preparation of serious conclusions.
Ein Beginn der Analysen ist hier zu sehen: [2] Gleichgesinnte sind herzlich willkommen, sowohl in der deutschsprachigen Wikipedia wie auch in anderen Wikimedia-Projekten. Parallele bzw. ähnliche Analysen können helfen die Ergebnisse zu verifizieren oder zu vertiefen. Unterstützung ist ebenso erwünscht bei der Erarbeitung von soliden Schlussfolgerungen.
Get Involved edit
About the idea creator edit
Since 2009 I am active as author and photographer in the German Wikipedia.
Participants edit
Endorsements edit
- yes, but study with a/b actions, with results and action plan going forward. will require diplomatic skills to engage in culture change. Slowking4 (talk) 19:08, 8 August 2018 (UTC)
- yes, I'm following the analyzes of Dr. Bernd Gross since a long time. From the number of new registrations we can see, that Wikipedia has not lost its attractivity completely, but for some reasons in dewiki the new registered users become hardly active. To know more about these reasons, might help us to stop the massive decline of active users. -- Dschungelfan (talk) 07:42, 9 August 2018 (UTC)
Expand your idea edit
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No funding needed? edit
Does your idea not require funding, but you're not sure about what to do next? Not sure how to start a proposal on your local project that needs consensus? Contact Chris Schilling on-wiki at I JethroBT (WMF) (talk · contribs) or via e-mail at cschilling
wikimedia.org for help!