Research:First messages to new users
Duration: 2011-07 – 2011-07
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.