[WikiEN-l] Exit Interview -- Jon Awbrey

Mon Jun 19 12:44:09 UTC 2006

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post 5.

incorporating responses to:

RL = Roger Luethi

RL: I haven't run into this editor before and cannot make authoritative
statements, but a quick search shows that he made over 6000 main space
edits in half a year, notabene in areas that we _want_ to cover and where
we need experts to help out.

RL: He does seem to be involved in disputes on quite a few pages, it's hard to
see through the mess. One (apparently retracted) 3RR block on June 12.

RL: Based on my quick research I can't rule out that Jon Awbrey's problems
are worth investigating.

thank you for your considerate attention.
i will try to make constructive use of it,
no matter how difficult the issues involved.

enough has been said about the ordinary uses of exit interviews.
indeed, just before my sense of futility became terminal, i had
entertained the notion of starting a wikiproject to routinely
collect the last wills and feedbacks of the dearly or direly
departed membership in this conflagration, but i didn't yet
know the ropes well enough to do that, and it doesn't look
like i ever will.  i believe a lot of useful information
could be garnered that way, however easy it might be in
some quarters to dismiss it all as the parting shots
of disgruntled usurers and the socially net-warped.
still, i think it might be a good idea, if there
is anybody who is up to the challenge.

i started thinking about this idea when i happened across a page
that was soliciting ideas for recruiting new members to wikipedia.
from the experiences of people i know who are involved in college
recruitment, i know that one of the issues that develops over time
is that sometimes too much attention gets devoted to recruitment
at the expense of due attention being paid to retention, and
it looks to me like a similar problem may be affecting WP.
for sure, your rolls are no doubt padded with with many,
many registered users, but how many of them are still
actually participating in any significant way?

it's something to think about.

jon awbrey

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inquiry e-lab: http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/
wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:Jon_Awbrey
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