[Wikipedia-l] Re: Average Size of Articles and Article Size Evolution

Tue Sep 3 20:07:51 UTC 2002

Ray Saintonge wrote:

> Daniel Mayer wrote:
>
>>
>> You just gave me a great idea -- How about we have a population 
>> pyramid on the statistics page? See 
>> http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands
>>
> This is an interesting approach.  The article set could be divided 
> into deciles (or some other suitable sized sample).  I would guess 
> that the median article size that we currently have is likely fairly 
> constant. The markers for the deciles are likely similarly constant.  
> This is, of course, subject to minor sampling variation.  People who 
> use population pyramids let them be indicators of broad changes in 
> populations. Statistically significant variations from key markers 
> would suggest differences in the patterns of participation.
>
> Perhaps one of our more mathematically could do an analysis on "The 
> fractal geometry of Wikipedia participation"
>
> Eclecticology
>
I'd expect something like a [[Zipf distribution]], if there is a scaling 
principle operating.

Neil Harris