[WikiEN-l] Experiment on new pages

Mon Dec 5 14:03:56 UTC 2005

On 12/5/05, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
> Today, as an experiment, we will be turning off new pages creation for
> anonymous users in the English Wikipedia.
>
I applaud Jimbo for taking this bold move.  Experiments like this can
prove to be very useful, and the potential for harm is very small.

[snip]

> It seems to me that the first thing we can do is try to reduce the
> workload on the people doing new pages patrol.  A fairly extensive
> monitoring and survey of new pages conducted by me over the past few
> days, coupled with discussions with several people who keep an eye on
> such things, suggests that we can have a substantial improvement here by
> eliminating the ability for anons to make new pages.
>
Have you written up a summary of the monitoring and survey you've
performed?  One thing that's useful in "experiments" is metrics.  It'd
be nice to see just how this change does affect things, rather than
speculating about it.

[snip]