 

Wikipedia losing editors, study says

2013-01-06 16:40
Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Multimedia   ·   User Galleries   ·   News in Pictures Send us your pictures  ·  Send us your stories

kalahari.com

Washington - Wikipedia, one of the world's biggest websites, is losing many of its English-language editors, crippling its ability to keep pace with its mission as a source of knowledge online, a study says.

The study led by Aaron Halfaker of the University of Minnesota found that the number of "collaborators" or volunteer editors has been on the decline from around 56 000 in 2007 to some 35 000 at the end of 2012.

The researchers said there are a number of reasons, including the rise of automated programmes or "bots," but also noted that some potential contributors are being discouraged by Wikipedia's structure.

"Several changes the Wikipedia community made to manage quality and consistency in the face of a massive growth in participation have ironically crippled the very growth they were designed to manage," the researchers wrote in last week's American Behavioural Scientist.

"Specifically, the restrictiveness of the encyclopedia's primary quality control mechanism and the algorithmic tools used to reject contributions are implicated as key causes of decreased newcomer retention."

They said that while Wikipedia has sought to root out less competent editors, its rules have also discouraged "desirable newcomers" who get discouraged when their contributions get deleted.

Wikipedia has editions in 285 languages. Its founder Jimmy Wales has cited the need to make Wikipedia more open to newcomers, to keep up with the vast amount of information it is trying to process.

But the authors of the study said Wikipedia is being crimped by its rules trying to improve quality.

"Wikipedia has changed from 'the encyclopedia that anyone can edit' to 'the encyclopedia that anyone who understands the norms, socializes him or herself, dodges the impersonal wall of semi-automated rejection and still wants to voluntarily contribute his or her time and energy can edit,'" they wrote.

Read more on:    wikipedia  |  jimmy wales  |  internet
NEXT ON NEWS24X

Read News24’s Comments Policy

24.com publishes all comments posted on articles provided that they adhere to our Comments Policy. Should you wish to report a comment for editorial review, please do so by clicking the 'Report Comment' button to the right of each comment.

Comment on this story
10 comments
Add your comment
Comment 0 characters remaining
 

Inside News24

 
 
Traffic
Lottery
 
  • Thursday Citrusdal - 16:22 PM
    Road name: N7
    ROADWORKS - stop / go controls in operation between Citrusdal and Clanwilliam (until 2014)
  • Monday Ventersburg - 05:24 AM
    Road name: N1
    ROADWORKS - construction works are underway with a deviation in operation just north of the town centre
 
More traffic reports...
 

Jobs [change area]

Property [change area]

Travel - Look, Book, Go!

Southern Sun - Maputo

Spend 3 nights and pay for 2 at Southern Sun - Maputo for only R4 621 per person sharing. Includes accommodation, return flights, airport taxes and airport transfers. Book now!

Kalahari.com - shop online today

gobii 7” colour LCD eReader + R160 eBook voucher – As seen on TV

Read eBooks, watch videos and listen to music with this great eReader, now only R799. Buy now.

Sizzling hot Weber offer!

57cm compact braai + FREE cover + FREE fish braai for R1299.95. While stocks last. Buy now.

Buy Gordon Ramsay’s ultimate cookery course book + Bokke Se Komuis for FREE!

Buy Gordon Ramsay’s ultimate cookery course for just R368 and get Bokke Se Kombuis, valued at R180, for FREE! Offer valid while stocks last. Buy now!

Wreck It Ralph now available

You and your kids will love this hilarious, arcade-game-hopping adventure from Walt Disney. Available on DVD, Blu-ray and in 3D. Buy now!

Hot and exclusive Coby 7" wifi tablet – only R1299.95

Don’t miss out on this super hot deal of the week, save R300 on the Coby 7” tablet! Dispatched within 24hrs + free delivery. While stocks last. Buy now!

OLX Free Classifieds [change area]

Blackberry z10 (1 day old)

For Sale, Cell Phones - Accessories in South Africa, Gauteng, Johannesburg. Date May 13

Urgent Sale

Vehicles, Motorcycles - Scooters in South Africa, Gauteng, Johannesburg. Date May 13

Aupairs

Jobs, Au pairs & nannies in South Africa, Gauteng, Johannesburg. Date May 12

Apple iPhone 4 16GB

iPhone 4 at a glance. FaceTime. Video calling is a reality. See...

From R6498.88

I'm shopping for:

Horoscopes
Aquarius
Aquarius

Your heart is with a friend who is going through a difficult time, but your soul is with an activity that you know brings you...read more

There are new stories on the homepage. Click here to see them.
 
English
Afrikaans
isiZulu

Hello 

Create Profile

Creating your profile will enable you to submit photos and stories to get published on News24.


Please provide a username for your profile page:

This username must be unique, cannot be edited and will be used in the URL to your profile page across the entire 24.com network.

Settings

Location Settings

News24 allows you to edit the display of certain components based on a location. If you wish to personalise the page based on your preferences, please select a location for each component and click "Submit" in order for the changes to take affect.








Facebook Sign-In

Hi News addict,

Join the News24 Community to be involved in breaking the news.

Log in with Facebook to comment and personalise news, weather and listings.

 
http://www.news24.com/Technology/News/Wikipedia-losing-editors-study-says-20130105
www.news24.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2013-20
157892
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:NYMBNT7JQAMYRMBW3KEEEOD7PTQ2JBJX
<urn:uuid:294dc253-3f92-4fc4-b700-ebf4c8f29c0e>
2013-05-25T19:15:18Z
41.86.110.200
sha1:GSCBI7JZZWHAE7U2LK7H4U7CHJU4MP2H
<urn:uuid:aba54f7a-10de-4127-9dc0-0dfed8bd2f9b>
http://www.news24.com/Technology/News/Wikipedia-losing-editors-study-says-20130105
response
<urn:uuid:9d1508e6-e33e-4af1-8d85-9d6a996e3d69>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2013-20
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for Spring 2013
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf