Board Thread:New Features/@comment-5275700-20150722200934/@comment-1038387-20150723010334

Cook Me Plox wrote: Tupka217 wrote: Cook Me Plox wrote: Tupka217 wrote: Cook Me Plox wrote: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia

Worth a read for a different perspective on anonymous editing.

Is that from 2006? Is that still relevant? It's a very well-known essay written by an important person in the history of wikis (and open source software in general). It's as applicable as it's ever been -- try actually reading it.

No need for that tone - I was not dismissing it, merely commenting on the relevance. These are figures for Wikipedia, from 2006. Not 2015 Wikia. The Internet is just not the same.

Since 2006, social media have grown. A lot. And Wikia has incorporated many things from social media. Sites like that are entirely account-based; as such, in those 9 years, the attitude towards registering an account on websites in general would be different. People have accounts on every social media site... Wikia is just one more.

Citing the article in itself (or the writer's here irrelevant credentials) doesn't mean much. Like I said, Wikipedia, 2006. If you want it to make a point, you're going to have to replicate his experiment for Wikia, 2015. Probably not worth engaging, but I'll give it a shot. As is usually the case with things written a while ago, the morals and lessons (here, particularly the last two long sections) are more relevant than the precise numbers put forth. That's why I recommended reading it for perspective (which I hope you'll agree it's useful for), rather than the last word on editing habits.

I do know that on RuneScape, most of the large pages have a significant portion (30% or more) of their content written by either unregistered users or others that aren't part of the core editor group.

I totally get the point, and it makes sense. For Wikipedia. I'm just not sure to what degree it goes for Wikia. It probably varies per wiki. Also, as with the vandalism Mime mentioned, this goes for newly registered users as much as anons. It probably tells us more that we (as admins) need to work harder to make new users feel at home and make sure they stay on for longer :).