User blog comment:Dopp/New Profile Design Now Live Across All Wikis/@comment-242973-20110820172805/@comment--20110822171148

Fandyllic and The 888th Avatar, I really enjoyed reading both of your contentions. Passionate users such as yourselves are exactly why we think our communities are great and we want to be able to attract more. Fandyllic, is there exact evidence somewhere that adding these social elements will improve contribution? No, because we're certainly one of the first content & community hosts to try these sort of things. Though there's no logical reason and enough anecdotal evidence to believe it will help. And to echo The 888th Avatar's comment, there's no reason to believe it will hurt to try.

Remember that what attracts you to a site may not be the same as what attracts another. Wikipedia's hurting for new contributors for this exact reason. Its ability to garner new editors is limited because the "traditional" way the community is constructed and interacts definitely limits the number of demographics they appeal to.