Speaking of specialized lists, I'd like to suggest that this discussion would be well suited to Research-l, where many people who are interested in these kinds of questions read and write about them more frequently than they do on Wikimedia-l. I'm boldly adding that list to the recipients for this thread.
I have some thoughts about the substance of this discussion but they're a bit rushed at the moment. I may write more later. Regards, Pine On Jun 2, 2015 4:32 AM, "Milos Rancic" <mill...@gmail.com> wrote: > Luis, I have to say that you are the first person on WMF side who has > substantially engaged into this issue and I am very glad to see that :) > > The products of your work are of the highest importance, as the community > is the most important part of our movement, not to say that it's the > movement itself. > > I am finally relieved to know that we are on the path to rationally > understand what's going on inside of the community after short 14.5 years. > > It would be good if you'd share your results with the rest of us. > > As for this list: As MZ said, this list is important. However, there is no > doubt that it's far from being the only or even the most important > indicator of community health. It is just about one of the rare publicly > accessible data which could give a clue of what's going on inside of the > community, but could mislead, as well. > On Jun 2, 2015 04:39, "Luis Villa" <lvi...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > > > On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 10:57 AM, Milos Rancic <mill...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 7:51 PM, Luis Villa <lvi...@wikimedia.org> > wrote: > > > > On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 9:26 AM, Andrew Lih <andrew....@gmail.com> > > wrote: > > > > > > > >> 3. Participation in the mailing list may be a misleading indicator > of > > > >> activity or interest, as other regional or specialized forums (eg. > > > >> Facebook, GLAM-oriented lists, etc) have emerged in recent years. > > > >> > > > > > > > > Let me second this. My department is thinking about community health > > > > metrics (constructive suggestions welcome!), but I would not > personally > > > > propose mailing list participation (especially this list) as a good > > > metric > > > > - decreased participation here may reflect many, many things, only > some > > > of > > > > which are actually negative. > > > > > > This is not the only one indicator, but it's pretty consistent since > > > 2011 (take a look into [1]). In other words, something happened in > > > May. Maybe it's actually about the elections because people used other > > > means of communication for that. > > > > > > > Looking briefly at some of the highest-traffic months, it could simply be > > that people got tired of discussing high-controversy topics here. > > (Flamewars are good for traffic volume; not so great for community > health.) > > I'm sure Facebook's increased acceptance also has a role. I suspect also > > that some announcements that used to come here now go to other, more > > specialized mailing lists. > > > > That last one points to a key thing: as MZ says, many people are > subscribed > > to this list, but many don't read and don't participate, because this > > mailing list has an *awful* reputation, and people who want to get things > > done are going elsewhere. So "the decline of wikimedia-l" may be a sign > of > > bad health of the overall community, or it may simply mean that the > healthy > > and constructive parts of the community has moved elsewhere. > > > > To re-iterate what I said in the last email, I'm all ears for suggestions > > on creative community metrics. I'll add here that I'm also very open to > > suggestions on what a new wikimedia-l might look like. (I know some FOSS > > communities are having good experiences with discourse.org, for > example.) > > No commitment that WMF can act on either immediately, of course, but I > > think it is worth starting both of those discussions. > > > > Luis > > > > -- > > Luis Villa > > Sr. Director of Community Engagement > > Wikimedia Foundation > > *Working towards a world in which every single human being can freely > share > > in the sum of all knowledge.* > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
