Talk:Small Wiki Editor Engagement Project/Report/Monthly (June-July 2012)

High percentage of people reporting editing

I was surprised by the high number of respondents who reported editing Bangla Wikipedia. From the results -

Do you edit in Bangla Wikipedia?

• 75.3% do not edit Bangla Wikipedia
• 24.7% edit Bangla Wikipedia

Other related statistics indicated a large percentage of respondents being editors. Statistics for highly active Wikipedia projects show that about 0.02% of users actually contribute[1], and I wonder why so many people who participated in this study report contributing. Are there really so many contributors, or are these not active or regular contributors, or is this a self-selecting population of active users who took this survey? Probably all of these are factors, but still, this survey generated a number 1000 times more than what would be expected on English and I wonder what this means. I hope that the high number of editing respondents is indicative of a class of users who is active and highly interested in supporting their native-language projects by taking surveys, editing articles, or doing other things when asked in their own language. Blue Rasberry (talk) 22:43, 4 August 2012 (UTC)

Hi Bluerasberry, this a good point out! Now as we all know small wikis are different from big wikis, I hope you know, not many people are aware of small wikis, even in respective language-speaking community. So those who create accounts are likely have more awareness of that Wikipedia than others. That is why I think really there are that much contributors! Luckily I have another set of user data to answer this question. For example, in June 2012, 1019 new accounts were created and 92 of them edited on the day of account creation — that is like around 10% of the new account creators edit in the day of account creation. Remember, there are also editors who created their accounts but edited say, a weak after their account creation. But they are not in this count and they also have a share in this 25%. Needless to say, like all wikis, small ones also have IP edits — they attended to this survey too. Lastly, the very active contributors. I think if we sum all those, then yes, it is possible that one fourth of them edit Bangla Wikipedia. Tanvir Rahman (talk) 14:43, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

I really was not aware of how different small wikis were from big ones, but I think this survey demonstrates how different the dynamic is by showing that such a large percentage of people who participate at all are also editors. I am sure this has policy implications also - I think that it means that small wikis should be ready to serve the needs of editors immediately and not expect to serve almost entirely a population of readers. You explanations for this are good. Thanks for this. Blue Rasberry (talk) 14:54, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

Common characteristic of editors

Did the study identify any common characteristic among the people who edit Bangla Wikipedia? Where editors more likely to be a certain age or to have a certain motive, or any other characteristic? Blue Rasberry (talk) 22:48, 4 August 2012 (UTC)

Yes, we have few common characteristics. If you take a look on to the demographics section, you will see the data for all participants, but you asked for only editors. Though this survey was not designed to collect editors' opinion in particular, but analyzing responses of 24.7% editors, we found it is more or less same like overall responses. Like in overall respose 62.2% are in ages between 16-26 years, and if we count the editors only then we get 66.3%. Same goes for number of students, while overall response says 60.1% comprise students, and when we count only editors, we get 61.4%. Tanvir Rahman (talk) 14:43, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

Hmm... I am not sure what to think of this, although it is valuable information. I suppose that I would have liked to have seen some strong difference between the people who edit versus the people who use Wikipedia so that outreach materials could be targeted to a certain population instead of to everyone. But I guess this survey suggests that at this time there is a need to support everyone, and not just a specific group. Blue Rasberry (talk) 14:51, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

Exactly, when you have too few contributors, basically you have to focus on all in general. Tanvir Rahman (talk) 14:54, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

Text of original survey

This page does not currently link to the text of the original survey. Could you please provide a link to the survey on the results page? Blue Rasberry (talk) 22:50, 4 August 2012 (UTC)

The text of original survey is public. We have included all the questions with figures by options (except those who required text fields, but summary of the texts/opinions are available on the report) on the report. See overall response statistics section. Tanvir Rahman (talk) 14:43, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

Oh, okay, I understand now. Blue Rasberry (talk) 14:48, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

Education of respondents

100% of respondents reported at least finishing high school. There must be some kind of problem here because some respondents were not of an age to have finished high school and surely some adult respondents had not completed high school. Is there any explanation for this? Blue Rasberry (talk) 22:57, 4 August 2012 (UTC)

I think this is because of the misunderstanding of the education system. In Bangladesh, high school is from 6th to 10th grade, and one gets his or her high school graduations after completion of 10th grade and passing the S.S.C. (Secondary School Certificate) examination. So, those who went for high school are most likely passed S.S.C. exam and the usual age of passing S.S.C. is 16. College education in Bangladesh is 11th and 12th grade only and it is a two year course. So it is possible that respondents under 16 years may finished their high school already. Tanvir Rahman (talk) 14:43, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

Would this survey detect a person who was editing Wikipedia but who had not finished high school? Or is that situation just very unlikely? Blue Rasberry (talk) 14:47, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

This survey does not detect those who did not finish high school. It is possible that some did not finish high school, but studying in the high school level (between 6th and 10th grades). So those who did not finish high school are probably in between those grades. And it is very unlikely that someone below 6th grade (that is primary level) will edit Wikipedia. Tanvir Rahman (talk) 14:52, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

United Kingdom versus United States

More Bangla speakers live in the United Kingdom than in the United States, yet more survey respondents were from the United States than the United Kingdom. Can you propose or speculate any explanation for this? Blue Rasberry (talk) 23:02, 4 August 2012 (UTC)

It is a bit hard to explain this. I think the reason is U.S. gets more Bangla speaking students and skilled workers than UK. Although a lot of students go to UK for study as well, but still it is a bit difficult to explain this scenario from this survey. Tanvir Rahman (talk) 14:43, 8 August 2012 (UTC)