Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikipedia Reform/Attrition/Study

Hypotheses

(Transcluded from Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikipedia Reform/Attrition/Study/Hypotheses)

• Dissatisfaction with the outcomes of Wikipedia processes is a major cause of attrition.

Method

Overview

We plan on reviewing information from userpages and other sources and possibly conducting exit interviews.

Possible exit interview questions

(Transcluded from Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikipedia Reform/Attrition/Exit interview questions)

• What are your primary reasons for leaving?
• What did you find most satisfying about being a Wikipedian?
• What did you find most frustrating about Wikipedia?
• Were there any Wikipedia policies or procedures that made your work more difficult?
• Would you consider returning to Wikipedia in the future?
• Would you recommend Wikipedia to a friend as a good place to work?
• Is there anything Wikipedia could have done to prevent you from leaving?

Data

Reasons for leaving

(Transcluded from Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikipedia Reform/Attrition/Study/Reasons for leaving)

Wikipedians who left over RFCs

• User:Jmaynard – His userpage states that he left over the incident at Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Doc glasgow. Departure occurred circa 2 March 2007.[1]
• SPUI (talk · contribs · count) - Onetime heavy and prolific contributor to U.S. Roads and other transportation-related projects; subject of many block-unblock wars and a few RFCs and arbitration cases. Stopped editing regularly on December 26, 2006; made a few sporadic edits through 2007 and has not edited since October 21 of that year. Last edit claimed he was still active on IRC.

Wikipedians who left over AfDs

• User talk:Bdj last edit was July 8, 2007, over Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Daniel Brandt (14th nomination)

Wikipedians who left over RFArs

• BostonMA (talk · contribs · count) - Last edit July 17, 2007; stopped editing proflicially in February, a month after a failed RfA. 6000+ edits. No reason given.
• Finalnight (talk · contribs · count) - After withdrawing from an RfA, placed a retirement notice on their webpage on July 17, 2008. Sporadically edited about a few leftover administrative issues afterwards.
• VeryVerily (talk · contribs · count) - Banned at one point in 2004 for edit warring, he returned for a few months in 2005. On December 27, 2005 he started an appeal at requests for arbitration to "clear his name" from his previous block. He has not edited since February 28, 2006.
• WHEELER (talk · contribs · count) - Last edit September 7, 2008. Banned for one year by ArbCom on 24 Aug 2007 (see Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/List of Republics). After ban was lifted, he stated on his user talk page that he was short of time and that he was afraid that admins would be "bull baiting" him. No edits to articles since ban was lifted.

To be sorted

• User:Alkivar – departed circa 4 November 2007
• Everyone in Wikipedia:Missing Wikipedians
• User:Ta bu shi da yu – not sure how to classify this one. See User_talk:Obuibo Mbstpo/Archive 1#Your_edit to WP:CANVASS. Departure occurred circa November 2007.
• User:RickK – admin (account registered 2002) who left after being blocked (circumstances are complicated). Departed June 2005.
• User:Sarsaparilla. Used serial accounts, no charges of actual sock puppetry (simultaneously used accounts), beyond creation of socks for block evasion. Legitimate accounts, beginning with Sarsaparilla, are User:Ron Duvall, User:Absidy, User:Obuibo Mbstpo, and User:Larry E. Jordan. See Talk here for discussion of the history of this user.
• Durin (talk · contribs · count) - Left in August 2007 due to legal threats from another user.
• H (talk · contribs · count), formerly HighInBC - Left after threats were made against the well-being of his family. His final words were "it's just a website for fuck's sake." Last edit June 21, 2007.
• Hillman (talk · contribs · count) - Prolific contributor to articles on mathematics and physics, especially general relativity. Left in October 2006, ground down by degradation of material he had written. Briefly reappeared in July 2008.
• Katefan0 (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) - A prolific administrator, she left after Daniel Brandt threatened to inform her employer regarding her work on Wikipedia. See Muddying Sandifer for more details. Last edit May 27, 2006.
• Mintguy (talk · contribs · count) - last edit November 13, 2004. "It has stopped being fun. The lunatics are taking over the asylum." See his userpage for more information
• Mister Jinxy (talk · contribs · count) Edited from December 2005 to May 2007. Left after stating, "Too many editors out there drinking the politically correct Kool-Aid and trying to make everybody worship at the altar of the Almighty Wikipedia Rule Book."
• Moriori (talk · contribs · count) - Last edit November 1, 2007. Edited from October 2003. Asked, "Is there a new policy to drive good editors away until only the woowoos are left?" Hours later he blanked his userpages and stopped editing after he felt his honesty was questioned over media copyright issues.
• Pcpcpc (talk · contribs · count) - Left a message on his talk page on April 1, 2006, saying he was leaving due to "stress caused by the unreliability of the system and harrassment from certain users." [2] Reiterated this on April 17, and has not edited since.
• Phatcat68 (talk · contribs · count) - An evangelical Christian, his userpage suggests he may have left due to conflicts with other users about Wikipedia's treatment of Christianity. Stopped regularly editing on May 7, 2006; has made a few edits since then, but none since September 25, 2007.
• Random Replicator (talk · contribs · count) - Actively stopped contributing on 29 Jan 2008. Successfully got article to FA and then left over the wiki-drama. Made one edit on 25 Jan 2009.
• RickK (talk · contribs · count) - One of the most active administrators on recent changes patrol, blanked his talk page and left a goodbye message on his user page. His exit came after a revert war where he was removing a copyright violation, in which he was blocked for violating the three revert rule by a fellow administrator. (see here). Appeared on Simple Wikipedia on July 21, 2005. He came back on December 23, 2005 to protect his user page and leave a message. His account was later compromised on July 16, 2008 and was blocked indefinitely.
• Sam Spade (talk · contribs · count) - Became only an infrequent contributor after a May 2006 arbitration case. Last edit April 19, 2007.
• Zleitzen (talk · contribs · count) - 17,000+ edits. Last edit September 29, 2007 - left in May over disgust with FAC process; returned briefly in July when Jimbo put a NPOV tag on FA Che Guevara. Made one edit in September.
• Zoe (talk · contribs · count) - Last edit February 1, 2007. Left due to a conflict with Jimbo Wales over a professor that asked his students to vandalise Wikipedia. Account was later compromised and indef-blocked.