Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2016-01-20/Blog

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A very good piece. Do we have any idea how many of the earlier editors are still active? I have 11+ years. Apwoolrich (talk) 19:53, 24 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Apwoolrich: Thanks for the comment! The closest thing that I'm aware of is Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians in order of arrival. Ed Erhart (WMF) (talk) 08:45, 25 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Apwoolrich and Ed Erhart (WMF): I've put together a database query of editors who made at least one edit in 2001 and at least one edit in 2016. It turns up 28 results. Due to various fun technical issues some of those editors are marked as having registered after 2001, but they all have edits from 2001 in their contributions. Also, it only takes edits to the English Wikipedia into account, not any of the other WMF wikis. — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 09:41, 26 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

That's fascinating, Strad. Thanks for putting that together. Ed Erhart (WMF) (talk) 22:07, 26 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It's a shame the approach to writing Wikipedia can't also be used for its software development. When you edit a page, you don't discuss it first, you just do it, and only if it's harmful is it reverted. If you had to discuss every edit before it was made, editors would simply give up en masse. If only the software could take the same approach: developers would make a change first, and the community could discuss it afterwards. Consensus would be needed to roll back change, rather than to make it. Of course, it could never be that simple as software changes have such broad effects, but it would be great to see some more radical changes to Mediawiki—if only there were the leadership, vision and capacity to move the software forward less slowly. Well done, Magnus on your work over the years! —Pengo 22:20, 25 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for doing this. Maybe a special Barnstar might be created and awarded to the pioneers. Apwoolrich (talk) 07:55, 27 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]