You have a very similar effect in larger Wikipedias. In those ones, there is no 
very active, "single bus"-like contributor, but a core of very active users 
concentrating about 85% of the total number of edits per month.

It seems that in these languages, though, there is a generational relay in 
which new active users jump into the core to substitute those who eventually 
give up, for any reason. So, the concentration becomes stable after a couple of 
years (aprox.) and the encyclopedia is able to continue growing.

Best.

F.


--- El jue, 23/10/08, Gerard Meijssen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> escribió:

> De: Gerard Meijssen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Asunto: Re: [Wiki-research-l] "Regular contributor"
> Para: "Research into Wikimedia content and communities" 
> <[email protected]>
> Fecha: jueves, 23 octubre, 2008 10:27
> Hoi,
> I missed that this was the research mailing list.. my
> fault. Consequently my
> answer was not appropriate. With this in mind, it is
> interesting to learn
> how the spread is in particularly the smaller projects. In
> my opinion there
> must be a certain amount of productive people in order to
> get to a community
> that does not have one person who is the "bus
> factor".
> 
> Having someone who drives the bus is really important. I
> wonder how you can
> point this person out. I think that someone who is just
> editing is important
> but it is not all that builds a community.
> Thanks,
>       GerardM
> 
> On the Volapuk wikipedia Smeira was really important. When
> he left, I
> understand that activity collapsed.
> 
> 2008/10/22 phoebe ayers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 
> > 2008/10/21 Gerard Meijssen
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >
> >> Hoi,
> >> When you divide people up in groups, when you
> single out the ones "most
> >> valuable", you in effect divide the
> community. Whatever you base your
> >> metrics on, there will be sound arguments to deny
> the point of view. When it
> >> is about the number of edits, it is clear to the
> pure encyclopedistas that
> >> most of the policy wonks have not supported what
> is the "real" aim of the
> >> project.
> >>
> >> When you label groups of people, you divide them
> and it is exactly the
> >> egalitarian aspect that makes the community
> thrive.
> >
> >
> > But this isn't about labeling people for the rest
> of time and saying that
> > this is how they are defined *on Wikipedia* --
> it's about saying how do you
> > study people who regularly contribute to Wikipedia,
> and as a part of that
> > how do you define the group that you are studying,
> which is an important
> > question for any research study.
> >
> > Given that it's impossible to study every
> contributor to the project in
> > every study, and since many researchers are interested
> in why people who
> > spend a lot of time or effort working on Wikipedia do
> so (and what exactly
> > it is they do), this is a very relevant question for
> this list.
> >
> > --phoebe
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > [email protected]
> >
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> >
> >
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