On Mon, Jun 23, 2014 at 3:45 PM, Brian Wolff <[email protected]> wrote:

> >  If part of the plan for the growth team is to invite
> > anonymous editors to sign up, why not tailor some of those invitations
> > specifically to female anonymous editors? Then you could add a measure,
> > retention of female editors, to that particular growth project. The
> results
> > should be instructive.
>
> At the risk of biting into something contentious... How would that
> work? What would the message say: "Have you considered creating an
> account? Its free. Doubly recommended if you're a women!" I have
> trouble imagining a gender-specific account creation invitation that
> doesn't sound creepy.
>
> Additionally, actually measuring success rates by gender would require
> knowing people's gender. Its conceivable that requiring people to
> disclose their gender could have a negative impact on the gender gap.
> (Or maybe it wouldn't. I have no idea)
>
> --bawolff
>
> ____________



I'm not sure what the messaging is planned to look like, but an appeal
oriented towards women doesn't seem like an insurmountable obstacle. "Did
you know only 10% of Wikipedia editors are women? If you are a woman
reading this, we need your help!" And then you can track sign-ups through
that particular message, figuring that a substantial proportion of them
will actually be women.

And you could also ask, during sign-up, for people to self-identify
confidentially. "We're trying to increase the proportion of our fellow
editors who are women, would you mind telling us if you identify as female?
[Y/N]". And then don't publish that anywhere except in aggregate.
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