User:Keegan/Eternal Spring Break

The Eternal Spring Break for a Wikipedian is when, after spending over a year on Wikipedia, a user goes on Spring break and does not return. This is the opposite of the Eternal September.

The life-cycle of a Wikipedian who gets involved in the maintenance of the project will generally begin editing in the fall, and run for adminship in the following summer or late fall. Often the user then delves into the heart of running the project, and becomes more active and noticed in admin actions and on noticeboards. This increases communication with other users, and can cause a lack of focus and distraction from off-line activities. When March rolls around, these users often take much needed time off. They return with an intent to continue activity, but increased outside pressures diminish activity with transitions occurring during the summer.

The end result is that we lose users after 18 months.