Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-04-02/Wikipedia poll

9% of who have edited?
This Signpost article says 9% of people who have visited Wikipedia have edited. This seems to disagree with the linked article by Rasmussen, even though the Signpost figure seems far more realistic. Rasmussen says, "While Wikipedia is open to anyone, just 9% of Americans have posted or corrected information on the site." Just 9% of Americans? That's 30 million people; is this a typo? What's going on here? If it is a typo, then how do we know it's a typo?

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask about this; if anyone sees this and it isn't then please point me in the right direction. Thanks! --Allen 01:03, 4 April 2007 (UTC)


 * The prose written by Rasmussen is of mixed quality, but it's worth mentioning that the survey is limited to adults. Other reports have indicated that about 1/4 of US internet users visit Wikipedia in any given month, and I'd venture that easily a majority have visited Wikipedia at some time, ever. So 30 million is certainly high, and there's not really enough information to convert the percentage to a total population, but I don't think the phrase was intended to be interpreted literally with mathematical extrapolation. --Michael Snow 02:27, 4 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the response. I'm still confused, though.  The way I see it, you've got American adults, and then a subset of those are internet users, and then a subset of those are people who have ever visited Wikipedia.  So even if a majority of internet users have visited WP at some time, that still might not be a majority of American adults.  Do you know of a link to the raw survey data?  Maybe that would clear things up.  --Allen 16:32, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

I also wanted to comment on only 9%? That seems very high to me...--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 05:34, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Do any statistics exist regarding the number of IP addresses who have edited? I swear I've seen this somewhere, but now I can't find it... --- RockMFR 15:25, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Not that that would be terribly helpful...I know I've edited from a variety of IP addresses when I forgot to log in. --Tim4christ17 talk 14:59, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

46% is hardly a majority
Accordingly, I've changed the wording.  Bl a  st  08.04.07 2248 (UTC)