Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2019-07-31/In focus

Do we know why the number of active editors on German Wikipedia is dropping so rapidly?--Darwinek (talk) 22:09, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Maybe because the German Wikipedia uses Flagged revisions, which has a 56 day backlog. -- John Broughton  (♫♫) 00:16, 1 August 2019 (UTC) [Full disclosure - this is a repurposed post; the orginal post was by Kusma, on a different page of this issue of The Signpost.]
 * Jesus, that's appalling - not much point vetting everyone if they leave before you finish doing so Nosebagbear (talk) 09:38, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * The free encyclopedia that anyone can suggest edits to and wait two months for them to be declined? —Nizolan (talk · c.)
 * Only 0,5 % of articles in dewp have pending changes. >90% of edits are reviewed within one day. -- hgzh 16:56, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

It looks a lot like the difference has converged within sub-year variation. "Overtaking" is a little hyperbolic. EllenCT (talk) 02:06, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * The only slightly interesting thing that these charts show me is that Wikipedia editing was more of a fad among German speakers in the 2006-2007 period than it was among French speakers. Twelve years later, that is a sociological anecdote and little more. Otherwise, the charts are remarkably similar between the two language communities. Cullen328  Let's discuss it  06:16, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * While I do agree that the flagged revisions practice is likely an issue for German Wikipedia, I suspect that the more significant issue is that German is almost exclusively a European language, and is rarely a primary language for education on other continents; thus, the growth and expansion of the number of German speakers (and German Wikipedia contributors) is relatively stagnant. French, on the other hand, is a primary language of education in a large number of countries outside of Europe, including large swaths of Africa - a region where Wikipedia participation is in its early stages. According to our articles on each language, it is likely that French will overtake German as a primary language on a global basis within the next decade or so.  There are indications already that African Wikipedians edit primarily in English, French and/or Arabic; German is not a major language in Africa comparatively speaking. As Wikipedia participation grows in Asia, Africa and South America, we can anticipate that the Wikipedias of languages of education in those continents will see increased globalization of participation.  Risker (talk) 20:09, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

I don't know about German Wikipedia, but French Wikipedia tries to take care of newcomers, with initiatives to help their first steps. Trizek from fr: 14:01, 2 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Of course German wikipedia has got an active mentoring branch for newcomers as well. As for this, there is certainly no essential difference to French wikipedia. -- Just N. 20:40, 26 August 2019 (UTC)


 * Interesting analysis. Would be good to do more of these comparisons IMO. Of course differences are always somewhat multifactorial. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 19:15, 2 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Personally, I have never been multifactorial when editing the French or the German Wikipedia. MPS1992 (talk) 22:44, 26 August 2019 (UTC)