Editing patterns

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The table below shows the editing patterns of a number of Wikipedia editors[1], illustrating the variety in which editors use the different 'spaces' (article, user, policy) of Wikipedia. The most recent 5,000 edits[2] of each editor were selected, and categorised as follows.

  • edits to the type of Wikipedia page broadly associated with adding or building ‘content’, namely the pages and talk pages of articles, templates, categories and portals (‘A’).
  • edits to the the type associated with social interaction in Wikipedia, namely the pages and talk pages of Wikipedia editors themselves (‘U’).
  • edits to the type of page broadly associated with the policy, politics and governance of Wikipedia, whose pages and talk pages are prefixed by ‘Wikipedia:’ (‘W’).

We calculated the total number of edits in each category, and the maximum number of edits to any single page in each category. In the table, columns 2-4 show the maximum edits per page, by category. For example, the editor ‘Wehwalt’ has a maximum of 630 edits to a single article page, WOSlinker only 3. The editor known as Georgewilliamherbert has 1,156 edits to a single ‘Wikipedia’ page, user edward none to any Wikipedia page.

Columns 5-7 show the total number of edits by category. Column 8 shows the sum of columns 5-7 as a completeness check (this does not always total 5,000, due to edits that could not be categorised). Column 9 shows the ratio of edits in article space to edits in user space

A high maximum number means the editor has focused on a particular page. The number is most meaningful in article space. A high maximum probably signifies a content creator. Content creators typically make many edits to one article, doing many different kinds of edit (re-arranging paragraphs, adding words, deleting words). A low maximum usually means a 'Wiki gnome' of some kind. Gnomes go from article to article fixing a single problem in each (changing single-spaced hyphen to double-spaced, changing 'teh' to 'the' and so on. High maximum numbers in the 'Wikipedia' space often (though not invariably) mean that the editor is a frequent visitor to the Wikipedia administrators noticeboard.

Notes

  1. the sample includes all Wikipedia administrators as at November 2011, plus an arbitrary sampling of 'well known' content creators
  2. Approximately, and in the case of Skomorokh, all of his approx. 40,000 edits were incorporated

Table

User A U W A total U total W total Total total A/U ratio
172 (T-C-F-R-B) 678 390 258 17218 3974 2778 23970 4.33
Skomorokh (T-C-F-R-B) 674 1616 405 39770 7282 9586 56638 5.46
Wehwalt (T-C-F-R-B) 630 273 124 3090 1101 735 4926 2.81
COGDEN (T-C-F-R-B) 586 123 97 3959 614 398 4971 6.45
Nev1 (T-C-F-R-B) 451 103 22 4537 297 157 4991 15.28
MartinPoulter (T-C-F-R-B) 418 87 68 4056 531 407 4994 7.64
Ceoil (T-C-F-R-B) 376 522 34 3465 1389 128 4982 2.49
Karanacs (T-C-F-R-B) 361 305 137 2324 1408 1266 4998 1.65
Bishonen (T-C-F-R-B) 342 911 293 1535 2402 1058 4995 0.64
ErrantX (T-C-F-R-B) 319 291 251 2822 1227 946 4995 2.30
Andonic (T-C-F-R-B) 315 61 366 2423 1690 879 4992 1.43
The Land (T-C-F-R-B) 307 45 75 3081 618 1297 4996 4.99
SlimVirgin (T-C-F-R-B) 305 217 258 3228 583 1181 4992 5.54
Moni3 (T-C-F-R-B) 299 399 42 3038 1663 290 4991 1.83
Mifter (T-C-F-R-B) 281 108 115 2289 2212 497 4998 1.03
Slrubenstein (T-C-F-R-B) 278 52 204 3199 847 931 4977 3.78
Victuallers (T-C-F-R-B) 268 60 115 3742 796 460 4998 4.70
HJ Mitchell (T-C-F-R-B) 264 411 268 2107 1845 1045 4997 1.14
Ealdgyth (T-C-F-R-B) 261 175 17 3961 742 244 4947 5.34
Malleus Fatuorum (T-C-F-R-B) 256 439 78 3465 993 524 4982 3.49
Wadewitz (T-C-F-R-B) 232 410 176 2455 1314 1205 4974 1.87
Jayen466 (T-C-F-R-B) 209 168 153 2778 817 1375 4970 3.40
GiacomoReturned (T-C-F-R-B) 202 727 148 1397 2657 732 4786 0.53
Panyd (T-C-F-R-B) 187 155 93 2735 1644 620 4999 1.66
Tznkai (T-C-F-R-B) 187 297 290 750 1406 2843 4999 0.53
Kirill Lokshin (T-C-F-R-B) 169 131 273 1070 329 3587 4986 3.25
Maunus (T-C-F-R-B) 150 192 159 3687 624 668 4979 5.91
Johnbod (T-C-F-R-B) 141 142 51 3794 460 731 4985 8.25
Marine 69-71 (T-C-F-R-B) 138 750 16 3132 1807 47 4986 1.73
The Cunctator (T-C-F-R-B) 116 74 167 3865 420 638 4923 9.20
AGK (T-C-F-R-B) 106 3312 469 5193 9949 11146 26288 0.52
Worldtraveller (T-C-F-R-B) 103 14 115 5450 262 1993 7705 20.80
NWA.Rep (T-C-F-R-B) 98 451 157 1953 1478 645 4076 1.32
SGGH (T-C-F-R-B) 92 149 844 2326 1241 1415 4982 1.87
FT2 (T-C-F-R-B) 75 280 138 1669 941 2372 4982 1.77
Beeblebrox (T-C-F-R-B) 70 231 154 1791 1443 1765 4999 1.24
Eluchil404 (T-C-F-R-B) 68 20 19 2461 295 2240 4996 8.34
David Gerard (T-C-F-R-B) 66 145 35 4251 326 375 4952 13.04
MuZemike (T-C-F-R-B) 66 213 213 1701 1846 1453 5000 0.92
Ckatz (T-C-F-R-B) 65 67 12 4389 516 95 5000 8.51
Worm That Turned (T-C-F-R-B) 65 586 63 944 3021 1034 4999 0.31
Alansohn (T-C-F-R-B) 64 19 4 4582 344 74 5000 13.32
SilkTork (T-C-F-R-B) 64 209 31 3586 816 593 4995 4.39
Wetman (T-C-F-R-B) 61 68 139 4470 348 176 4994 12.84
Kww (T-C-F-R-B) 58 67 35 3573 836 590 4999 4.27
Baseball Bugs (T-C-F-R-B) 55 331 807 860 1197 2894 4951 0.72
Geni (T-C-F-R-B) 54 38 50 3433 766 790 4989 4.48
Jclemens (T-C-F-R-B) 49 515 132 1227 1014 2758 4999 1.21
Calmer Waters (T-C-F-R-B) 45 97 44 3339 1443 216 4998 2.31
Tiptoety (T-C-F-R-B) 38 325 154 874 2207 1919 5000 0.40
Smalljim (T-C-F-R-B) 34 45 24 3147 1741 111 4999 1.81
JaGa (T-C-F-R-B) 32 34 29 4726 89 185 5000 53.10
Cognition (T-C-F-R-B) 32 60 14 487 205 153 845 2.38
Hot Stop (T-C-F-R-B) 28 33 204 378 101 423 902 3.74
Risker (T-C-F-R-B) 28 418 181 1318 1487 2190 4995 0.89
Roger Davies (T-C-F-R-B) 28 259 221 1441 864 2689 4994 1.67
Neelix (T-C-F-R-B) 27 29 104 4509 237 229 4975 19.03
Sandstein (T-C-F-R-B) 27 427 106 1875 1046 2071 4992 1.79
AGK (T-C-F-R-B) 25 617 221 706 2043 2241 4990 0.35
Fram (T-C-F-R-B) 24 86 46 4155 451 394 5000 9.21
Georgewilliamherbert (T-C-F-R-B) 24 316 1156 1073 2079 1848 5000 0.52
Tnxman307 (T-C-F-R-B) 23 244 244 1198 2149 1650 4997 0.56
The wub (T-C-F-R-B) 22 44 82 2569 2232 196 4997 1.15
Xezbeth (T-C-F-R-B) 20 2 1 4969 20 7 4996 248.45
Andres (T-C-F-R-B) 19 26 5 4934 41 15 4990 120.34
Fae (T-C-F-R-B) 19 143 28 2082 2734 175 4991 0.76
Orangemike (T-C-F-R-B) 16 177 136 2216 1835 946 4997 1.21
Billinghurst (T-C-F-R-B) 14 65 21 4416 368 205 4989 12.00
Coren (T-C-F-R-B) 14 749 198 275 1732 2992 4999 0.16
WOSlinker (T-C-F-R-B) 12 23 7 3747 1117 129 4993 3.35
Arjun01 (T-C-F-R-B) 11 195 194 2093 2310 594 4997 0.91
Merovingian (T-C-F-R-B) 11 21 2 4957 41 2 5000 120.90
JohnCD (T-C-F-R-B) 10 258 244 1060 3141 798 4999 0.34
Snowolf (T-C-F-R-B) 9 37 20 3186 1693 113 4992 1.88
DeltaQuad (T-C-F-R-B) 8 195 252 973 1691 2335 4999 0.58
Timotheus Canens (T-C-F-R-B) 8 339 458 973 1329 2693 4995 0.73
Hersfold (T-C-F-R-B) 7 510 72 768 2916 1306 4990 0.26
Wknight94 (T-C-F-R-B) 7 16 3 2577 2411 10 4998 1.07
Courcelles (T-C-F-R-B) 6 17 11 4750 46 203 4999 103.26
edward (T-C-F-R-B) 4 18 0 4975 25 0 5000 199.00
J04n (T-C-F-R-B) 4 6 3 4964 16 19 4999 310.25
Gaius Cornelius (T-C-F-R-B) 3 1 2 4990 7 3 5000 712.86