Editing patterns
The table below shows the editing patterns of a number of Wikipedia editors, illustrating the variety in which editors use the different 'spaces' (article, user, policy) of Wikipedia. The most recent 5,000 edits[1] 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.
User | A max | U max | W max | A total | U total | W total | Total total | A/U ratio |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Skomorokh | 674 | 1616 | 405 | 39770 | 7282 | 9586 | 56638 | 5.46 |
Wehwalt | 630 | 273 | 124 | 3090 | 1101 | 735 | 4926 | 2.81 |
COGDEN | 586 | 123 | 97 | 3959 | 614 | 398 | 4971 | 6.45 |
Nev1 | 451 | 103 | 22 | 4537 | 297 | 157 | 4991 | 15.28 |
MartinPoulter | 418 | 87 | 68 | 4056 | 531 | 407 | 4994 | 7.64 |
Ceoil | 376 | 522 | 34 | 3465 | 1389 | 128 | 4982 | 2.49 |
Karanacs | 361 | 305 | 137 | 2324 | 1408 | 1266 | 4998 | 1.65 |
Bishonen | 342 | 911 | 293 | 1535 | 2402 | 1058 | 4995 | 0.64 |
ErrantX | 319 | 291 | 251 | 2822 | 1227 | 946 | 4995 | 2.30 |
Andonic | 315 | 61 | 366 | 2423 | 1690 | 879 | 4992 | 1.43 |
The Land | 307 | 45 | 75 | 3081 | 618 | 1297 | 4996 | 4.99 |
SlimVirgin | 305 | 217 | 258 | 3228 | 583 | 1181 | 4992 | 5.54 |
Moni3 | 299 | 399 | 42 | 3038 | 1663 | 290 | 4991 | 1.83 |
Mifter | 281 | 108 | 115 | 2289 | 2212 | 497 | 4998 | 1.03 |
Slrubenstein | 278 | 52 | 204 | 3199 | 847 | 931 | 4977 | 3.78 |
Victuallers | 268 | 60 | 115 | 3742 | 796 | 460 | 4998 | 4.70 |
HJ Mitchell | 264 | 411 | 268 | 2107 | 1845 | 1045 | 4997 | 1.14 |
Ealdgyth | 261 | 175 | 17 | 3961 | 742 | 244 | 4947 | 5.34 |
Malleus Fatuorum | 256 | 439 | 78 | 3465 | 993 | 524 | 4982 | 3.49 |
Wadewitz | 232 | 410 | 176 | 2455 | 1314 | 1205 | 4974 | 1.87 |
Jayen466 | 209 | 168 | 153 | 2778 | 817 | 1375 | 4970 | 3.40 |
GiacomoReturned | 202 | 727 | 148 | 1397 | 2657 | 732 | 4786 | 0.53 |
Panyd | 187 | 155 | 93 | 2735 | 1644 | 620 | 4999 | 1.66 |
Tznkai | 187 | 297 | 290 | 750 | 1406 | 2843 | 4999 | 0.53 |
Kirill Lokshin | 169 | 131 | 273 | 1070 | 329 | 3587 | 4986 | 3.25 |
Maunus | 150 | 192 | 159 | 3687 | 624 | 668 | 4979 | 5.91 |
Johnbod | 141 | 142 | 51 | 3794 | 460 | 731 | 4985 | 8.25 |
Marine 69-71 | 138 | 750 | 16 | 3132 | 1807 | 47 | 4986 | 1.73 |
The Cunctator | 116 | 74 | 167 | 3865 | 420 | 638 | 4923 | 9.20 |
AGK | 106 | 3312 | 469 | 5193 | 9949 | 11146 | 26288 | 0.52 |
NWA.Rep | 98 | 451 | 157 | 1953 | 1478 | 645 | 4076 | 1.32 |
SGGH | 92 | 149 | 844 | 2326 | 1241 | 1415 | 4982 | 1.87 |
FT2 | 75 | 280 | 138 | 1669 | 941 | 2372 | 4982 | 1.77 |
Beeblebrox | 70 | 231 | 154 | 1791 | 1443 | 1765 | 4999 | 1.24 |
Eluchil404 | 68 | 20 | 19 | 2461 | 295 | 2240 | 4996 | 8.34 |
David Gerard | 66 | 145 | 35 | 4251 | 326 | 375 | 4952 | 13.04 |
MuZemike | 66 | 213 | 213 | 1701 | 1846 | 1453 | 5000 | 0.92 |
Ckatz | 65 | 67 | 12 | 4389 | 516 | 95 | 5000 | 8.51 |
Worm That Turned | 65 | 586 | 63 | 944 | 3021 | 1034 | 4999 | 0.31 |
Alansohn | 64 | 19 | 4 | 4582 | 344 | 74 | 5000 | 13.32 |
SilkTork | 64 | 209 | 31 | 3586 | 816 | 593 | 4995 | 4.39 |
Wetman | 61 | 68 | 139 | 4470 | 348 | 176 | 4994 | 12.84 |
Kww | 58 | 67 | 35 | 3573 | 836 | 590 | 4999 | 4.27 |
Baseball Bugs | 55 | 331 | 807 | 860 | 1197 | 2894 | 4951 | 0.72 |
Geni | 54 | 38 | 50 | 3433 | 766 | 790 | 4989 | 4.48 |
Jclemens | 49 | 515 | 132 | 1227 | 1014 | 2758 | 4999 | 1.21 |
Calmer Waters | 45 | 97 | 44 | 3339 | 1443 | 216 | 4998 | 2.31 |
Tiptoety | 38 | 325 | 154 | 874 | 2207 | 1919 | 5000 | 0.40 |
Smalljim | 34 | 45 | 24 | 3147 | 1741 | 111 | 4999 | 1.81 |
JaGa | 32 | 34 | 29 | 4726 | 89 | 185 | 5000 | 53.10 |
Hot Stop | 28 | 33 | 204 | 378 | 101 | 423 | 902 | 3.74 |
Risker | 28 | 418 | 181 | 1318 | 1487 | 2190 | 4995 | 0.89 |
Roger Davies | 28 | 259 | 221 | 1441 | 864 | 2689 | 4994 | 1.67 |
Neelix | 27 | 29 | 104 | 4509 | 237 | 229 | 4975 | 19.03 |
Sandstein | 27 | 427 | 106 | 1875 | 1046 | 2071 | 4992 | 1.79 |
AGK | 25 | 617 | 221 | 706 | 2043 | 2241 | 4990 | 0.35 |
Fram | 24 | 86 | 46 | 4155 | 451 | 394 | 5000 | 9.21 |
Georgewilliamherbert | 24 | 316 | 1156 | 1073 | 2079 | 1848 | 5000 | 0.52 |
Tnxman307 | 23 | 244 | 244 | 1198 | 2149 | 1650 | 4997 | 0.56 |
The wub | 22 | 44 | 82 | 2569 | 2232 | 196 | 4997 | 1.15 |
Xezbeth | 20 | 2 | 1 | 4969 | 20 | 7 | 4996 | 248.45 |
Andres | 19 | 26 | 5 | 4934 | 41 | 15 | 4990 | 120.34 |
Fae | 19 | 143 | 28 | 2082 | 2734 | 175 | 4991 | 0.76 |
Orangemike | 16 | 177 | 136 | 2216 | 1835 | 946 | 4997 | 1.21 |
Billinghurst | 14 | 65 | 21 | 4416 | 368 | 205 | 4989 | 12.00 |
Coren | 14 | 749 | 198 | 275 | 1732 | 2992 | 4999 | 0.16 |
WOSlinker | 12 | 23 | 7 | 3747 | 1117 | 129 | 4993 | 3.35 |
Arjun01 | 11 | 195 | 194 | 2093 | 2310 | 594 | 4997 | 0.91 |
Merovingian | 11 | 21 | 2 | 4957 | 41 | 2 | 5000 | 120.90 |
JohnCD | 10 | 258 | 244 | 1060 | 3141 | 798 | 4999 | 0.34 |
Snowolf | 9 | 37 | 20 | 3186 | 1693 | 113 | 4992 | 1.88 |
DeltaQuad | 8 | 195 | 252 | 973 | 1691 | 2335 | 4999 | 0.58 |
Timotheus Canens | 8 | 339 | 458 | 973 | 1329 | 2693 | 4995 | 0.73 |
Hersfold | 7 | 510 | 72 | 768 | 2916 | 1306 | 4990 | 0.26 |
Wknight94 | 7 | 16 | 3 | 2577 | 2411 | 10 | 4998 | 1.07 |
Courcelles | 6 | 17 | 11 | 4750 | 46 | 203 | 4999 | 103.26 |
edward | 4 | 18 | 0 | 4975 | 25 | 0 | 5000 | 199.00 |
J04n | 4 | 6 | 3 | 4964 | 16 | 19 | 4999 | 310.25 |
Gaius Cornelius | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4990 | 7 | 3 | 5000 | 712.86 |
Notes
- ↑ Approximately, and in the case of Skomorokh, all of his approx. 40,000 edits were incorporated