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 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 |
