3.2.1. Retention
RQ1 [Retention] How do Wikipedia language communities retain new members over time?
The first vital sign is retention. It reflects the capacity of the community to engage new editors to continue editing after they register.
- Retention rate: this indicator is computed, according to the state of the art [5], as the percentage of new editors who edit at least once 60 days after their first edit.
3.2.2. Stability RQ2 [Stability]
How stable is the composition of Wikipedia language communities over time?
The second vital sign is stability. Community stability is the persistence of active editors. It is not only desired to ensure that there are fresh editors every month who had not edited on the previous month, but also that there are others who have edited for many more months.
- Stability: computed as the number of active editors by the number of months they have been active in a row. We have grouped the number of active months in six groups: first-month editing (regardless of whether the user had previously edited and then taken a break), two months editing in a row, three to six months, seven to twelve, thirteen to twenty-four, and more than twenty-four months in a row. Looking at the proportion of users who fall in each of these groups, it is possible to get a picture of the stability (or volatility) of a community.
3.2.3. Balance
RQ3 [Balance] How balanced are Wikipedia language communities in terms of including new members over time and maintaining the old?
The third vital sign is balance. Community balance has to do with being able to maintain an equitable proportion of old and new editors. The community should benefit from the experience of older generations of editors, and at the same time, be able to stay open to new generations. This is a key sign related to renewal. It may not be desirable that the “productivity” relies too much on an older generation, but neither that it would depend mostly on the last one.
- Balance: this indicator is given by the number and percentage of very active editors by year and by generation, defined as the lustrum of their first edit.
According to the MediaWiki definition (MediaWiki contributors, ’Analytics/Metric definitions’, MediaWiki, 24 October 2021, 11:36 UTC, https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Analytics/Metric_definitions&oldid=4884329 [accessed 19 February 2022]). we consider a very active editor “a registered (and signed in) person (not known as a bot) who makes 100 or more edits per month in mainspace on countable pages.” Given the imbalance of contributions, they usually account for the vast majority of the registered editors’ edits; for example, in the case of the Italian Wikipedia, the 85% of the registered editors’ edits every year are performed by very active editors. Therefore, by taking the very active editors, we are observing the part of the community that is responsible for the production of most of its content.
3.2.4. Special Functions
RQ4 [Special functions] How are Wikipedia language communities renewing their technical development (Techwizard) and project specialists?
The fourth vital sign is special functions. Community technical and coordination functions undertaken by editors are essential for the project. We, therefore, define two indicators for these two different functions:
