Exhibit 1048 · Peer-reviewed study
The Rise and Decline of an Open Collaboration System: How Wikipedia's Reaction to Popularity Is Causing Its Decline
Specifically, the restrictiveness of the encyclopedia’s primary quality control mechanism and the algorithmic tools used to reject contributions are implicated as key causes of decreased newcomer retention.
Analysis of English Wikipedia revision histories, including deleted revisions, and a hand-coded random sample of newcomers. The authors report that the share of good-faith newcomers whose edits were reverted rose, that tool-assisted reverting (for example with the Huggle program) produced far lower response rates (7%) than manual reverts, and that the formal norm-setting processes calcified against changes proposed by newer editors.
- Source
- Halfaker, Geiger, Morgan and Riedl, American Behavioral Scientist 57(5): 664-688
- Date
- 2013
- Quoted from
- Abstract
- Grade
- Peer-reviewed
- Document
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764212469365
- Accessed
- 2026-11-10
- Cited by
- Findings citing this exhibit
- Note
- Read from the authors' open-access copy at stuartgeiger.com; read abstract and the tool-use section, not the full results.