Research:Lag between registration and first edit
 | This page in a nutshell: An overwhelming majority of new users (80%) make their first edit within a day of registering, and 75% make it within one hour. |
This sprint investigates the research question: How long does it take for new users to make an edit once they register an account?
Process[edit]
Data for a registered user's first edit ever -- which includes live and deleted edits -- was generated. This was then compared to the user's registration date. Note: because of legacy installations of MediaWiki, user registration data may be inaccurate prior to 2005. At that time, the software would sometimes record the date of a user's first edit as their registration date. However, this makes up a small percent of users given the massive growth in registration and editors in 2006-7.
The data for all users were then fitted to a Gaussian mixture model, a clustering technique that is able to separate lag observations in several classes (or components). We tried fitting a mixture of N=2,3, and 4 components. Estimation of the parameters of the model is performed via the Expectation Maximization algorithm (EM). The data are first transformed in logarithmic scale (base 10). If data are log-normally distributed, then we should see that the logarithm is distributed according to the normal distribution.
Results[edit]
What percentage of registered users edit?[edit]
Pie Charts[edit]
Histogram with model fit[edit]
| Mean (days) | Median (days) | Std. Dev. (days) | Prob. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 741.5 | 18.36 | 2.993e+04 | 0.2926 |
| 0.008591 | 0.004197 | 0.01534 | 0.7074 |
Data[edit]
| Days between reg and first edit | Number of users | Percent of all users |
| 0 | 3477450 | 80.867% |
| 1 | 146917 | 3.417% |
| 2 | 48885 | 1.137% |
| 3 | 33918 | 0.789% |
| 4 | 28088 | 0.653% |
| 5 to 10 | 111996 | 2.604% |
| 11 to 20 | 94112 | 2.189% |
| 21 to 31 | 59312 | 1.379% |
| 31 to 60 | 73512 | 1.710% |
| 61 to 180 | 130443 | 3.033% |
| 180 to 365 | 95563 | 2.222% |
| Total < 1 year | 4300196 | 100.000% |
| Hours between reg and first edit | Number of users | Percent of all users | Percent of < 1 day users |
| 0 | 3257914 | 75.762% | 93.687% |
| 1 | 111753 | 2.599% | 3.214% |
| 2 | 35798 | 0.832% | 1.029% |
| 3 | 18451 | 0.429% | 0.531% |
| 4 | 11214 | 0.261% | 0.322% |
| 5 | 7382 | 0.172% | 0.212% |
| 6 | 4881 | 0.114% | 0.140% |
| 7 | 3518 | 0.082% | 0.101% |
| 8 | 2631 | 0.061% | 0.076% |
| 9 | 2451 | 0.057% | 0.070% |
| 10 | 2278 | 0.053% | 0.066% |
| 11 | 2255 | 0.052% | 0.065% |
| 12 | 2200 | 0.051% | 0.063% |
| 13 | 2068 | 0.048% | 0.059% |
| 14 | 1972 | 0.046% | 0.057% |
| 15 | 1864 | 0.043% | 0.054% |
| 16 | 1777 | 0.041% | 0.051% |
| 17 | 1561 | 0.036% | 0.045% |
| 18 | 1503 | 0.035% | 0.043% |
| 19 | 1307 | 0.030% | 0.038% |
| 20 | 1061 | 0.025% | 0.031% |
| 21 | 854 | 0.020% | 0.025% |
| 22 | 562 | 0.013% | 0.016% |
| 23 | 195 | 0.005% | 0.006% |
| Total < 1 day | 3477450 | 80.867% | 100.000% |
| Minutes between reg and first edit | number of users | Percent of all users | Percent of < 1 hour users |
| 0 | 293625 | 6.828% | 9.013% |
| 1 | 387565 | 9.013% | 11.896% |
| 2 | 360452 | 8.382% | 11.064% |
| 3 | 290431 | 6.754% | 8.915% |
| 4 | 232709 | 5.412% | 7.143% |
| 5 | 190312 | 4.426% | 5.842% |
| 6 to 10 | 588981 | 13.697% | 18.078% |
| 11 to 20 | 484058 | 11.257% | 14.858% |
| 21 to 30 | 207025 | 4.814% | 6.355% |
| 31 to 40 | 111793 | 2.600% | 3.431% |
| 41 to 50 | 68942 | 1.603% | 2.116% |
| 51 to 60 | 42021 | 0.977% | 1.290% |
| Total < 1 hour | 3257914 | 75.762% | 100.000% |
Future work[edit]
Separate out this data by registration cohort: has this changed over time?