How might I get help with

• understanding the data available on Wikinews and
• improving data collection there along the lines suggested by [[User:Gryllida]] at [[n:User:Gryllida/Tasks#Task 33: track decline and deletion reasons]]?

Gryllida is one of eleven [[n:Wikinews:Administrators]] who are not bureaucrats.

I plan to attend [https://wikiconference.org/wiki/2018/Main_Page WikiConference North America, October 18-21] in Columbus, Ohio, USA. I've submitted a [https://wikiconference.org/wiki/Submissions:2018/Workshop_on_countering_the_Balkanization_of_the_body_politic proposal for a workshop suggesting that the Wikimedia Foundation is ideally placed to counter the Balkanization of the body politic] exacerbated by the rise of social media.

Whether as part of that workshop or in hackathons at that conference (or before), I hope to work with others to understand better the available data and develop improvements.

The data on en.wikinews suggests that it gets roughly 60 submissions for every article they publish. This observation has been vigorously attacked and denied by [[User:Pi zero]] and Gryllida.

[[User:Pi zero]] is one of nine bureaucrats with en.wikinews and is also the most active. This was obvious in a review I did of the history pages behind all ten articles displayed on the en.wikinews landing page on 2017-10-19: Pi zero's name was over half of the occurrences; an “occurrence” was an edit s/he made or a mention of her/his name in the comments for an edit. Over half of the occurrence that were not Pi zero were Gryllida. Those two together were responsible for over half the edits for the featured articles on that date.

I have not replicated that study, but the vast majority of the responses to comments I made on these issues in [[Wikinews:Wikinews:Water cooler/proposals]] came from either Pi zero or Gryllida. Please see in particular sections [[Wikinews:Wikinews:Water cooler/proposals#Retaining contributors with compatible projects]] and [[Wikinews:Wikinews:Water cooler/proposals#Wikinews stats]]. My comments there are based on ideas summarized in the proposed workshop for WikiConference North America Oct. 18-21. They follow a more extended discussion in [[Wikiversity:Everyone's favorite news site]], which is summarized in the [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Countering_the_Balkanization_of_the_Body_Politic.pdf lightning talk I gave at Wikimania 2018 in Cape Town].

My summary of Pi zero's comments on this is as follows:

1. Your data are wrong (and are worthless even if correct, at least for Wikinews).
2. The entire Wikimedia system reached a peak in the number of volunteers at around the time the Wimedia Foundation was founded. This is most visible on Wikinews, because it is “news,” and “news” stops being “news” a week later. Meanwhile, an encyclopedia or dictionary entry does not stop being what it is a week later.

If this misrepresents Pi zero's perspective, I hope s/he will find these comments and correct my misunderstanding.

I'm perhaps most confused about one point: Your data suggest that the English language Wikinews gets roughly 60 submissions for every article they publish. Pi zero and Gryllida indicate they get a lot of garbage, spam, press releases, troll comments, etc. I don't know if the garbage they've described represent perhaps 50 out of the 60 submissions you've reported for every article published by en.wikinews or if it only represents between, say, 60 and 90 percent of the much smaller number of submissions they count. I think that's worth knowing, though I think Pi zero disagrees.

In sum:

1. I'd like help in trying to create a system similar to [[n:User:Gryllida/Tasks#Task 33: track decline and deletion reasons]].
2. I'd like to start this work as soon as feasible. In particular, I hope to work on it during a hackathon at WikiConference North America 2018 if not before.
3. If you think this is worth discussing in an official workshop during that conference, it would help if you add your name and suggestions for revision on [https://wikiconference.org/wiki/Submissions:2018/Workshop_on_countering_the_Balkanization_of_the_body_politic the page for that workshop proposal.]

Thanks, ~~~~ [[User:DavidMCEddy]]
p.s. My attempts to enter "Wikinews" in "Tags" were rejected. My attempts to enter my Wikimedia name or an email address into "Subscribers" were also rejected. I'm sure you know this, but I would have felt more comfortable if I could have added "Tags" and some reference to "Subscribers" like that.