Long-term volunteers focus on just a few subject areas
If people make a lot of contributions in a variety of different places, they’re likely going to churn. They’ll get attracted to the next thing and leave.
You want members participating in topics over which they have either a high degree of expertise or a strong emotional connection.
You want each member to feel a sense of ownership over a relatively small part of the community.
Qin et al. (2014) who studied 500k Wikipedia participants over 13 years. Those that edited just a few articles repeatedly stayed for far longer than those that engaged in lots of different activity.
Never guide a newcomer aimlessly to participate in a community. Highlight what they’re most passionate/knowledgeable about – and gradually get them more engaged within those topics. They need to feel they own a piece of the community.
