VisualEditor/Portal/Why/sco

The nummers
The abuin graph chairts the retention rate fer new eediters ower time, n the nummer o fawk that we hae acteevelie eeditin. Aes ye can see, it's na luikin guid. Wikipædia is in the middle o ae crisees regardin eediter nummers. We're drivin awaa ower monie newcomers, n we'r losin the lifebluid o onie collaborateeve waurk: the contreebuters.

What this means is that we simplie dinna hae the fawk tae dae the wairk that we need tae dae. Backlogs gae up n up, wi fewer people tae haundle the moontain o tasks at Special:NewPages, or the maintenance o biographies o livin fawk (BLPs).

Featured n Guid airticle promotions plateau aes aen ootcome o na haein enooch people tae na yinlie write the airticles, bit tae luikower n maintain thaim. Awbodie haes ae tale o aen aurie that thay wairk in whaur thaur's jist na enooch people tae get the job dun.

The raisons why
We'v gat ae proablem, n thaur's monie raisons why. Some people awaa cause thay dinna want tae contreebute producteevelie, n this is fine. Ithers awaa cause thay fynd the communitie ower hostile, or cause thay canna wairk oot whaur tae fynd heelp.

Bit ultimatelie, ae lot o people lea cause eeditin is jist ower complex. Back in 2001, whan Wikipædia wis foonded, ae lot o muckle steids expected uisers tae write in maurkup o vareeis forms, n we were yin o thaim. Writin maurkup wis ae commyn skill in people that wairkt oan the wab, whather that wis BBCode, wikimaurkup or even straicht HTML.

The proablem is that it's nou 2013, n we ar, gif na the yinlie muckle steid still uisin maurkup, than defineetelie the yinlie yin uising maurkup o this complexitie.

Muivin awaa fae the maurkup
In 2013, people dinna expect tae hae tae learn the maurkup tae write sommit oan ae wabsteid. Thay'r surprised whan thay come here n dae, n maist ar na enthused bi the expereeance. (We receeved some confirmation o that in ae uiser test we conducted prior til the launch o VE.)

Many new users don't start off trying to make big changes; they start off trying to make small ones, and yet have to learn markup anyway just to be able to read the editing panel. They get intimidated, and they leave, as our user tests demonstrate.

This need for a better way to edit is something the community has recognized again and again, as early as 2004. We're building the VisualEditor in response; because people have asked for it, and more importantly because people need it.

Wikimarkup is already intimidating to newcomers, and the level of intimidation will only increase as other websites move forward. We're building it because if we don't, that graph is going to look a lot worse in five years.

We're not expecting everyone to use it (the source editor will still be around), and we're not expecting everyone to be convinced. But we're determined to do a good job and determined to demonstrate the impact this software can have.