Editing German Wikipedia (section)

=== Lack of diversity, decline of authors and paid editing ===
On the 20th anniversary of Wikipedia, the German-language edition faced a number of problems. According to German media the most significant are a lack of diversity, a decline in active users and the influence of paid editing. While in 2006 there were 8,614 active authors in the German Wikipedia, in December 2018 there were only 5,262. Active Wikipedians only saw about 300 people as the "hard core" of the German Wikipedia who write articles. 

As the number of authors decreases, the influence of a few increases, researchers found. The scientist [[Taha Yasseri]] describes those authors as "super editors" who write an excessive number of Wikipedia articles and thus keep the community project alive. It is problematic when "super editors" dominate much-discussed articles, build up an elite circle among themselves and "defend" their area.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Giessler |first=Denis |date=2021-01-15 |title=Wikipedia wird 20 Jahre alt: Ungleich verteiltes Wissen |language=de |work=Die Tageszeitung: taz |url=https://taz.de/!5739248/ |access-date=2023-07-26 |issn=0931-9085}}</ref> 

German Wikipedia has been criticized for [[conflict-of-interest]] manipulations by [[Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosure|paid editors]] who overwhelm a small number of [[Wikipedia administrators|administrators]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-09-03 |title=Absolut diskret: So entlarvt Böhmermann Wikipedia-Manipulationen |url=https://www.br.de/nachrichten/kultur/absolut-diskret-so-entlarvt-boehmermann-wikipedia-manipulationen,Shwtnez |access-date=2022-01-22 |website=BR24 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-01-23 |title=Nach Kritik: DFB entschuldigt sich wegen geändertem Wikipedia-Artikel |url=https://www.fr.de/sport/fussball/deutscher-fussball-bund-dfb-wikipedia-seite-friedrich-curtius-general-sekretaer-statement-90172530.html |access-date=2022-01-22 |website=www.fr.de |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Lobe |first=Adrian |date=25 June 2019 |title=Gekaufte Wahrheiten auf Wikipedia |url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/digital/wikipedia-werbung-manipulation-schleichwerbung-wissen-1.4496890 |access-date=2022-01-22 |website=Süddeutsche.de |language=de}}</ref>

With the withdrawal of users and an interpretation of the rules that is not always perceived as appropriate, German Wikipedia can hardly counter the influence of lobby groups and [[paid editing]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Drosdowski |first=Johannes |date=2022-04-24 |title=Enthüllung über Bundesbehörden: Geweihe und Corona-Boni |language=de |work=Die Tageszeitung: taz |url=https://taz.de/!5846956/ |access-date=2023-07-26 |issn=0931-9085}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-06-09 |title=Wikipedia: Handlungsbedarf bei bezahltem Schreiben |url=https://netzpolitik.org/2022/wikipedia-handlungsbedarf-bei-bezahltem-schreiben/ |access-date=2023-07-26 |website=netzpolitik.org |language=de-DE}}</ref>

{{As of|2022|post=,}} the size of the German Wikipedia database is about 6&nbsp;gigabytes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Technik/Datenbank/Download&oldid=207346209|title=Wikipedia:Technik/Datenbank/Download|date=6 January 2021|via=Wikipedia}}</ref>