Human communities have self-organizing properties in which specific Dunbar Numbers may be invoked to explain group attachments. By analyzing Wikipedia editing histories across a wide range of subject pages, we show that there is an emergent coherence in the size of transient groups formed to edit the content of subject texts, with two peaks averaging at around $N=8$ for the size corresponding to maximal contention, and at around $N=4$ as a regular team. These values are consistent with the observed sizes of conversational groups, as well as the hierarchical structuring of Dunbar graphs. We use the Promise Theory model of bipartite trust to derive a scaling law that fits the data and may apply to all group size distributions, when based on attraction to a seeded group process. In addition to providing further evidence that even spontaneous communities of strangers are self-organizing, the results have important implications for the governance of the Wikipedia commons and for the security of all online social platforms and associations.

翻译：人类社群具有自组织特性，其中特定的邓巴数可能被用来解释群体依附现象。通过分析广泛主题页面的维基百科编辑历史，我们发现在编辑主题文本内容所形成的临时群体规模中，存在一种涌现的连贯性：与最大争议对应的平均群体规模约为$N=8$，而常规团队的平均规模约为$N=4$。这些数值与对话群体观察到的规模以及邓巴图的分层结构一致。我们利用二分信任的承诺理论模型推导出一个标度律，该定律拟合数据，并可适用于所有基于种子群体过程吸引的群体规模分布。该研究不仅为即使是陌生人自发形成的社群也具有自组织性提供了进一步证据，其结果还对维基百科公共资源治理以及所有在线社交平台和社团的安全性具有重要启示。