Example user: [[User:Joao]]. On the Toolserver's copy of enwiki_p:
mysql> SELECT user.user_editcount FROM user WHERE user_name="Joao"\G *************************** 1. row *************************** user_editcount: 266 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM revision WHERE rev_user_text = "Joao" GROUP BY rev_user_text\G *************************** 1. row *************************** COUNT(*): 265 1 row in set (0.03 sec) mysql> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM archive WHERE ar_user_text = "Joao" GROUP BY ar_user_text\G *************************** 1. row *************************** COUNT(*): 35 1 row in set (0.01 sec)
This isn't an anomaly. Many users, esp. users with higher edit counts, have inaccurate values stored. The values don't match the number of deleted or live contributions.
Part of the problem seems to stem from the fact that the initEditCount.php maintenance script doesn't account for deleted contributions.
We're currently advertising an edit count (in Special:Preferences and elsewhere) that isn't accurate.