Research:Characterizing Reader-to-Editor Journey/Surveys

When people register to Wikipedia, they are invited to answer a welcome survey. We investigated the answers collected in March 2023.

Why is it important?

Although Wikipedia can be edited anonymously, creating an account is an important step in becoming an active part of the community. Most studies on the editors and the process around their participation focus on aspects such as encouraging contribution, finding content to edit, and increasing retention, but they start from the assumption that the user already expressed willingness to be part of the platform. Little is known about the process that brings people from anonymous readers to registered used and potential active editors. The welcome survey can offer a unique insight into why these new users decided to register.

The findings can be valuable for the community's growth and, consequently, Wikipedia. An investigation of the regular pattern can inform the design of growth strategies, understand how the reason to register can influence the retention to offer personalized onboarding programs, and understand if Wikipedia has any communication gap on how the platform works.

Reason to register to Wikipedia

We investigated the answer from March 2023 for the 28 Wikipedia editions with the most number of new registered accounts. The number ranges from 111,993 for the English version to 693 for Serbian.

The question posed to the new users is:

Why did you create your account today?

• To create a new Wikipedia article (new-page)
• To add or change information to a Wikipedia article (edit)
• To fix a typo or error in a Wikipedia article (edit-typo)
• I'm participating in a program, class, or event (program)
• To read Wikipedia (read)
• To add a photo or image to a Wikipedia article (add-image)
• Other

No answer (placeholder)

We observe variability across different language editions regarding the reasons to register. While creating a new page is the top reason in most encyclopedias, reading is another prominent reason for registering a new account. This aspect may be associated with different cultural norms regarding online behavior.

The figure shows a summary of the findings with "read," "new-page," and "edit" of different colors for readability. The bars represent the fraction of answers assigned to each possible response. The error bars represent the confidence intervals.

Have you ever edited Wikipedia?

This question focuses on the previous experience as editors of the new-comers. The text of the question is:

Have you ever edited Wikipedia?

• Yes, many times (yes-many)
• Yes, once or twice (yes-few)
• No, I didn't know I could edit Wikipedia (dunno)
• No, other reasons (no-other)
• I don't remember (dont-remember)

No answer (placeholder)

The figure summarises the answers of the users. Similarly to the question regarding the reason to register, we observe variability across different Wikipedia editions. A remarkable fraction of people selected that they never edited Wikipedia because they were unaware it was possible (red bar). For example, in the English edition, this accounts for more than 25% of the answers.

Reason to register and retention

We also run a preliminary analysis on the retention as an active based on the reason why they registered. The study is based on the answers collected between March 1st and 15th, 2023, across all 28 languages.

• Total accounts registered in this interval: 92737
• People that saw the survey: 54602
• People that answered: 31514 (57% of people exposed to the survey)
• People that actually edited at least one page: 18982

There is a significant drop in participation; in the second week, only 1867 users edited at least one page.

Then, we divide the users by reason to register and explore the average fraction of edits on the first day compared to all the edits registered in the first two weeks. A value of 100% would mean that all the edits happened on the first day.

Break down by reason:

• 88.0% add-image
• 86.0% edit-info-add-change
• 91.0% edit-typo
• 82.4% new-page
• 83.5% other
• 84.4% placeholder
• 66.1% program-participant
• 83.1% read

We observe that people who register as part of a program end up having longer activities as editors, with more engagement beyond the first day.