Growth team newsletter #17Edit
Welcome to the seventeenth newsletter from the Growth team!
The Growth team's objective is to work on software changes that help retain new contributors in mid-size Wikimedia projects.
Structured tasksEdit
Add a link: the team is continuing to engineer on our first "structured task", which will break down the workflow of adding wikilinks to articles, and assist newcomers with an algorithm to identify words and phrases that could be made into links.
Add an image: even as we build our first structured task, we have been thinking about the next one. "Add an image" is a structured task in which newcomers would be recommended images from Wikimedia Commons to add to unillustrated articles. This is an ambitious idea with many details to consider. We have already learned a lot from community members, and we encourage everyone to look at the project page and join the discussion.
Moving forward: more wikis to get the featuresEdit
Last November, our team published the analysis of the impact of newcomer tasks. We announced that we found that the Growth features, and particularly newcomer tasks, lead to increased editing from newcomers. Because of these results, we believe all Wikipedias should implement these features.
We have started to contact more wikis to deploy the features, including Wikipedias of all sizes. Bengali Wikipedia recently began using Growth features, and Danish, Thai, Indonesian, and Romanian Wikipedias will be coming soon. Please contact us if you have questions regarding deployment.
We are looking for translators who can help by translating the interface. Translating is done on Translatewiki.net (it requires a different account that your Wikimedia one). Communities that already have the Growth features being deployed are invited to check on the translations. Access translations here.
Variant testingEdit
As mentioned in our previous newsletter, we ran a test of two variants of the newcomer homepage, meant to find a version that increases users completing suggested edits. We have completed the experiment, and learned that one of the variants leads to more edits on desktop while the other leads to more edits on mobile. Therefore, we will deploy the strongest variants for each platform to all newcomers.
News for mentorsEdit
Mentor dashboard: we have interviewed mentors from several communities as we plan a mentor dashboard feature, which would help mentors track the progress of their mentees. We encourage all mentors to share their thoughts on tools that would help them.
Magic word for mentors: it is now possible to use a magic word, {{#mentor}}
, to display the name of a given newcomer's mentor. This can be used on welcome messages, userboxes, etc.
Help panel questions going to mentors: in most wikis, newcomers using the help panel ask questions to the help desk. On Czech Wikipedia, we have experimented with sending these questions to mentors instead. This simplifies the newcomer experience, and only led to a increase in mentorship questions of about 30%. We tried this in Arabic, Bengali, French and Vietnamese Wikipedias, and we are making it the default experience.
Growth team's newsletter prepared by the Growth team and posted by bot • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
16:02, 3 March 2021 (UTC)
Congratulations!! Top Winners of Feminism and Folklore 2021Edit
Dear @User:Aishik Rehman,
Congratulations!! You emerged as [2nd] out of the top 18 most articles written during the Feminism and Folklore 2021 writing contest in the Bangaladesh language community. We are thrilled that you participated in this year's campaign to share amazing photos via the competition for free use.
Kindly fill Kindly fill this form soon for the next steps. We will require all the necessary details on coupons within (7) days thus 4th May 23:00hrs UTC to enable us to send your prize in time. Once again, CONGRATULATIONS!!.
Joy Agyepong (talk) 05:16, 27 April 2021 (UTC)
Program Coordinator
Wiki Loves Folklore International Team 2021
Top Language Winner of Feminism and Folklore 2021 for your CountryEdit
Dear @User:Aishik Rehman,
Congratulations!! You placed [1st] best language contributor on articles written in your local community during the Feminism and Folklore 2021 writing contest for the Bangaladesh Language. We are thrilled that you participated in this year's campaign to share amazing content via the competition for free use.
Kindly fill this form soon for the next steps. We will require all the necessary details on coupons within (7) days thus 4th May 23:00hrs UTC to enable us to send your prize in time. Once again, CONGRATULATIONS!!.
Joy Agyepong (talk) 06:03, 28 April 2021 (UTC)
Program Coordinator
Wiki Loves Folklore International Team 2021
Growth Newsletter #18Edit
Welcome to the eighteenth newsletter from the Growth team!
The Growth team's objective is to work on software changes that help retain new contributors in mid-size Wikimedia projects.
Structured tasksEdit
"Add a link" is now being tested in production and is nearing release on our four pilot wikis (Arabic, Czech, Vietnamese, and Bengali Wikipedias). We'll be doing final tests this week and next week, and then plan to deploy to the four wikis either during May 24 week, or May 31 week. After two weeks, we will analyze the initial data to identify any problems or trends. We expect that this feature will engage new kinds of newcomers in easy and successful edits. If things are going well after four weeks, we'll progressively deploy it to the wikis with Growth features.
News for mentorsEdit
- We are currently working on a Mentor dashboard. This special page aims to help mentors be more proactive and be more successful at their role. The first iteration will include a table that shows an overview of the mentors current mentees, a module with their own settings, and a module that will allow them to store their best replies to their mentees questions.
- We've conducted our quarterly audit on Growth's four pilot wikis to see the activity of mentors. It appears that the vast majority of mentors are active.
Community configurationEdit
We are working on project to allow communities to manage the configuration of the Growth features on their own. In the past, communities have needed to work directly with the Growth team to set up and alter the features. We plan to put this capability in the hands of administrators, through an easy-to-use form, so that the features can be easily tailored to fit the needs of each community. While we developed it initially for Growth features, we think this approach could have uses in other features as well. We'll be trying this on our pilot wikis in the coming weeks, and then we'll bring it to all Growth wikis soon after. We hope you check out the project page and add any of your thoughts to the talk page.
ScalingEdit
- Growth features are now available on 35 wikis. Here is the list of the most recent ones: Romanian Wikipedia, Danish Wikipedia, Thai Wikipedia, Indonesian Wikipedia, Croatian Wikipedia, Albanian Wikipedia, Esperanto Wikipedia, Hindi Wikipedia, Norwegian Bokmål Wikipedia, Japanese Wikipedia, Telugu Wikipedia, Spanish Wikipedia, Simple English Wikipedia, Malay Wikipedia, Tamil Wikipedia, Greek Wikipedia, Catalan Wikipedia.
- A new group of Wikipedias has been defined for the deployment of Growth features. Please contact us if you have questions about the deployment process, or if your community likes to get the features in advance.
- After discussion with the English Wikipedia community, the Growth features will be tested on a small percentage of new accounts. At the moment, registered users can test the features by turning them on in their preferences.
Growth team's newsletter prepared by the Growth team and posted by bot • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
15:23, 17 May 2021 (UTC)
Wiki Loves Women South Asia 2021 - ta.wikiEdit
Hi,
I have made a request on User talk:Ле Лой and it was Is is possible to edit condition on ta? I'd like to add this template on each submitting article's talk page?.
I don't know the request have been made. Also, here another jury joined and he need access on fountain tool.
Could you me a guide where I can meet those needs? --AntanO 05:46, 1 September 2021 (UTC)
- @AntanO: Yeah! It is possible to change conditions and add new jury in fountain. But the rights are limited to administrators (sysops) only. I can see that you have administrator rights on Tamil Wikipedia, which means you can do it yourself. You don't need to communicate with Ле Лой.Hirok
Raja 05:57, 1 September 2021 (UTC)
Hi, I need another help. The tool does not accept to submit expanded article. Conditions on the tool seems ok. Is there anything to correct? --AntanO 17:14, 1 September 2021 (UTC)
- @AntanO: There was some misinformation on the contest rules page. In this edition we will only accept new articles. However, if someone has already (September 1, 2021) expanded, you can accept his article. We've modified the rules page and request you to follow it in all subsequent works. Aft, we apologize for the mistake! Aishik Rehman (talk) 17:28, 1 September 2021 (UTC)
- Hi, sorry for making trouble again. So far, participants or jury are unable to add expanded articles. We have changed the rules as per main update on Meta. If you could add two expanded articles on behalf of them, that much be appreciated. Users and expanded articles are as follows:
- User:Rsmn - ஆப்கானிசுத்தானில் பெண்கள் உரிமைகள்
- User:Sridhar G - அமிலத் தாக்குதல்
--AntanO 05:32, 4 September 2021 (UTC)
- @AntanO: You can change the configuration of the fountain tool for a while. Change the configuration in such a way that there are no barriers to accepting articles. Then with the submission of two articles quickly brought the configuration back to the present state. You can let me know when you're done. Thank you. Aishik Rehman (talk) 15:29, 6 September 2021 (UTC)
Wiki Loves Women South Asia 2021 - as.wikiEdit
Fountain link is not working for Assamese Community. Can I create a new link? দিব্য দত্ত (talk) 06:57, 1 September 2021 (UTC)
- @দিব্য দত্ত: You don’t need to create a new link. Go to 'this link and approve it. Let me know if there are any problems. Hirok
Raja 07:03, 1 September 2021 (UTC)- @Aishik Rehman: we are unable to approve as it's continuously showing 403 error.-Nayan j Nath (talk) 07:31, 1 September 2021 (UTC)
- @Nayan j Nath @দিব্য দত্ত Then create another new one. Be sure to enter wlwsa2021-as2 in the URL field. You can also add me for further supervision. Aishik Rehman (talk) 07:36, 1 September 2021 (UTC)
- @Aishik Rehman: we are unable to approve as it's continuously showing 403 error.-Nayan j Nath (talk) 07:31, 1 September 2021 (UTC)
- thnks, Its working now. দিব্য দত্ত (talk) 07:38, 1 September 2021 (UTC)
MarkEdit
Hi, I hope you are fine. Here you can see marks are higher than number of articles. I think that it counts other jury's mark as separate count since he marked 32 articles. What shall we do? --AntanO 03:40, 15 September 2021 (UTC)
- @AntanO: It's not a problem. We will determine the winner based on the number of accepted articles, not the marks. Aishik Rehman (talk) 13:20, 18 September 2021 (UTC)
#WPWPCampaign2021: Learning and evaluationEdit
Hello Aishik Rehman,
Many thanks for participating in the WPWP campaign.
We are glad about the level of participation, this year and we are excited to inform you that over 900 volunteers around the world added photos to more than 250,000 articles in 298 languages Wikipedia. This year, we surpassed the 2020 edition's milestone by over 170%.
We are in the process of evaluating the WPWP campaign this year and we need your help. We'd love to get your feedback. Your feedback will allow us to better meet your expectations for the campaign in the next editions.
Please complete a brief survey so that we may learn about your participation in the campaign, strengths, challenges and your expectations. This information will enable us to improve the next editions of the Campaign.
Follow this link to the Survey:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeL9BORQ94GtN6mjS4-U77N7-BIuxDGl1cmhwKzKSijc9lrcA/viewform
Or copy and paste the URL below into your internet browser:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeL9BORQ94GtN6mjS4-U77N7-BIuxDGl1cmhwKzKSijc9lrcA/viewform
Thank you in advance for taking this survey.
Kind regards,
Tulsi Bhagat [ contribs | talk ]
Communication Manager, WPWP Campaign
-- Message sent using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:05, 18 September 2021 (UTC)
BlankingEdit
Can you please explain why you blanked an entire thread here? Please use an edit summary, or at least explain in some way or form in why you're blanking that entire section (any language is fine). I'm assuming good faith here, but once you start to slip away and keep edit warring, then it becomes a concern. SHB2000 (talk | contibs) 07:37, 2 October 2021 (UTC)
Growth Newsletter #19Edit
Welcome to the nineteenth newsletter from the Growth team!
The Growth team's objective is to work on software changes that help retain new contributors in Wikimedia projects.
Structured tasksEdit
- "Add a link" is the team's first structured task. It uses machine-learning to suggest wikilinks as easy edits for newcomers. It was deployed in May 2021 on four Wikipedias and then in July on eight more Wikipedias after we evaluated the initial results. So far, we've seen a high level of engagement from newcomers. Communities that have the feature suggested valuable ideas for improvement. We'll work on improvements and then contact more communities to deploy it.
- "Add an image" is the team's second structured task, currently in development. It is an editing task that suggests Commons images for unillustrated Wikipedia articles. We have conducted many community discussions and tests. Then, we've decided to build a first prototype. We'll first deploy it only to our pilot Wikipedias, to learn whether newcomers can be successful with the task. The project page contains links to interactive prototypes. We are very interested to hear your thoughts on this idea as we build and test the early versions. These prototypes have already been tested by newcomers, in English and Spanish.
News for mentorsEdit
- The Mentor dashboard is available at our pilot wikis: Arabic, Czech, and Bengali Wikipedias. It will soon be available at a few more volunteering wikis, as a test. [1]
- At wikis where the mentor dashboard is deployed, a new filter is available for mentors. Mentors can monitor their mentees' activity in Watchlist and RecentChanges, so they can help support their mentees' work. For privacy reasons, this filter can't be accessed by someone else than the mentor itself. This filter only filters mentees assigned to the mentor. This filter is not visible for people who are not listed as mentors [2]
Community configurationEdit
- Communities now have the ability to configure how Growth features behave on their own wikis. At Special:EditGrowthConfig, community members can add a list of volunteer mentors, alter the templates used for suggested edits, update help links, and more. This special page is editable by administrators and interface admins.
ScalingEdit
- We are proud to announce that all Wikipedias now have the Growth features! Thank you to all the community members who helped the team build the features and bring them to their wikis. The only exception is Chinese Wikipedia (zh), for technical reasons. [3]
- The wikis that have Growth features deployed have been part of A/B testing since deployment, in which some newcomers did not receive the new features. Now, all of the newcomers on 280 of the smallest of those Wikipedias have the features. [4][5]
- A test is undergoing at English Wikipedia: 25% of newcomers receive the Growth features. The results from this test will be part of a discussion of how to proceed on that wiki.
- Now that Growth features are available at Wikipedia, the Growth team considers to extend them to other projects. Some Wikisource users have expressed some interest in getting Growth features. There is currently a discussion about implementing them on Wikisource.
News for communitiesEdit
- Do you have questions about the Growth features? This translatable FAQ contains answers to the most common questions about the Growth team work.
- The Growth features were recently used in a test amongst Latin American donors to give donors the opportunity to learn to edit. You can see the results here.
- Interface translations are important for newcomers. Please help for your language, by translating or copyediting interface translations for the Growth features.
- Help:GettingStarted was a feature developed in 2013, which directed newcomers to articles that needed editing. We recently removed this feature from all wikis, because it has been replaced by the Growth features.
Growth team's newsletter prepared by the Growth team and posted by bot • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
18:36, 26 October 2021 (UTC)
GreatsEdit
How I can be a wikipedian? 103.124.251.159 20:59, 11 November 2021 (UTC)
- @103.124.251.159: You are welcome to contribute to Wikipedia. Read the details from this page, don't hesitate to let me know if you have trouble understanding somewhere. Aishik Rehman (talk) 06:21, 13 November 2021 (UTC)
joining WAM-2021Edit
Sir,how I can join WAM-2021. Asia a new comer it’s not easy told understand me but I wish to join.Help Please...
- @Momtaz Chanchal: Which Wikipedia community do you want to participate in? Bengali, English or any other? Aishik Rehman (talk) 06:13, 13 November 2021 (UTC)
Re:DeletionEdit
Hi, sorry but I'm not an admin on meta-wiki, please contact a meta-wiki sysop to request the deletion of those pages :) Best regards --Superpes15 (talk) 18:10, 26 January 2022 (UTC)
Growth Newsletter #20Edit
Welcome to the twentieth newsletter from the Growth team!
The Growth team's objective is to work on software changes that help retain new contributors in Wikimedia projects.
Suggested editsEdit
As of February, 300,000 suggested edits have been completed since the feature was first deployed in December 2019.
Add a link is the team's first structured task, deployed in May 2021. It has improved outcomes for newcomers. The team is now working on a second iteration based on community feedback and data analysis. Improvements will include: improved algorithmic suggestions, guardrails to prevent too many similar links to be added, and clearer encouragement for users to continue making edits. After adding these improvements, we will deploy this task to more Wikipedias.
Add an image is the second structured task built by our team. It was deployed in November 2021 to four pilot Wikipedias. This is a more challenging task for newcomers. However, it adds more value to articles (so far, over 1,000 images have been added). We are currently learning from communities and from the data on what is working well and what needs improvements. The project page contains links to interactive prototypes. We are very interested to hear your thoughts on this idea as we build and test the early versions. We will soon deploy this task to more Wikipedias as a test.
"Add a link" and "Add an image" now both have a limitation on how many of these tasks newcomers can do per day. It is meant to discourage careless newcomers from making too many problematic edits.
Positive reinforcementEdit
Over the last two years, the Growth team has focused on building suggested edits: easy tasks for newcomers to start with. We have learned with this experience that these tasks help many newcomers to make their first edits. Now, the team is starting a new project : "positive reinforcement". Its goal is to make newcomers proud of their editing and to make them want to come back for more of them. With the positive reinforcement project, we are considering three kinds of features:
- Impact stats: give newcomers the ability to see how many people read the articles they edit.
- Leveling up: encourage newcomers to progress from easier tasks to harder tasks.
- Personalized praise: encourage mentors and other editors to "thank" and award newcomers for good work.
This project is just beginning, and we hope for community thoughts on the direction. We know that things can wrong if we offer the wrong incentives to newcomers, so we want to be careful. Please visit the talk page to help guide the project!
News for mentorsEdit
- The mentor dashboard is available at all wikis. It helps mentors see who their mentees are and keep track of their activity. It is automatically activated where a list of mentors has been created. If you need assistance to create a list of mentors, please contact us.
- The mentor dashboard has a new module: settings. It is now possible for mentors to define their status (active or away). They can specify the volume of questions they want to receive, and they can claim mentees in an easier way. It is also possible for mentors to quit, which will automatically reassign their mentees to other mentors.
- We are working on an ability for a mentee to opt-out (and back in) to having a mentor.
- Previously, in the table that displays mentees activity, the filters displayed all mentees, even the ones with zero edits or lots of edits. We have changed this so that only mentees with between 1 and 500 edits are visible by default. Mentors can change this value in their filters.
- We are currently working on a special page for mentors to sign-up.
Some wikis have created userboxes that mentors can display on the user pages. If your wiki has one, please link it to Wikidata!
ScalingEdit
Previously, at most Wikipedias, only 80% of newcomers were getting the Growth features. This was done for experimentation, to have a control group. We have changed this setting. Now 100% of new accounts at all Wikipedias get the Growth features (except a few, kept as test wikis). We invite communities to update their onboarding documentation and tutorials. Please include the Growth features in it. To help you, we have created an help page that can be translated and adapted to your wiki.
How to helpEdit
Do you have questions about the Growth features? This translatable FAQ contains answers to the most common questions about the Growth team work. We regularly update it.
Interface translations are important for newcomers. Please help for your language, by translating or copyediting interface translations for the Growth features.
Growth team's newsletter prepared by the Growth team and posted by bot • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
17:12, 16 March 2022 (UTC)