Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2018/Programme/Submission/How to retain new editors
How to retain new editors edit
Name(s) and/or username(s) edit
- Christine Domgörgen, User:Christine Domgörgen (WMDE)
- Wikimedia Deutschland, project manager volunteer support
Topic edit
- Capacity development:
- Encouragement of new editors.
Type of submission (Please choose one) edit
- Open discussion (many-to-many)
Summary edit
When new editors start in Wikipedia most of them quickly face some challenges: their edits are reverted, the existing community functions in inexplicable ways and in discussions the tone is rough. Whenever they face a challenge, they have to click through a tremendous amount of help pages without being able to ask anyone if what they are doing is ‘correct’. The result of these and other challenges is that a lot of new users quickly stop editing. In German Wikipedia only very few of the users who registered through a banner campaign reach the 10th edit - and if they do, they need a lot of time.
So what can we do to better welcome new editors? How can we support them so that they become experienced editors and well integrated community members?
In this session Wikimedia Germany will share some approaches and insights about how to retain new editors (10 min). The main part will be an open discussion of the topic of encouragement of new editors. Some questions we are interested in are:
- What approaches to onboarding new Wikipedians have other Wikipedias tried? Which of them work well, which have failed?
- What approaches have not been tried yet? What are your ideas or plans how to tackle the issue in the next year(s)?
- How do you involve the existing community in the efforts of new editor encouragement?
Expected outcomes edit
What will attendees take away from this session?
Attendees will hear about some strategies Wikimedia Germany has employed to retain new editors. The main outcome will be the sharing of different approaches to new editor encouragement. The discussion should bring new insights and hopefully attendees can take away some inspiration and fresh ideas.
Duration (without Q&A) edit
The complete session (input and discussion) will last 50 minutes.
Specific requirements edit
projector
Slides or further information edit
