Help:Growth/Tools/Newcomer Tasks

About this page
''' What is the purpose of this page? '''

This page documents the instructions displayed to newcomers when they work on Newcomer Tasks. It also provides some context to experienced users who notice these tasks in History pages, or in their Recent Changes or their Watchlist.

''' What are Newcomer tasks? '''

Newcomer tasks are small and actionable edits that are suggested to newcomers. These tasks improve new editor participation and retention (see the results of "Add a link" experiment). Please check the FAQ section for more information about this feature.

''' Where are these tasks? '''

Newcomers tasks are suggested at the Newcomers' Homepage. This Homepage is automatically available for all new accounts created on Wikipedia. For other accounts, check how to enable the Homepage. At the Newcomers' Homepage, newcomers are offered a set of articles they can work on. They can select which of the Newcomers tasks types they want to work on. They can also customize the articles suggested by selecting topics that interest them. For each task, onboarding instructions provide guidance and teach some of the basics needed for a new editor to be successful.

''' Are all these tasks available at my wiki? '''

This page lists all existing newcomers tasks. Some of these tasks may not be available at your wiki. Check the Deployment table to know which tasks are available where. Newcomer tasks are configurable by communities by visiting locally.

''' Why is this page partially translated? '''

Several sentences on this page are translations of the interface displayed to newcomers. If you see part of the text in English, you can help with translations. Translate Growth experiments on Translatewiki.net (it requires a different account than your Wikimedia one). Translations take up to one week to be applied. Translate

Copyedit
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Purpose of this task
The purpose of this task is to demonstrate to newcomers that it is possible to edit the wiki.

This task is based on maintenance template. You can find which maintenance templates are used for your wiki, by visiting locally.

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Add links
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Purpose of this task
The purpose of this task is to demonstrate to newcomers that it is possible to edit the wiki.

This task is based on maintenance template. You can find which maintenance templates are used for your wiki, by visiting locally.

At some wikis, this task is replaced by Suggested: add links.

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Purpose of this task
  demonstrates to newcomers the importance of adding sources to validate information added to Wikipedia.

This task is based on maintenance template. You can find which maintenance templates are used for your wiki, by visiting locally.

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Update
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Purpose of this task
Updating articles is a task that identifies articles that need minor edits to keep the information up-to-date.

This task is based on maintenance template. You can find which maintenance templates are used for your wiki, by visiting locally.

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Expand
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Purpose of this task
Expanding articles is needed because many Wikipedia articles are only a sentence or two long. Find more information and add it to make the article more complete.

This task is based on maintenance template. You can find which maintenance templates are used for your wiki, by visiting locally.

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Suggested: add links
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At some wikis, this task is replaced by Help:Growth/Tools/Newcomer Tasks.

Purpose of this task
Adding links is the easiest way to edit. Links help readers move between articles to learn more quickly.

The purpose of this task is to demonstrate to newcomers that it is possible to edit the wiki.

This task is based on machine suggestions. Suggested links have to be checked by the user, who decides if they are relevant or not.

Communities can configure how many Add links tasks a user can do each day and how many links are suggested for each article by visiting locally.

Know more about this feature.

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Suggested: add images
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Purpose of this task
Add an image suggests an image from other wikis that match the article topic. Newcomers have to check if the image is accurate, and write a caption.

The purpose of this task is to demonstrate to newcomers that it is possible to edit the wiki.

All suggested images are hosted on Wikimedia Commons. They are suggested because they are already used at other wikis where an article about the same topic exists. Only articles with no images are suggested.

Communities can configure how many Add images tasks a user can do each day by visiting locally.

Learn more about this feature.

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Frequently Asked Questions
''' I'm an experienced user. Can I test these features? '''

Of course! If you do not have access to locally, please follow the instructions on how to turn it on.

''' A newcomer is not following the instructions given. What can we do? '''

Newcomers are provided onboarding, however, instructions are not always understood or followed. If a new editor is using newcomer tasks inappropriately, please contact them and provide guidance. Assume good intent, but if a new editor is clearly acting in bad faith, then the situation should be handled as is standard on your wiki.

If instructions are not followed on a regular basis, let us know. Please provide example where the task instructions were not followed by several users.

''' Can we change the configuration of the task by ourselves? '''

Communities can change how the Growth features work by editing.

We advise all communities make configuration changes after a community discussion. Please inform us of your discussions when they happen, because we can help you on the issue you found, or assist you with the configuration. It is also very useful for the Growth team to know about such discussions, so that we can continue to improve Growth features. Please let us know.

''' Can we change how articles are selected? '''

Articles are selected based on maintenance templates. Communities can change how the Growth features work by editing.

However, articles provided as " " are based on an algorithm. The configuration of this algorithm can't be changed by communities. Please let us know if you noticed a problem with these suggested articles.