Editor engagement

Growing Wikipedia and its community

Editor engagement projects encourage the growth of the volunteer community that builds the free encyclopedia. They include efforts to retain existing editors, as well as to engage new contributors to participate on Wikipedia. To advance these goals, the Wikimedia Foundation is working with community members on a range of new projects, which you can read about below.

What's new

Here are some of our most recent reports and milestones.

Page Curation launches on English Wikipedia

We just launched Page Curation, a new suite of tools to improve the page patrol experience. They make it easier for curators and creators to improve Wikipedia together. Try it out!

GettingStarted, introducing new Wikipedians to simple editing tasks We've unveiled an experimental interface, provided to newly-registered Wikipedians immediately after they sign up. By encouraging users who otherwise don't have an idea where to get started to try simple editing tasks like fixing spelling and grammar, we hope to grow the community.

Here is the problem

We call this the "oh shit" graph.

In early 2007, the number of active editors plateaued and then started decreasing. The rate at which new editors stick around plateaued even earlier, in early 2005, and then dropped sharply. These numbers haven't improved.

We need your help

We will publish a regular newsletter with more info on how you can contribute -- as well as updates on new features, experiments and reports. Sign up here to learn more!

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Who we are

Product managers, community organizers, developers, designers, and analysts.

 See the rest of the team

What we are doing Here's a short list of our current projects aimed at improving editor engagement. Check out each talk page for comments or questions!

{{EE/Feature
 * title=Echo
 * text=A new notifications system to augment and improve on the Watchlist, increasing both user control over notifications and the types of events that MediaWiki can notify users about.
 * page=Echo
 * link=Wikipedia:Editor engagement/Echo
 * image=File:Echo-Notifications-Basic-No-Cross-wiki.png

{{EE/Feature }}
 * title=Article Feedback Tool
 * text=A new way to engage Wikipedia readers to contribute to the encyclopedia -- and become editors over time. This article feedback tool also helps editors improve articles based on reader feedback, addressing two of the five priorities defined in the strategic plan: ‘increase participation’ and ‘improve quality’.
 * page=Article Feedback Tool/Version 5
 * link=Wikipedia:Article Feedback Tool/Version 5
 * image=File:Article-Feedback-Map-04-22-800x600.png

{{EE/Feature }}
 * title=Editor Engagement Experiments
 * text=This team makes many different small, rapid experiments to test new approaches to attracting and retaining contributors to Wikipedia. Currently testing: Post-edit feedback and Community portal redesign
 * page=Editor engagement experiments
 * link=Wikipedia:Editor engagement experiments
 * image=File:1K editors by yearly cohort.png

{{EE/Feature }}
 * title=The Teahouse
 * text=The Teahouse is a support space on Wikipedia designed specifically for new editors. This project organizes a group of experienced editors to reach out to new contributors on Wikipedia and invite them to a many-to-many help forum. Our pilot period is over and our report and metrics are ready. Come see what happened and join us for the next phase!
 * page=
 * link=meta:Research:Teahouse
 * image=File:Teahouse image-01.png