Growth/Communities/How to configure the mentors' list

You are interested in becoming a mentor? Thank you!

Mentors are experienced users, ready to help new users. They are a key factor in order to onboard and encourage new users to edit the wikis.

Please check our resources about and then introduce yourself as a mentor.


 * In short
 * In order to become a mentor, please add your name to the list of mentors. It is possible at wikis where a list of mentors exists.
 * If the list doesn't exist, you have to setup the list of mentors at your wiki.

Presentation of mentors on the Homepage


The is designed to help newcomers on their first steps on Wikipedia. Newcomers have direct access to their homepage. There, they see an experienced user name, who is ready to help them if needed: their mentor.

Mentors are randomly assigned to multiple newcomers, but not all of them contact their mentor. On average, a mentor receives between 0 to 6 questions each week from newcomers.

How to add yourself to the mentor list
Thank you for volunteering to be a mentor! It is a rewarding experience.

Visit the Mentor Dashboard
Some wikis have created a specific page, with the mentor list, but also rules or best practices to follow. You may find your community's page on Wikidata. This list will tell you what are the conditions to be a mentor, if any condition apply. By default, the signup process is opened to editors who have 500 edits and 90 days of presence.

By default, the mentor list for your wiki is located at. There, you can see who is a mentor.

If your wiki has setup the mentorship program, and if you qualify to be a mentor according the the local rules, please visit  to signup.

Add your description
You will be asked to describe yourself, as a mentor. This short description is displayed on the newcomer's homepage. By default, the presentation is: " ".

The description's length is 240 characters maximum. If it is longer, the system will cut the description. Do not add wikitext (no links, no templates), HTML, or CSS to the description: it will not be accepted.

Admins can edit your description using.

Descriptions examples
( Due to translations, the examples below may exceed the 240 characters limit. )

You can introduce yourself with something very neutral:


 * "I am here to help you navigate Wikipedia, please feel free to ask!"

If you edit Wikipedia and participate to the life of your community, you have enough experience to reply to any question. But don't let people think you can only help them with something specific.
 * Don't write "I edit articles about football." Newcomers may think that they can't ask you about anything else than football.
 * Prefer to write: "I'm mostly contributing to football-related topics, but I can help you with any other topic, as far as I can."

You can invite people to contact you:


 * "I can help you with your questions about editing Wikipedia. I'm mostly contributing to football-related topics. What would be your area of contributions?"
 * "I was as confused as you are now. But asking questions to experienced users helped me. Please feel free to ask me any question!"

Please briefly introduce yourself: 240 characters max. That limitation is set to avoid lengthy text that would overload the information already visible on the Homepage. Wikitext will not be rendered for the same reasons. To learn more about you, newcomers can visit your user page, that is linked from their Homepage.

Your username will already be displayed on newcomers' Homepage, along with a link to your user page. No need to remind newcomers who you are in your presentation.

Welcome templates
Communities can create or edit their welcome templates, using the magic word. This magic word will display the newcomers' mentor's name. This way, you can sign the welcome message with the mentor's name to have a coherent onboarding process. If the mentor changes, then the magic word picks the new mentor's name.

There might be a welcome template specifically made for mentors to give to their mentees to help with the introduction process. For example, the English Wikipedia has.

You are ready
After you signed-up, the system will start assigning you new mentees. Regularly visit  to keep an eye to the newcomers assigned to you. Newcomers will also start contacting you directly on your talk page. Don't forget to mention them when you reply to their messages. Please also check our documentation on how to interact with newcomers.

1. Agree on having mentorship
First, you need to check if the Growth tools are deployed at your wiki. If it is not yet the case, please see how to get the features.

Then, you have to find some other mentors to volunteer.

We encourage you to start a conversation at the relevant places at your wiki, in order to decide if this mentor list should be created. This is also a good way to recruit mentors. The Growth mentorship system can replace or complement an existing mentoring system.

Based on our observation, we advise to have one mentor for each group of 500 new users your wiki gets per month. For instance, if your wiki has 2,500 new accounts per month, your should have at least 5 mentors. We recommend to have at least 3 mentors.

2. Activate mentorship
At your wiki, an interface admin has to turn on the mentorship system, using the configuration page.

3. The list of mentors
The list of mentors will be displayed on.

You can transclude the list of mentors anywhere, with the following syntax:.

If you decide to create a page where you transclude the list of mentors, please list it on Wikidata.

At the configuration page, you add some criteria to define who can be a mentor. By default, the requirements are more than 500 edits made and an account that is at least 90 days-old.

Your community can also define some specific rules on who can be a mentor (age of the account, how many edits made, number of edits made on main space, having a specific role, etc.), and then give the mentor role to any account. If you want to use this process, please contact us.

4. Mentors can now signup
In order to become a mentor, please add your name to the list of mentors.

Options
Mentors can manage their account:


 * Claim a newcomer from another mentor
 * Reassign mentees to other mentors
 * Pause mentorship
 * Quit mentorship

The system provides options to manage mentors:


 * Remove an inactive mentor from the list
 * Manage blocked mentors