Growth/Newsletters/13

Welcome to the thirteenth newsletter from the Growth>mw:Special:MyLanguage/Growth|Growth team!

The Growth team's objective is to work on software changes that help retain new contributors in midsize>mw:Special:MyLanguage/New Editor Experiences/Midsize Wikipedias|mid-size Wikimedia projects.

Join the conversation: structured tasks
'' We are looking for community input on a new project to make it easy for newcomers to make real article edits. ''

In our NL12>mw:Special:MyLanguage/Growth/Newsletters/12|previous newsletter, we talked about the productive edits coming from the NewcomersTasks>mw:Special:MyLanguage/Growth/Personalized first day/Newcomer tasks|newcomer tasks feature. Those good results have continued: about 900 newcomers made over 5,000 suggested edits so far. We've learned that newcomers are interested in receiving suggested edits.

Now, we are thinking about how to supply them a feed of easy edits that will help more of them be successful quickly. We have a new idea called "StructuredTasks>mw:Special:MyLanguage/Growth/Personalized first day/Structured tasks|structured tasks". This would aim to break down edits into steps that are easy for newcomers and easy on mobile devices.

In the past, certain kinds of editing tasks have been structured. For instance, adding categories through HotCat. Now, we are thinking about how to structure the editing of articles. The goal is to allow newcomers can make large content additions, especially from their mobile devices.

''' Please visit StructuredTasks>mw:Special:MyLanguage/Growth/Personalized first day/Structured tasks|the project page and respond to the discussion questions listed on StructuredTasksTalk>Talk:Growth/Personalized first day/Structured tasks|the talk page. ''' You are welcome to show this project to others in your community. You can help by translating the materials to your language so that more voices can join in. We will be having this conversation until June 18.

Expanding to more wikis
'' We have expanded to six new wikis, and are looking for more interested communities. ''

In the last two months, we deployed Growth features to six new wikis: Ukrainian, Serbian, Hungarian, Armenian, and Basque Wikipedias, and French Wiktionary. Newcomers from these wikis have already contributed over 600 edits through Growth features.

We want to expand to more wikis in the coming months, and we are looking for interested communities. French Wikipedia already agreed and will be the next one to join the experiment. We will contact several other wikis in the coming weeks to offer them to participate.

Do you think the Growth Team features would be a good addition to your wiki? Please see FeaturesSummary>Special:MyLanguage/Growth/Feature summary|this translatable summary of Growth features. You can share with your communities and start a discussion. Then, please talk>mw:Talk:Growth|contact us to begin the process!

Other updates


'' Work continues on improving newcomer tasks and the homepage. ''


 * In March, we deployed an upgrade to the topic matching in newcomer tasks. The current version offers 39 different topics using new ORES>mw:ORES#Topic routing|ORES models.
 * In April, we completed an A/B test of two homepage configurations. We learned that more newcomers will attempt suggested edits if the module is made more prominent. We are implementing those learnings in our next test.  See the Results>mw:Special:MyLanguage/Growth/Personalized first day/Variant testing#Initiation (A vs. B)|full results here.
 * We are currently working on Guidance>mw:Special:MyLanguage/Growth/Personalized first day/Newcomer tasks#Version 1.2: guidance|guidance for newcomer tasks. It will use the help panel to guide newcomers through completing easy edits.
 * Our next step is to create new configurations of the homepage. The goal is to encourage more newcomers to begin doing suggested edits.

As usual, we are still welcoming your feedback and questions about our features. talk>mw:Talk:Growth|Please contact us on the project talk page!

MMiller (WMF)