Growth/Communities/How to configure the mentors' list/en

You are interested in becoming a mentor? Thank you!

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

Presentation on the Homepage
The is designed to help newcomers on their first steps on Wikipedia. The Homepage will randomly assign your name to a newcomer: you will be their mentor.

On the Homepage, there is a space that allows you to introduce yourself to those newcomers. By default, the presentation is: "".

Please shortly 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 know more about you, newcomers can visit your user page, linked from the Homepage.

Your username will already be displayed on the Homepage. No need to remind newcomers who you are in your presentation.

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!"

You have enough experience to reply to any question. 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!"

How to add yourself to the mentor list
The mentor list for your wiki is listed on Wikidata.

Add your username (not a redirect to your username) to the list, using the following syntax:

Example:

Do not add wikitext (no link, no template), HTML and CSS to the description: it will break it.

Claiming mentees
Sometimes mentors quits and needs to be replaced, or a mentor can redirect a newcomer to another mentor, more specialized about a given topic. It is then possible for mentors to claim a mentee.

A separate list for workshops hosts
By default, only one list of mentors is available. Every mentor listed on this list have their name being randomly assigned to newcomers. Some wikis asked to have a way for experienced users who host workshops to only claim mentees they know.

It is possible to create a separate list, where people who wish to claim mentees without being assigned to unknown mentees can sign up.

To create this list, create a page using the same syntax as the regular mentors list, link it to the matching Wikidata item and fill a configuration change request on Phabricator, using this form.