Wikipedia:Growth Team features

This page in a nutshell: The WMF Growth team has built a set of features to encourage newcomers to make edits and to participate by improving the project. These features are now the default on-boarding experience for new users, with 100% of them encountering this feature after they register a new account. The work is summarized below.

Research has shown that newcomers struggle to edit and continue editing Wikipedia because of three main challenges: technical, conceptual, and cultural. They currently do not have access to the resources they need to surmount those challenges. To give these things to newcomers, the WMF Growth team has built three interconnected features, described in more detail below:

• Newcomer tasks and Structured tasks: a feed of task suggestions that help newcomers learn to edit. Newcomers have been making productive edits through this feed! Structured tasks are a potential new type of task that the team is considering.
• Newcomer homepage: a special page that hosts the "newcomer tasks" and the ability to ask questions to a mentor.
• Help panel: a platform to provide resources to newcomers while they are editing and the ability to ask questions to a mentor.

Some features are also available for experienced community members:

• Community configuration: a special page where communities can change how Growth features work.
• Mentorship features: a set of tools to match newcomers looking for advice with experienced editors ready to help.

These features are currently being deployed to 100% of new accounts created on English Wikipedia. See mw:Growth/FAQ#test for instructions on how to try the features.

In November 2020, we published results from a controlled experiment that showed that the Growth features statistically improve newcomer outcomes. Because of these results, we believe that all Wikipedias should consider adopting these features.

The features are currently available on over 300 Wikipedias. All of the features are available on both desktop and mobile. Though primarily built for newcomers, it is also possible for experienced users to turn them on and use them.

Once we started to expand to more wikis, we wanted to start talking about these features with English Wikipedia and ask for input. As said above, we are constantly iterating and developing. We hope English Wikipedia will take on these features fully, but before any deployments happen, we will make sure that we have built something that will work on this wiki, and that all deployments will be in line with the community's preferences. We know that English Wikipedia has many existing efforts to help newcomers, like the Teahouse and automated welcome messages. We would be sure to make sure our team's features work well alongside those.

As you read this page, please leave any questions, ideas, or reactions on the Talk page. You can also check the Growth FAQ. You can also join in more detailed discussions of the features and plans on Talk pages on mediawiki.org. You can also sign up for our team's newsletter here.