Many experienced Wikipedians use their watchlist as the place they go to see what needs their attention on Wikipedia. For newcomers, such an activity feed might be beneficial to them because it would show them that interesting activity is happening and that the wiki is a lively place to join in. The problem is that newcomers do not have watchlists, since they have not made any edits. This module would be a way for newcomers to begin to see wiki activity that is interesting to them, and to potentially begin to build their watchlist.
Main audience: Users who have entered in particular topics in which they have an interest in editing during the welcome survey.
Primary targeted persona(s): Jae-Hee (Social Changer); Yankov (Knowledge Sharer);
Secondary persona(s): Helena (Joiner-Inner); Mina (Box Checker);
Goal/Rationale for this module: Newcomers are more likely to be interested in editing topics in their “neighborhood”, as reflected in similar projects (Wikia, WikiProjects, Wiki Edu)
Initial mock:
| # | Label / Field | Description & notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | H2 header for module | Links to the “Related changes” page filtered by category/topic. It does not necessarily need to be called “Related changes” |
| 2 | Interest topic dropdown | Defaults to one of the selected interest topics selected by the newcomer in the Welcome survey responses. If newcomer did not set any interest topic, set it to a generic topic TBC. The user should be able to click on the dropdown to reveal a widget to search and select another topic. |
| 3 | List of top <#> edited articles in the selected topic area | Number of list items shown is TBC. May also be variable depending on device (desktop v mobile). |
| 4 | Single list entry for a recently edited article | - |
| 4a | Thumbnail of lede image | If there is no image, show an image placeholder icon (as per mobile search results) |
| 4b | Article title | Links to Article |
| 4c | Time passed since most recent edit | |
| 4d | Username of the most recent editor | |
| 4e | Byte difference in the most recent edit | This is the commonly shown diff figure in lieu of knowing the actual number of characters added/subtracted in an edit. |
This module may integrate with newcomer tasks, since doing a newcomer task is a way to join in the activity being shown in the watchlist.