The signup process for mentors will change soon.
Starting October 26, 2022, the list of mentors will be upgraded at wikis where Growth mentorship is available. The mentorship system will continue to work as it does now.
Why this change?
At the moment, the mentor list is a simple page anyone can edit, unless it’s protected.
We have observed some cases where mentors were not following the instructions, which generated some mistakes. The old syntax * [[user:Name]]|Description was confusing and won't be used anymore.
Also, this new system will make the development of new features for mentors much easier.
What will change?
We will add a new special page to your wiki: Special:ManageMentors.
The page where mentors are currently listed will be edited. The list of mentors will be replaced by {{Special:ManageMentors}}, the rest of the page will not be changed.
If your wiki has a separate list of mentors for workshop mentors, this list will be converted as well.
What are the new features?
After the upgrade, new mentors will signup by visiting Special:MentorDashboard. At this page, mentors can change the number of mentees they take care of, mark themselves as away or quit.
The new system prevents users who made less than 500 edits and who created their account less than 30 days ago to become mentors. These values can be changed by the community on special:EditGrowthConfig.
Special:ManageMentors will list all mentors, and the last time they edited. It will look like a table (example). This special page can be transcluded to any page (example).
Mentors will edit their description and settings directly at Special:MentorDashboard. Administrators will be able to edit any mentor's description and settings at Special:ManageMentors, or remove a mentor from the list of mentors. This will reassign all newcomers the mentor has to other mentors.
What mentors have to do?
No action is needed regarding your inscription to the mentors list.
You will have to update the description of the list of mentors, to remove the old instructions and explain the new sign-up process to become a mentor.
When will it happen?
The deployment will happen starting October 26, after 13:00 UTC. The change will be made by Martin Urbanec (WMF).
How can we know more about it?
The project page, documentation and FAQ have been updated. These pages can be translated.
What happen to Wikipedias who'd like to setup the mentorship system?
With this deployment, we make the mentorship program available for any Wikipedia. It is up to the community to decide to activate it.
- First, you have to find some other mentors to volunteer. We advise to have one mentor for each group of 500 new users your wiki gets per month, minimum 3 mentors.
- When you agreed with other mentors to create the list, an administrator has to turn the mentoring process on at Special:EditGrowthConfig.
- Mentors can then signup visiting Special:MentorDashboard.
Process
As when this task was created, the special signup page for mentors is available at Beta wikis and the test Wikipedia.
Next steps will be to release it by order to:
- Pilot wikis (done week 38 and 39)
- Arabic Wikipedia
- Bangla Wikipedia
- Czech Wikipedia
- Spanish Wikipedia (the feature will wait for mentors)
- Other wikis where the list is active (Oct 26)
- Check on possible issues first: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T310906#8153006
Proposed key elements for communication:
- Why this change?
- At the moment, the mentor list is a simple page anyone can edit, unless it’s protected.
- We have observed some cases where mentors were not following formatting instructions, which generated some mistakes.
- Also, this new system will make the development of new features for mentors much easier.
- What changes?
- With the new page, mentors will be able to edit only their own description (using Special:MentorDashboard), while administrators will be able to edit the entire mentors' list if needed (using Special:ManageMentors).
- The old syntax * [[user:Name]]|Description was confusing and won't be used anymore.
- New mentors will signup by visiting Special:MentorDashboard. Mentors willing to take a break or quit will also use Special:MentorDashboard to do so.
- At the time of the deployment, the page where mentors are listed will be edited. The list of mentors will be replaced by {{Special:ManageMentors}}, the rest of the page remains unaffected.
- What mentors have to do?
- Nothing! Except updating the instructions at the page where the list of mentors is currently displayed.
- The list of mentors will be updated by Martin.
- More information: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Growth/Structured_mentor_list