Research shows that praise and encouragement from other users increases newcomer retention. We want to think about how to encourage experienced users to thank and award newcomers for good contributions. Perhaps mentors could be encouraged to do this on their mentor dashboards or through notifications. We can utilize existing communication mechanisms which past studies have proven to have a degree of positive effect.
The personalized praise idea is part of a larger Growth team Positive Reinforcement effort.
User story & summary:
As a New Editor, I want to get feedback & encouragement, so that I feel part of a the community and can assess how I'm doing.
As a Mentor, I want to encourage mentees that show promise, because then they are more likely to be retained.
Background & research:
The Leveling up features focus on encouraging newcomers to progress to more valuable tasks. Ideas also include some prompts for new editors to try suggested edits, since structured tasks have been shown to improve newcomer activation and retention.
Acceptance Criteria:
Release Personalized Praise features to all remaining Wikipedias that have Growth features.
- set release date (once this task is claimed, communicate with @Trizek-WMF & @KStoller-WMF)
- @Trizek-WMF to inform communities & ensure they are aware of Community Configuration options
- enable Leveling up on all Wikipedias that have Growth features (no A/B testing needed)
- Disable A/B test on pilot wikis