User story & summary:

As a en.wp or de.wp Wikimedian, I want to be informed about the "add a link" feature, so that I understand the configuration options available and decide if the feature should be enabled.

• https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Growth/Tools/Add_a_link
• https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Growth/Personalized_first_day/Structured_tasks/Add_a_link

Background & research:

This task is important because the "add a link" feature benefits new account holders, however it also creates work for patrollers. Once released, communities will have several options to customize the feature in Special:EditGrowthConfig. The feature can also easily be enabled or disabled.

The Add a Link Experiment analysis finds that the Add a Link structured task leads to increases in newcomer participation, particularly by making constructive (non-reverted) article edits:

• The probability that newcomers make their first article edit (+16.6% over baseline, +10.1% over the unstructured add links task)
• The probability that they are retained as newcomers (+16.2% over baseline, +5.7% over the unstructured link task)
• The number of edits they make during their first couple of weeks on the wiki (+18.7% over baseline, +13.5% over the unstructured link task)
• It also leads to an improvement in the quality of newcomer edits as measured by the revert rate (-11.0% over baseline, -11.5% over the unstructured link task).

Acceptance Criteria:

• Work with PM & comms coworkers on a communication plan
  • Communicate with en.wp & help answer questions that arise (@KStoller-WMF can assist or lead this communication)
  • Communicate with de.wp & help answer questions that arise (connect with @Merle_von_Wittich_WMDE or @Verena to see if WMDE wants to lead this communication).
• Set a date to deploy the feature but don't activate it
  • Set EN release date (with input from the community & Growth PM & Engineers)
  • Set DE release date (with input from the community & Growth PM & Engineers)
• Deploy the feature but don't activate it (T308144). Details: T308144#9811861