Design: Mentorship module for experienced editors
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	KStoller-WMF
	Apr 16 2024, 7:28 PM

Description

User story & summary:

As an experienced editor who visits the Newcomer Homepage,

I do not want to be assigned a Mentor, because I no longer need newcomer support.
I want to learn about the Mentorship feature, so I can consider supporting new editors myself.

As a Mentor, I do not want experienced editors assigned to me as Mentees, because it creates confusion and reduces my ability to focus on newcomers who need help.

Background & research:

This task is important because:

The current logic is confusing both for Mentors and Experienced Editors who are auto-assigned a Mentor
Mentors are busy, we should work towards reducing the number of mentees they support.
We need more Mentors! This is a logical way to spread the word and encourage more editors to join Mentorship.
This is another small way that we can "level up" new editors as they "graduate" on from being a mentee, to being invited to act as a mentor.
Mentors are Asking for this:

The homepage tab could be tweaked to say after the six months something like "Congratulations, you are now experienced enough not to need a mentor! Use the Help Desk if you need advice from now on." instead of giving a name. I'd also suggest that anyone who activates the newcomer homepage when they already have over six month's experience should get that message. (I was amused that when I activated the tab to see what it did, I was auto-assigned someone less experienced than I am.)

Questions:

How should we handle junior editors who have Mentors and then pass this threshold where they are eligible to become a Mentor?

For experienced editors, should this module be dismissible?

Ideally yes, however the Homepage doesn't yet include personal settings or the ability to dismiss or reenable modules. So perhaps this should be considered separately?

For autocreated accounts: when experienced editors navigate to a different language wiki (and enable the Homepage), do we consider their Global edit count, or just their local wiki edit count?

We should aim for simplification here, this is really an edge case currently since autocreated accounts do NOT currently receive Growth features: T292090: Research Spike: Enable Growth features for autocreated accounts (if the user already has Growth features).

We should keep the copy succinct, but link out to further details if needed. Where should we link?

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Growth/Mentorship

Copy:

Title: Want to help out?
Body: Help newcomers by answering their questions and sharing your experience. Learn more
- Learn more links to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Growth/Mentorship
Link: Become a mentor
- Links to special:enrollasmentor

Design:

NOTE: please refer to the figma file for all the variants, and detailed specs on layout and spacing

Acceptance Criteria:

Given I'm an editor that meets the Mentorship criteria defined in Community Configuration.
When I visit the Homepage,
Then the Mentorship module invites me to consider becoming a Mentor rather than assigning me a Mentor.

Related Objects
Search...

Status	Assigned	Task
Resolved	AAlhazwani-WMF	T362714 Design: Mentorship module for experienced editors
Open	None	T403540 Mentorship module for experienced editors
Resolved	Urbanecm_WMF	T403563 V1 release: Do not automatically enroll experienced editors into Mentorship when they visit the Homepage
Open	None	T405953 Apply changes to graduation mentorship settings automatically upon save
Resolved	Urbanecm_WMF	T405961 Allow community configurable extensions to respond to configuration changes
Open	None	T405962 Run the GrowthExperiments:graduateEligibleMentees maintenance script on eswiki
Open	None	T404804 GrowthExperiments:graduateEligibleMentees.php maintenance scripts OoMs for eswiki

Event Timeline

KStoller-WMF created this task.Apr 16 2024, 7:28 PM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptApr 16 2024, 7:28 PM

KStoller-WMF added projects: GrowthExperiments-Mentorship, GrowthExperiments-Homepage.Apr 16 2024, 7:28 PM

KStoller-WMF moved this task from Inbox to Triaged on the Growth-Team board.

Johannnes89 subscribed.Apr 16 2024, 8:28 PM

KStoller-WMF triaged this task as Medium priority.Jun 3 2025, 11:14 PM

KStoller-WMF moved this task from Triaged to Mentorship Sprint (June/July 2025) on the Growth-Team board.

To be decided: do we consider the Global edit count or just the wiki specific edit count?

KStoller-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 17 2025, 5:34 PM

KStoller-WMF moved this task from Mentorship Sprint (June/July 2025) to Current Sprint on the Growth-Team board.Jun 24 2025, 4:51 PM

KStoller-WMF edited projects, added Growth-Team (Current Sprint); removed Growth-Team.

AAlhazwani-WMF added a project: Design.Jun 24 2025, 4:52 PM

sharing some initial ideas!

so, the most basic thing that we could do is to not assign a mentor to editors with more than X (500?) edits? it would look like when newcomers opt out of mentorship.

this is not ideal, so we could simply hide the module if the editor has more that X edits? doable, but it feels like a lost opportunity.

so, trying to take on this opportunity the most minimal intervention would be to create a module to invite experience editors to become a mentor. "Enroll" links to Special:EnrollAsMentor so we should consider if it should be displayed as a link (to reinforce semantics) or if we want to make the action more prominent, and style this as a button.

we hear there is a desire to provide further details if needed. this could take different shapes, but it could be as simple as a "Learn more" link. we could provide a good default, while still give the option to community admins to specify a different destination via the community config.

to answer some of the questions in the task description:

How should we handle junior editors who have Mentors and then pass this threshold where they are eligible to become a Mentor?

we could think of different solutions here: from asking if they want to continue be mentored, to simply opt-out, of if they want to try to become a mentor. i'd suggest to address this in a separate task after a first release.

For experienced editors, should this module be dismissible?

maybe. i'd suggest to roll out a first update, and then consider to make this dismissible in a separate task. what i can say is that we've identified a need to store this information also for other features, eg. things users dismissed, so it would be helpful to implement a "global" logic.

For autocreated accounts: when experienced editors navigate to a different language wiki (and enable the Homepage), do we consider their Global edit count, or just their local wiki edit count?

global edit count

We should keep the copy succinct, but link out to further details if needed. Where should we link?

+1 to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Growth/Mentorship

some other things that we've been exploring are...

newcomers are auto-assigned to a mentor. editors with more than X edits are asked if they want to become a mentor, is there anything in between? eg. not assigning/not asking for editors with an edit count between Y and X?

on copy, we're wondering if there space to be less formal, eg. "Need a hand?", "Want to help out?"

AAlhazwani-WMF claimed this task.Jul 4 2025, 4:41 PM

Here is the summary of the discussions we had during the Ambassadors meeting.

Moving from mentee to mentor
While 500 edits (the current default threshold in community configuration) is good enough at some wikis to become a mentor, at other wikis, more experience could be necessary. If we make the threshold of becoming a mentor too easy, it could impact the quality of mentorship and commitment.

We observed different needs:

French and Spanish have no conditions to become a mentor.
At English Wikipedia, participating at the Teahouse is seen as a good intermediate step before becoming a mentor.
At Arabic Wikipedia, users need to get the Editor right to become a mentor. That manually granted right is proof that you are trusted by others.

Possible ideas and further reading:

decouple opting-out mentorship from opting-in as a mentor in CC
T271317: Notification to invite people who reach certain conditions to become mentors

Opting in/ out of mentorship

As some mentors don't see a problem being monitored by another mentor, some may not like it. Mentorship is not friendship.
Should anyone be allowed to opt-out mentorship? Some users are not "ready" to be left unsupervised after $treshold edits.
Can we promote mentorship for users who get a new role? New rollbackers or new admins could get access to a mentor to learn about their first steps and the new tools they now have access to.

AAlhazwani-WMF attached a referenced file: F62883675: image.png. (Show Details)Jul 9 2025, 10:33 AM

AAlhazwani-WMF attached a referenced file: F62883672: image.png. (Show Details)

In T362714#10975719, @AAlhazwani-WMF wrote:

we could think of different solutions here: from asking if they want to continue be mentored, to simply opt-out, of if they want to try to become a mentor. i'd suggest to address this in a separate task after a first release.

The current task description seems to tight both together.
Based on the Ambassador's meeting suggestion, I would cover both, with opting-out from a mentor and opting-in as a mentor being triggered by two separate CC items:

offer to opt-out of mentorship when the user passes $opt-out threshold
offer to become a mentor when the user passes $opt-in threshold

For experienced editors, should this module be dismissible?

maybe. i'd suggest to roll out a first update, and then consider to make this dismissible in a separate task. what i can say is that we've identified a need to store this information also for other features, eg. things users dismissed, so it would be helpful to implement a "global" logic.

I think that it could be an expansion of the current mentorship module, with each button appearing when their threshold is met. This would keep things simpler. Perhaps I'm wrong, but the way the proposals are made is focusing on a new module, right?

For autocreated accounts: when experienced editors navigate to a different language wiki (and enable the Homepage), do we consider their Global edit count, or just their local wiki edit count?

global edit count

I would keep the local threshold, as the rules and culture are very different from one wiki to the other.
As a mentor, I received a few questions from users from different wikis, and they were happy to find someone to help them on a specific point. However, as a mentor, I don't like to know that my mentor at another wiki changes when I don't edit this wiki. :) (But this is outside of this task's scope.)

thank for the all the feedback @Trizek-WMF!

In T362714#10987634, @Trizek-WMF wrote:

In T362714#10975719, @AAlhazwani-WMF wrote:

we could think of different solutions here: from asking if they want to continue be mentored, to simply opt-out, of if they want to try to become a mentor. i'd suggest to address this in a separate task after a first release.

The current task description seems to tight both together.
Based on the Ambassador's meeting suggestion, I would cover both, with opting-out from a mentor and opting-in as a mentor being triggered by two separate CC items:

offer to opt-out of mentorship when the user passes $opt-out threshold

offer to become a mentor when the user passes $opt-in threshold

yeah, that makes sense. here's a quick take on the idea (threshold, and copy are work-in-progress)

CleanShot 2025-07-10 at 17.59.09@2x.png (1×1 px, 333 KB)

For experienced editors, should this module be dismissible?

maybe. i'd suggest to roll out a first update, and then consider to make this dismissible in a separate task. what i can say is that we've identified a need to store this information also for other features, eg. things users dismissed, so it would be helpful to implement a "global" logic.

I think that it could be an expansion of the current mentorship module, with each button appearing when their threshold is met. This would keep things simpler. Perhaps I'm wrong, but the way the proposals are made is focusing on a new module, right?

i was thinking about a whole new module, beside the 2 that we already have:

module for newcomers (and editors who open the homepage, and that are below the community set threshold to auto-assign a mentor)
module for editors who visit the homepage (with an edit count between the 2 thresholds: they are above the one to auto-assign a mentor, and below the one to enroll as a mentor). this is already what is shown in production if you opt-out of mentorship
module for experienced editors (if they are above the threshold set by the local community to enroll as a mentor). copy is work-in-progress.

For autocreated accounts: when experienced editors navigate to a different language wiki (and enable the Homepage), do we consider their Global edit count, or just their local wiki edit count?

global edit count

I would keep the local threshold, as the rules and culture are very different from one wiki to the other.
As a mentor, I received a few questions from users from different wikis, and they were happy to find someone to help them on a specific point. However, as a mentor, I don't like to know that my mentor at another wiki changes when I don't edit this wiki. :) (But this is outside of this task's scope.)

yeah, that's a valid point. agree with you on following the local thresholds.

after consulting with @KStoller-WMF we landed on simpler solution for the first iteration. we're going to keep the CC as is, and use the current setting to inform which module to display.

for newcomers we keep the current logic, they are auto-assigned to a mentor.

(edge case) for editors below the threshold, if they don't have a mentor assigned, and they visit the homepage, we don't auto-assigned, but we display the same module that we display to newcomers when they opt-out of mentorship.

for editors above the threshold, we display a new module that invite them to become a mentor. learn more link goes to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Growth/Mentorship. become an editor link goes to special:enrollasmentor

NOTE: please refer to the figma file for all the variants, desktop versions, and detailed specs on layout and spacing.

AAlhazwani-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Jul 14 2025, 9:29 AM

KStoller-WMF mentioned this in T294861: Experienced users being displayed as a result when you filter down your mentees in Recent Changes or Watchlist confuses some mentors.Jul 30 2025, 2:05 PM

I've created a follow-up engineering task here: T403540: Mentorship module for experienced editors, and I believe we can consider this task resolved.

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	Jul 14 2025, 9:14 AM

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Design: Mentorship module for experienced editorsClosed, ResolvedPublicActions