Surfacing "Add a Link" Experiment: Display suggestions to Desktop
Closed, ResolvedPublic0.5 Estimated Story Points
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	KStoller-WMF
	Feb 4 2025, 3:28 AM

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	F58392228: Screen Shot 2025-02-12 at 10.05.23 AM.png
	Feb 12 2025, 6:10 PM

	F58392221: Screen Shot 2025-02-12 at 10.04.29 AM.png
	Feb 12 2025, 6:10 PM

	F58392159: Group 5320 (1).png
	Feb 12 2025, 5:55 PM

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Description

As a new account holder who has never edited, I want to receive easy "Add a Link" edit suggestions when they are available, because then I'm more likely to edit successfully.

Details:

The Surfacing "Add a link” alpha test only targetted mobile, but we hope to release to both mobile web and desktop for the Q3 experiment release. Let's release to desktop on beta so we can test and determine if desktop should be included in the experiment release.

Acceptance Criteria:

On desktop and mobile skins:

Given I'm logged into a regular account with zero edits (not a Temp account),
When I navigate to an article that has an "Add a link" suggestion,
Then the suggestion is surfaced to me in the article's read view

In other words: remove the condition that prevents "Add a link" suggestions from appearing on desktop.

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:

	Subject	Author	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
	feat(Surfacing): Show on desktop skins	Michael Große	mediawiki/extensions/GrowthExperiments	master	+0 -19

Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects
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Status	Assigned	Task
Resolved	KStoller-WMF	T368187 [EPIC] Constructive activation experimentation (Growth work related to Wiki Experiences 1.2)
Open	None	T360489 [EPIC] Offer edit suggestions as a service
Resolved	KStoller-WMF	T362584 [EPIC] Surface Structured Tasks to new editors (FY24/25: WE1.2.3 & WE1.2.6 & WE1.2.9)
Resolved	Michael	T385543 Surfacing "Add a Link" Experiment: Display suggestions to Desktop

Event Timeline

KStoller-WMF created this task.Feb 4 2025, 3:28 AM

KStoller-WMF triaged this task as High priority.

KStoller-WMF moved this task from Inbox to Estimated tasks backlog on the Growth-Team board.

KStoller-WMF set the point value for this task to 0.5.

Change #1117227 had a related patch set uploaded (by Michael Große; author: Michael Große):

[mediawiki/extensions/GrowthExperiments@master] feat(Surfacing): Show on desktop (Vector-2022, Vector legacy)

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1117227

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Feb 4 2025, 5:04 PM

Urbanecm_WMF assigned this task to Michael.Feb 4 2025, 5:42 PM

Restricted Application added a project: User-Michael. · View Herald TranscriptFeb 4 2025, 5:42 PM

KStoller-WMF moved this task from Estimated tasks backlog to Current Sprint on the Growth-Team board.Feb 4 2025, 5:50 PM

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

Change #1117227 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/GrowthExperiments@master] feat(Surfacing): Show on desktop skins

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1117227

Now it should also be available on the default Vector-2022 skins.

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Feb 4 2025, 6:30 PM

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.44-notes (1.44.0-wmf.16; 2025-02-11).Feb 4 2025, 7:00 PM

Thanks, Michael! I've quickly tested (on English beta) and this seems to be working as I expected. (But my testing was very limited and only on Vector 2022).

One note is that testing on Beta is a little odd because most Beta link suggestions are linking to articles that don't actually exist on Beta (but do exist on English Wikipedia). At least that's my understanding of the how "Add a link" works on beta (I might be incorrect!).

@JFernandez-WMF - this is the first time we are testing how surfacing "Add a link" works on desktop. I know Elena will also take a look at this from a QA perspective soon, but I also think it would be good for you to take some time to review the desktop flow and let us know if you notice any UI, UX, or copy quirks. For example, now that we are limiting to only display the link suggestion clicked on, we might need to update copy:

Review some suggested links and improve Wikipedia's web of information.

Do we want to say "Review a suggested link..." or something else? Did we learn anything in user testing to help guide a copy improvement here?

Tested on enwiki beta and compared with link-recommendations workflow - works as expected (per the specs in the task description).

I've started to collect QA notes in T385764: [QA task] testing Surfacing Add links tasks.

fyi: created T386236: Surfacing Add a link experiment: update copy to update the plural copy to singular

@Michael thanks so much for working on this! I have a quick question regarding what Kirsten mentioned on the above comment:

In T385543#10526815, @KStoller-WMF wrote:

One note is that testing on Beta is a little odd because most Beta link suggestions are linking to articles that don't actually exist on Beta (but do exist on English Wikipedia). At least that's my understanding of the how "Add a link" works on beta (I might be incorrect!).

is this correct? asking because it looks like on desktop beta we are not showing any article images as thumbnails, nor a placeholder when there's no image (see screenshot below). is this because we aren't actually linking to any real articles? just want to make sure, thanks!

Group 5320 (1).png (1,684×1,704 px, 254 KB)

In T385543#10545971, @JFernandez-WMF wrote:

fyi: created T386236: Surfacing Add a link experiment: update copy to update the plural copy to singular

@Michael thanks so much for working on this! I have a quick question regarding what Kirsten mentioned on the above comment:

In T385543#10526815, @KStoller-WMF wrote:

One note is that testing on Beta is a little odd because most Beta link suggestions are linking to articles that don't actually exist on Beta (but do exist on English Wikipedia). At least that's my understanding of the how "Add a link" works on beta (I might be incorrect!).

is this correct? asking because it looks like on desktop beta we are not showing any article images as thumbnails, nor a placeholder when there's no image (see screenshot below). is this because we aren't actually linking to any real articles? just want to make sure, thanks!

The links to suggested articles in beta (and on testwiki) refer to non-existing articles on that wiki.

`cswiki wmf.15`	`cswiki beta` Surfacing Add link

Since it'd be a link to a non-existing article, the placeholder is in place. The published Add link would be a red link, of course.

In T385543#10545971, @JFernandez-WMF wrote:

fyi: created T386236: Surfacing Add a link experiment: update copy to update the plural copy to singular

@Michael thanks so much for working on this! I have a quick question regarding what Kirsten mentioned on the above comment:

In T385543#10526815, @KStoller-WMF wrote:

One note is that testing on Beta is a little odd because most Beta link suggestions are linking to articles that don't actually exist on Beta (but do exist on English Wikipedia). At least that's my understanding of the how "Add a link" works on beta (I might be incorrect!).

is this correct? asking because it looks like on desktop beta we are not showing any article images as thumbnails, nor a placeholder when there's no image (see screenshot below). is this because we aren't actually linking to any real articles? just want to make sure, thanks!

Sometimes the articles linked do exist in beta. For example on https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/Lion there are two links to existing articles surfaced (for me): to Turkey and Pakistan. For these two examples, I'm seeing the link with image and description.
Does that help?

ahh nice, it does help, thank you both!!

Etonkovidova moved this task from QA to Test in Production on the Growth-Team (Current Sprint) board.Feb 12 2025, 11:52 PM

Since all AC are checked and surfacing Add links was successfully deployed on testwiki wmf.17, this task is Resolved.

Urbanecm_WMF added a project: GrowthExperiments-NewcomerTasks.Jan 21 2026, 2:35 PM

Surfacing "Add a Link" Experiment: Display suggestions to DesktopClosed, ResolvedPublic0.5 Estimated Story PointsActions