User story & summary:
As a new Wikipedia account holder on mobile, I want editing workflows that are broken into a series of easy steps, so that I can successfully contribute.
As an experienced Wikipedia editor, I want newcomers to learn quickly, so they start to edit constructively and don't create additional work for patrollers.
- Project page: Constructive activation experimentation
- Related work: Structured tasks & Edit check
Community Feedback about Add a Link:
Structured Tasks help newcomers make their first edits successfully, especially on mobile. However, they also increase workload for moderators. How can we refine 'Add a link' and other Structured Tasks to balance newcomer usefulness with community needs?
Key issues:
- Perceived Poor Link Quality – The "Add a Link" task will include some incorrect suggestions, particularly issues with homonyms.
- Patrolling Challenges – High edit volume strains patrollers, and fixing individual links in multi-link edits is cumbersome.
- Editorial Threshold Concerns – Some experienced editors worry newcomers use the tool to quickly gain editing rights.
- Manual of Style Violations – Some link suggestions do not align with MOS:OL, leading to community pushback.
- Overlinking – Most suggestions are technically correct but add little value.
- Limited Learning Progression – The workflow does not effectively guide newcomers toward advanced editing skills.
Guiding Objective:
In order for Wikipedia to be vibrant in the years to come, we must do work that nurtures multiple generations of volunteers and makes contributing something people want to do. Different generations of volunteers need different investments -- more experienced contributors need their powerful workflows streamlined and repaired, while newer contributors need new ways to edit that make sense to them. And across these generations, all contributors need to be able to connect and collaborate with each other to do their most impactful work. With this objective, we will make improvements to critical workflows for experienced contributors, we will lower barriers to constructive contributions for newcomers, and we will invest in ways that volunteers can find and communicate with each other around common interests.
Guiding Key Result:
Constructive activation (WE1.2)
Increase in the percentage of newcomers who publish ≥1 constructive edit in the main namespace on a mobile device.
Current full-page editing experiences require too much context, patience, and trial and error for many newcomers to contribute constructively. To support a new generation of volunteers, we will increase the number and availability of smaller, structured, and more task-specific editing workflows (E.g. Edit Check and Structured Tasks).
Growth team hypothesis
Wiki Experiences WE1.2.16 - If we complete at least two “Add a Link” improvements that communities are asking for, then we can increase the percentage of newcomers at en.wiki to whom the task is available, which will increase constructive activation on our largest wiki.
Research:
This work is guided by the following observations and associated data and research:
The majority of new account holders on Wikipedia never complete even an initial edit
Task-specific, structured workflows cause more newcomers to publish a constructive edit.
- Structured Task research: Add a link & Add an Image
- Talk page research: Reply Tool & New Topic Tool
- Newcomer tasks experiment analysis
Newcomers struggle with noticing, understanding, and applying the policies that shape Wikipedia.
Fewer new editors are registering on Wikipedia.
- Wikimedia Stats: New registered users
- Investigate drop in New Editors: T351759: Investigate drop in New Editors
The majority of Wikipedia pageviews are from mobile.
Scope of this Epic
This work focuses on "Add a Link" improvements requested by communities, limited to what the Growth team can complete by July 2025.