In 2024/25 , through the knowledge equity objective, we have had an opportunity to support 5 new languages Southern Ndebele (nrwiki), Iban (ibawiki), Obolo (annwiki), Tai Nüa (tddwiki), Pannonian Rusyn (rskwiki) . So far we have tested several hypothesis as defined in the 2024-24 Annual plan. Learnings from this experiment, highlighted that most of the test Wikipedias that were allowed to ‘graduate’ from the Incubator early and receive full production access were in fact experiencing decreased content editing activity. Most languages experienced a decline in editing activity after moving to production wikis, except for Southern Ndebele, which saw a slight increase We however learnt that the decline in edits was not limited to these wikis, but to other wikis that have graduated recently for example Central Dusin Wikipedia created on 28th May 2024, Angika wikipedia created on 22nd March 2024 and Kusaal Wikipedia created on 24th April 2024 just to mention a few. In terms of article creation, we observed that only Iban Wikipedia showed a significant increase in the number of articles created, while others either remained stable or declined.

Digging up this further, we observed different patterns of content growth, contribution and readership in various wikis. In terms of content growth, looking at a few recently launched wikis from this list that have either grown fairly quickly or declined since their launch in terms of article creation. Specifically about contributors, as of February 2025, we actually realised we already have 100+ wikipedias with 20 or less active contributors though some of them are spoken by many millions according to ethnologue. Likewise, pageviews varies across various wikipedias. But there are still open questions. what is reasonable content growth? what is reasonable number of contributors? what is reasonable number of readers? what goals should we aim for in terms of content growth, contribution and readership. These insights will help support newly graduated wikis to grow in terms of content growth, contribution and readership and set them up for sustainaiblity in the longer term on our platform.

As we look into the journey of language onboarding & development, it is important for us to gather perspectives observations and inferences in different stages

• 1; Before incubation
• 2; During incubation
• 3; Onboarding activity
• 4; Progressive activity
• 5; Sustained activity

Gathered recommendations, incubator research and language representation , barriers experiences by contributors to small language versions and the recent language onboarding experiment provides a perspective of the before incubation, during incubation and onboarding phase. There is no documented observations and inferences we are aware of to give perspectives on how these languages can develop further after being onboarded on the Wikimedia platform. How does progressive activity look like after languages are onboarded? At what point do they attain sustainability?

We can consider investigating Content Growth, Contribution and Readership in 3 different phases;
Specific research questions that can be investigated;

• Content Growth:How was content created in these wikis? (Mobile, desktop, visual editor, CX?) How has content grown over time? (Quantity & Quality aspects (edits, images, refs etc) )what are the types of content? (topics?)(any other additional questions) (Proposed for Q1 2025/26 see T381903 )
• Contribution: Who has been creating content? (active users, humans / bots ?) How does the Editor activity look like over time? frequency of edits. what’s the contrbuting tenure, # of contributors?(any other additional questions)
• Readership: what’s the Source of pageviews? How about user retention and page interactions? User retention, Page interactions (any other additional questions) **

Potential Outcomes**
Currently, wikis continue to be onboarded to our platform however there is no recommendation on how they can be successful in terms of content growth, contribution and readership. Once we understand the experiences of Wikipedias already on our platform , moving forward, we will be better equipped to onboard wikis and intentionally set them up for success in terms of Content growth, Contribution and Readership. The insights either primary or secondary data, will help to design data and research-driven interventions to support newly onboarded wikis and wikis with a smaller presence on our platform to grow in terms of content growth, contribution and readership and be sustainable in the longer term on our platform.