Also, when you post on
talk pages you should
sign your name using four tildes (~~~~); that will automatically produce your username and the date. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a
Wikipedian!
I see from Signpost that you've been hired as a "New Editor Guy" by WMF. This request might be slightly outside your purview, if you could pass it along to one of your colleagues it would be appreciated...
Thus far, WMF has attempted to identify the core cadre of "active editors" by the metric of number of edits. See, for example,
Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits. The raw COUNT of edits — "X edits in the last month" or "X edits in the last year" is regarded as of decisive importance and the population of such editors is being tracked over time.
This has a real defect, however, in that it counts mundane quality control tasks, such as adding square brackets for links or switching n-dashes to m-dashes, on a par with actual CONTENT CREATION. The fuzzy language of calling everyone an "editor" is largely the cause of this.
What the foundation needs to do is to begin differentiating between quality control workers (copy editors) and content creators (writers) based on use of a new metric — the number of characters added to article space. Checking any history page for a wikipedia article you will see that each edit comes with a SIZE after the end of the signature. Each of these produces a delta figure, the amount of change over the last edit, see for example
Recent Changes.
This means it should be technologically possible — and probably comparatively easy — for a WMF tech guru to begin collecting data for each editor based on the metric of characters added to mainspace. This would be far more useful information than a total count of the universe of (quality control workers + content creators) making X edits in a given time frame, which is the way WMF has traditionally looked at the population of Wikipedia volunteers.
Asides: (1) It is important to see changes in ARTICLE SPACE, not just changes overall, since some people spend all their time and massive amounts of prose on ultimately unproductive talk page debates and noticeboard dramafests. (2) Total characters of content is superior to total count of edits to mainspace since some solid content creators prefer to write their contributions out of mainspace and then to launch with a single edit containing 5,000 or 10,000 characters of content — which should be counted as more than 1 edit if you are trying to identify content creators. Others start small and peck along, creating the same amount of content with two dozen editors or more. The key metric is CHARACTERS OF CONTENT ADDED, not the raw EDIT COUNT.
Why is this important to you? I speculate that the number of actual writers is a small, relatively stable, and chronologically older population. There are all sorts of charts and graphs showing a dramatic decline in participation and retention and theories being advanced about how to "win" new editors. I argue that there are maybe 300 serious content creators on English WP, that number is pretty steady, and this population is not who you might think they are. I'm 50 for example, and I know that many of the most serious and prolific content creators are of a similar age. Trying to boost this core cadre with "feedback tools" etc. is probably fruitless.
How many of these content creators are there? What is their particular demography? What are the obstacles to participation by others of a similar demographic background? Those would seem to be big issues if one is given the task of expanding quality and quantity of WP content through the preservation and propagation of the writing pool.
Hey Carrite :). This is actually on our to-do list; Dario (our chief researcher) and I had a catchup a couple of weeks ago, and worked out pretty much how to do it, what it could be used for and how to go about it. I'm a strong proponent of more granularity in how we identify users. At the moment, Dario is taking 2 weeks of (rather well-deserved) holiday; when he gets back, I'll drop him a line :).
Okeyes (WMF) (
talk)
14:05, 9 February 2012 (UTC)reply
Hello Carrite, pleasure to meet you! (and thanks Oliver, for chiming in). Carrite, I generally agree with you that the current implementation of the edit count is not the best way to track a user's contributions. We will definitely be looking for alternative ways to measure these contributions in the future. But please be patient with us, as we have a lot on our plate and are just now starting the planning process for the next round of editor engagement products. Thanks again for reaching out to me and stay tuned for more!
Fabrice Florin (
talk)
19:35, 9 February 2012 (UTC)reply
IMO it's worth considering the net number of characters added. This is because some apparently new articles will actually be
splits from existing content. In such cases, a short summary may remain in the original article, with much of the original content being removed. Another thought: this would penalise for removing vandalism, but the edit summaries could be checked to filter out undos/rollbacks etc. --
Trevj (
talk)
01:22, 14 March 2012 (UTC)reply
Metrics are out from week one. Week one showed that the need for Teahouse hosts to invite new editors to the Teahouse is urgent for this pilot period. It also showed that emailing new users invitations is a powerful tool, with new editors responding more to emails than to talk page templates. We also learned that the customized database reports created for the Teahouse have the highest return rate of participation by invitees. Check out the metrics
here and see how you can help with inviting in our
Invitation Guide.
A refreshed "Your hosts" page encourages experienced Wikipedians to learn about the Teahouse and participate. With community input, the Teahouse has updated the
Your hosts page which details the host roles within the Teahouse pilot and the importance that hosts play in providing a friendly, special experience not always found on other welcome/help spaces on Wikipedia. It also explains how Teahouse hosts are important regarding metrics reporting during this pilot. Are you an experienced editor who wants to help out? Take a look at the new page today and start learning about the hosts tasks and how you can participate!
Introduce yourself and meet new guests at the Teahouse. Take the time to welcome and get to know the latest
guests at the Teahouse. New & experienced editors to Wikipedia can add a brief infobox about themselves and get to know one another with direct links to userpages. Drop off some wikilove to these editors today, they'll surely be happy to feel the wikilove!
You are receiving The Tea Leaf after expressing interest or participating in the Teahouse! To remove yourself from receiving future newsletters, please remove your username
here.
Sarah (
talk)
16:04, 9 March 2012 (UTC)reply
You have a response at the Teahouse!
Hello, Fabrice Florin. Your question has been answered at the
Teahouse Q&A board. Feel free to reply there! Please note that all old questions are
archived after 2-3 days of inactivity. Message added by
Sarah (
talk)
19:01, 9 March 2012 (UTC). (You can
remove this notice at any time by removing the {{teahouse talkback}} template).reply
There is a question at the Teahouse you might have interest in...
Hi! Welcome to the second edition of The Tea Leaf, the official newsletter of the
Teahouse!
Teahouse celebrates one month of being open! This first month has drawn a lot of community interest to the Teahouse.
Hosts & community members have been working with the project team to improve the project in many ways including creating scripts to make inviting easier, exploring mediation processes for troubling guests, and best practices regarding mentoring for new editors who visit the Teahouse.
Springtime means fresh tea leaves...
First month metrics report an average of 30 new editors visiting the Teahouse each week. Approximately 30 new editors participate in the Teahouse each week, by way of asking questions and making guest profiles. An average of six new questions and four new profiles are made each day. We'd love to
hear your ideas about how we can spread the word about the Teahouse to more new editors.
Teahouse has many regulars. Like any great teahouse, our Teahouse has a 61% return rate of guests, who come back to ask additional questions and to also help answer others' questions. Return guests cite the speedy response rate of hosts and the friendly, easy to understand responses by the hosts and other participants as the main reasons for coming back for another cup o' tea!
Early metrics on retention. It's still too early to draw conclusions about the Teahouse's impact on new editor retention, but, early data shows that 38% of new editors who participate at the Teahouse are still actively editing Wikipedia 2-4 weeks later, this is compared with 7% from a control group of uninvited new editors who showed similar first day editing activity. Additional metrics can be found on the
Teahouse metrics page.
Say hello to the new guests at the Teahouse. Take the time to welcome and get to know the latest
guests at the Teahouse. Drop off some wikilove to these editors today, as being welcomed by experienced editors is a really nice way to make new editors feel welcome.
You are receiving The Tea Leaf after expressing interest or participating in the Teahouse! To remove yourself from receiving future newsletters, please remove your username
here. --
Sarah (
talk)
21:36, 5 April 2012 (UTC)reply
Hi! Welcome to the fourth issue of The Tea Leaf, the official newsletter for the
Teahouse!
Teahouse pilot wraps up after 13 weeks After being piloted on English Wikipedia starting in February, the Teahouse wrapped up its pilot period on May 27, 2012. We expect this is just the beginning for the Teahouse and hope the project will continue to grow in the months to come!
Thank you and congratulations to all of the community members who participated - and continue to participate!
What you've all been waiting for:
Teahouse Pilot Report is released! We look forward to your feedback on the methodology and outcomes of this pilot project.
....and if a pilot report wasn't enough, the
Teahouse Pilot Metrics Report is out too! Dive into the numbers and survey results to learn about the impact the Teahouse has made on English Wikipedia.
Teahouse shows positive impact on new editor retention and engagement
409 new editors participated during the entire pilot period, with about 40 new editors participating in the Teahouse per week.
Two weeks after participating, 33% of Teahouse guests are still active on Wikipedia, as opposed to 11% of a similar control group.
New editors who participated in the Teahouse edit 10x the number of articles, make 7x more global edits, and 2x as much of their content survives on Wikipedia compared to the control group.
Women participate in the Teahouse 28% of Teahouse participants were women, up from 9% of editors on Wikipedia in general, good news for this project which aimed to have impact on the gender gap too - but still lots to be done here!
New opportunities await for the Teahouse in phase two as the Teahouse team and Wikipedia community examine ways to improve, scale, and sustain the project. Opportunities for future work include:
Automating or semi-automating systems such as invites, metrics and archiving
Experimenting with more ways for new editors to discover the Teahouse
Building out the social and peer-to-peer aspects further, including exploring ways to make answering questions easier, creating more ways for new editors to help each other and for all participants to acknowledge each other's efforts
Growing volunteer capacity, continuing to transfer Teahouse administration tasks to volunteers whenever possible, and looking for new ways to make maintenance and participation easier for everyone.
Want to know how you can lend a hand at the Teahouse? Become a host! Learn more about what makes the Teahouse different than other help spaces on Wikipedia and see how you can help new editors by visiting
here.
Say hello to the new guests at the Teahouse. Take the time to welcome and get to know the latest
guests at the Teahouse. Drop off some wikilove to these editors today, as being welcomed by experienced editors is really encouraging to new Wikipedians.
You are receiving The Tea Leaf after expressing interest or participating in the Teahouse! To remove yourself from receiving future newsletters, please remove your username
here.
Sarah (
talk)
16:40, 13 June 2012 (UTC)reply
Thank you,
evrik! It was a pleasure to meet you at Wikipedia as well, where I was delighted to meet many other "friendly guys" like you. I look forward to improving Wikipedia with your help.
I was wondering if you would consider turning off auto flagging as abuse from filter 458. It has been discussed a couple times at
Wikipedia_talk:Article_Feedback_Tool/Version_5[1][2] that the filter is generating a disproportionate number of false positives, and therefor undermining the utility of the abuse flagging system. I also cross posted to
Wikipedia talk:Edit filter, but as you have worked on that filter before I thought it might be helpful to contact you as well.
Monty84513:52, 20 July 2012 (UTC)reply
Hey :). Fabrice is on holiday, but I'm happy to deal with the issue!
So, generally speaking, we're trying to promote edit filter managers taking over the maintenance of these filters; there are problems both practical (we'll never get to sleep!) and ethical (the more control the Foundation exerts over the community, the less freedom the community has) with us running the filters that makes me loathe to step in on an ongoing basis. But this is just one occasion and one action, so I'm happy to jump in and turn it off, and have now done so. In future, though,
these guys are probably going to be more helpful :).
Okeyes (WMF) (
talk)
16:11, 21 July 2012 (UTC)reply
I reverted your changes the filter, and I honestly have no idea why it was behaving the way it did. If there is a problem with the code you put it, it was at least too subtle for me to see it. It was prohibiting feedback from all anonymous users.
Someguy1221 (
talk)
08:14, 24 July 2012 (UTC)reply
Hello everyone, my apologies for causing this problem with the abuse filters. My intention had been to modify four abuse filters we use for the Article Feedback tool, by having them 'disallow' the use of obscenities, rather than just 'auto-flag' them as abuse. While I was at it, I attempted to remove any word that was not clearly an obscenity, which is what caused the error on
filter 474. Many thanks to Someguy1221 for reverting that change, I really appreciate it! I just checked the other three filters (460, 461 and 472), and get a "No syntax errors detected" message, so they appear to be working as intended. Still, it would be wonderful if an experienced filter editor could take a look at these three filters, to see if we could improve them in any way (see our
Bugzilla ticket for this issue). Our community liaison,
Okeyes (WMF), will reach out to filter editors in coming days to invite them to help create more abuse filters for
Article Feedback Version 5 (AFT5). This new feature is now being deployed widely on the English Encyclopedia, to invite readers to contribute productively on Wikipedia, and we could really use some help to filter inappropriate words. Again, I am very sorry for making this mistake, and deeply grateful to you all for reporting it and taking immediate action. Going forward, I will let experienced editors make changes to the edit filter scripts.
Fabrice Florin (
talk)
16:22, 24 July 2012 (UTC)reply
The Tea Leaf - Issue Five
Stop by for a tasty glass of wiki-
iced tea at the
Teahouse, today!
Hi! Welcome to the fifth edition of The Tea Leaf, the official newsletter of the
Teahouse!
Guest activity increased in July. Questions are up from an average of 36 per week in June to 43 per week in July, and guest profile creation has also increased. This is likely a result of the
automatic invite experiments we started near the end of month, which seeks to lessen the burden on hosts and other volunteer who manually invite editors. During the last week of July, questions doubled in the Teahouse! (But don't let that deter you from
inviting editors to the Teahouse, please, there are still lots of new editors who haven't found Teahouse yet.)
More Teahouse hosts than ever. We had 12 new hosts sign up to participate at the Teahouse! We now have 35 hosts volunteering at the Teahouse. Feel free to stop by and see them all
here.
Phase two update: Host sprint. In August, the Teahouse team plans to improve the host experience by developing a simpler new-host creation process, a better way of surfacing active hosts, and a host lounge renovation. Take a look at the plan and weigh in
here.
New Teahouse guest barnstar is awarded to first recipient: Charlie Inks. Using the Teahouse barnstar designed by
Heatherawalls, hosts
hajatvrc and
Ryan Vesey created the new Teahouse Guest Barnstar. The first recipient is
Charlie Inks, for her boldness in asking questions at the Teahouse. Check out the award in action
here.
Teahouse was a hot topic at Wikimania! The Teahouse was a hot topic at
Wikimania this past month, where editor retention and interface design was heavily discussed.
Sarah and
Jonathan presented the Teahouse during the
Wikimedia Fellowships panel. Slides can be viewed
here. A
lunch was also held at Wikimania for Teahouse hosts.
As always, thanks for supporting the Teahouse project! Stop by and
visit us today!
You are receiving The Tea Leaf after expressing interest or participating in the Teahouse! To remove yourself from receiving future newsletters, please remove your username
here.
SarahStierch (
talk)
08:26, 4 August 2012 (UTC)reply
Cheers
Cheers Fabrice. To see the general outline see what I did with
Human rights in Djibouti a couple days ago. It will end up being more than a few sentences, don't worry... just give me time. That collection of external links gives me (and other editors) bookmarks for future references. I just think every country deserves a "Human rights" article so am going through the remaining African nations now. PhnomPenciltalkcontribs20:22, 9 August 2012 (UTC)reply
Speedy deletion nomination of TestPageForNewPagesFeed2
Hello Fabrice Florin,
I wanted to let you know that I just tagged TestPageForNewPagesFeed2 for deletion, because it doesn't seem to have any encyclopedic content.
If you feel that the article shouldn't be deleted and want more time to work on it, you can contest this deletion, but please don't remove the speedy deletion tag from the top.
Hi! Welcome to the sixth edition of The Tea Leaf, the official newsletter of the
Teahouse!
Teahouse serves over 700 new editors in six months on Wikipedia! Since February 27, 741 new editors have participated at the Teahouse. The Q&A board and the guest intro pages are more active than ever.
Automatic invites are doing the trick: 50% more new editors visiting each week. Ever since
HostBot's automated invite
trial phase began we've seen a boost in new editor participation. Automating a baseline set of invitations also allows Teahouse hosts to focus on serving hot cups of help to guests, instead of spending countless hours inviting.
Guests to the Teahouse continue to edit more & interact more with other community members than non-Teahouse guests according to
six month metrics. Teahouse guests make more than twice the article edits and edit more talk pages than other new editors.
New host process implemented which encourages anyone to get started as a Teahouse host in a few easy steps. Stop by the
hosts page and become a Teahouse host today!
Host lounge renovations nearing completion. Working closely with Teahouse hosts, we've made some major renovations to the
Teahouse Host Lounge - the main hangout and resource space for hosts. Learn more about the improvements
here.
As always, thanks for supporting the Teahouse project! Stop by and
visit us today!
You are receiving The Tea Leaf after expressing interest or participating in the Teahouse! To remove yourself from receiving future newsletters, please remove your username
here.
EdwardsBot (
talk)
00:06, 6 September 2012 (UTC)reply
File:Curation Toolbar Speedy Deletion Tags Aug 10 2012.png
New version
Hi, I changed your
File:Curation Toolbar Speedy Deletion Tags Aug 10 2012.png because it showed the green OK of already accepted article. I have just system scrollbars though, so if you want consistency with other NPF help images upload your version of not-yet-reviewed marked-to-deletion Page Curation toolbar. See you --21:05, 25 September 2012 (UTC),
Utar (
talk)
Dear Utar: Good call! Thanks so much for making that revision, which is much, much appreciated! That's what I love about working with you, you pay attention to important details like these ;o)
Fabrice Florin (
talk)
19:00, 2 October 2012 (UTC)reply
Happy to help. --12:49, 3 October 2012 (UTC),
Utar (
talk)
Thank you ...
I especially liked your Fort Barry and Fort Baker shots.
Hey Smallbones, that was really nice of you to respond to my barnstar note about your fabulous work on Wiki Loves Monuments!
I think this is a great example of a successful editor engagement program, for a variety of reasons:
it gives you a way to contribute to Wikipedia that is both fun and useful
it gives you a good reason to create an account, if you haven't already
it gives you a sense of belonging to a global movement while acting locally
it gives you a simple to-do list of specific tasks that can be completed in a relatively short amount of time
it gives you enough creative freedom to take the photos that you think are most relevant to the task
it makes you feel more confident that your contribution will not be edited inappropriately
it lets you interact with people face-to-face in the places you visit, rather than only interacting online
it gives you an opportunity to collect data in the field that can lead to better articles
it encourages current editors to write or expand more articles after they take the photos
I really enjoyed participating as a volunteer in this contest, and found it a very compelling way to contribute to Wikipedia. As a result, I now plan to start articles on some of the
historic sites I photographed which do not have articles yet. (Thanks for your kind words about my Fort Barry and Fort Baker shots.)
And in my official role as product manager at Wikimedia, I look forward to applying some of the lessons learned from this successful project to some of our other editor engagement programs.
You are receiving The Tea Leaf after expressing interest or participating in the Teahouse! To remove yourself from receiving future newsletters, please remove your username
here
1 year statistics for Teahouse visitors compared to invited non-visitors from the pilot:
Metric
Control group
Teahouse group
Contrast
Average retention (weeks with at least 1 edit)
5.02 weeks
8.57 weeks
1.7x retention
Average number of articles edited
58.7 articles
116.9 edits
2.0x articles edited
Average talk page edits
36.5 edits
85.6 edits
2.4x talk page edits
Average article space edits
129.6 edits
360.4 edits
2.8x article edits
Average total edits (all namespaces)
182.1 edits
532.4 edits
2.9x total edits
Over the past year almost 2000 questions have been asked and answered, 669 editors have introduced themselves, 1670 guests have been served, 867 experienced Wikipedians have participated in the project, and 137 have served as hosts.
Read more project analysis in our CSCW 2013 paper
Last month January was our most active month so far! 78 profiles were created, 46 active hosts answered 263 questions, and 11 new hosts joined the project.
Come by the Teahouse to share a cup of tea and enjoy a Birthday Cupcake! Happy Birthday to the Teahouse and thank you for a year's worth of interest and support :-)
You are receiving The Tea Leaf after expressing interest or participating in the Teahouse! To add or remove yourself for receiving future newsletters, please update the list
here
Hey, thanks,
Ocaasi! I really appreciate your kind words about our work. Coming from you, this means a lot to me! Best of luck with your own projects, especially the Wikipedia Adventure, which I can't wait to try out. All the best,
Fabrice Florin (
talk)
01:40, 16 May 2013 (UTC)reply
P.S.: FYI, my staff account is
here. This is my personal account, which I don't use as often. :)
Dear Fabrice! I'd like to thank you for your work for Wikipedia. Especially for you work on Notifications/Thanks. I really like this feature, because now it is so easy to thank someone for his or hers contributions. Every contributor has now the possibility to get feedback which is in my opinion very important. I wish you a nice week, yours
Ephraim33 (
talk)
16:00, 8 September 2014 (UTC)reply