Hi everyone,

The next Research showcase is completely dedicated to Teahouse. :-) It will be live-streamed this Wednesday, October 21 at 18:30 (UTC). The streaming link is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T73vRiNsRxo

As usual, you can join the conversation on IRC at #wikimedia-research. And, you can watch our past research showcases here.

We look forward to seeing you!

Leila

This month

The impact of the Wikipedia Teahouse on new editor retention

By Jonathan Morgan, Aaron Halfaker

New Wikipedia editors face a variety of social and technical barriers to participation. These barriers have been shown to cause even promising, highly-motivated newcomers to give up and leave Wikipedia shortly after joining. The Wikipedia Teahouse was launched in 2012 to provide new editors with a space on Wikipedia where they could ask questions, introduce themselves, and learn the ropes of editing in a friendly and supportive environment, with the goal of increasing the percentage of good-faith newcomers who go on to become productive Wikipedians. Research has shown that the Teahouse provided a positive experience for participants, and suggested that participating in the Teahouse led to more editing activity and longer survival for new editors who participated. The current study examines the impact of Teahouse invitations on new editors survival over a longer period of time (2-6 months), and presents findings related to contextual factors within editors' first few sessions that are associated with overall survival rate and editing patterns associated with increased likelihood of visiting the Teahouse.