TLDR:transform the thank you campaign after the fundraising in a "Thank you campaign: became an editor"
Following a really nice discussion of the swiss mailing list, I had a look in the statistics here: http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediansEditsGt5.htm
First, as unfortunately expected I notice the decrease between january 2013 and 2014, but in the second time I've been surprised by the increase in january 2014 comparing to december 2013.
I first thought the large press coverage of the "decline of Wikipedia" had an effect to motivate new editors, but when looking to these charts http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/new_editors
I notice that every winter we have these increase of editors , most probably due to the fundraising campaign.
But unfortunately, like for Wiki Loves Monuments effect, this increase of new editors during a month is not enough to invert the tendency http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/active_editors
It has been discussed several time in the past, but I guess we should do it again, how can we turned the fundraising campaign in a massive outreach campaign?
I have two leads, the easy one and the complex one :-)
The easy one would be to add to the thank you message an invitation to join/meet/take information about users-group, thematic organisation or chapters. This move may help to improve the retention by a face to face approach.
The complex one would be to develop a system to invite people to contribute in specific article.
The main point would be to transform the thank you campaign in a "Thank you campaign: became an editor" The idea is to display a banner inviting the reader to edit wikipedia. the concept is the following: identify the categories of the page currently displayed select three articles in these categories with a template “expand” or similar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Empty_section http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Expand_section http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mod%C3%A8le:Section_vide_ou_incompl%C3%A8te displayed a message like: You can also help Wikipedia by expanding an article, here are three articles that need your help, if you want to know how you can help, click on the topic you like : article from category one article from category two article from category three (or random category) after the reader click on the article, send him to the section to expand: in edit mode, with a banner explaining the basics of editing or with visual editor displaying a banner explaining this mode after publication of the article, a thank you banner, explaining how to register, with a link to the create an account page
I start a page on meta to see if this idea can be discuss/expand/improved/deployed https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CH/outreach_fundraising_campaign
Thanks for your comment or your help, you can also took my idea , change it totally and turn it in something doable! :-D
Charles
At risk of not quite answering the question:
To keep our editors properly, we should make the software sufficiently reasonable and flexibly to automate routine work people encounter...
I couldn't get started at Wiktionary or Wikibooks easily due to my lack of linguistic or librarian background, and lack of tools to make elementary edits within such project scope — tools anyone can edit, using a standardized flexible framework, unlike the existing 'gadgets' which are so easy to break and difficult to write in a way which is easy to maintain, and share so little code.
On Fri, 7 Mar 2014, at 19:35, Charles Andrès wrote:
TLDR:transform the thank you campaign after the fundraising in a "Thank you campaign: became an editor"
Following a really nice discussion of the swiss mailing list, I had a look in the statistics here: http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediansEditsGt5.htm
First, as unfortunately expected I notice the decrease between january 2013 and 2014, but in the second time I've been surprised by the increase in january 2014 comparing to december 2013.
I first thought the large press coverage of the "decline of Wikipedia" had an effect to motivate new editors, but when looking to these charts http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/new_editors
I notice that every winter we have these increase of editors , most probably due to the fundraising campaign.
But unfortunately, like for Wiki Loves Monuments effect, this increase of new editors during a month is not enough to invert the tendency http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/active_editors
It has been discussed several time in the past, but I guess we should do it again, how can we turned the fundraising campaign in a massive outreach campaign?
I have two leads, the easy one and the complex one :-)
The easy one would be to add to the thank you message an invitation to join/meet/take information about users-group, thematic organisation or chapters. This move may help to improve the retention by a face to face approach.
The complex one would be to develop a system to invite people to contribute in specific article.
The main point would be to transform the thank you campaign in a "Thank you campaign: became an editor" The idea is to display a banner inviting the reader to edit wikipedia. the concept is the following: identify the categories of the page currently displayed select three articles in these categories with a template “expand” or similar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Empty_section http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Expand_section http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mod%C3%A8le:Section_vide_ou_incompl%C3%A8te displayed a message like: You can also help Wikipedia by expanding an article, here are three articles that need your help, if you want to know how you can help, click on the topic you like : article from category one article from category two article from category three (or random category) after the reader click on the article, send him to the section to expand: in edit mode, with a banner explaining the basics of editing or with visual editor displaying a banner explaining this mode after publication of the article, a thank you banner, explaining how to register, with a link to the create an account page
I start a page on meta to see if this idea can be discuss/expand/improved/deployed https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CH/outreach_fundraising_campaign
Thanks for your comment or your help, you can also took my idea , change it totally and turn it in something doable! :-D
Charles
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And the same pattern on sv:wp. The first weeks of January is consistently over the years the most active period in a year.
It is the time before Universities starts and after Christmas and New Year. Lowest activity, also consistently over the years, is on Dec 24, and the two weeks after school/universities ends in Dec and June
Anders
Federico Leva (Nemo) skrev 2014-03-07 11:00:
Charles Andrès, 07/03/2014 09:35:
I've been surprised by the increase in january 2014 comparing to december 2013.
You really shouldn't. It happens each January, check better. :) Jan 2014 +8% 76273 Jan 2013 +7% 78717 Jan 2012 +6% 79000
etc.
Nemo
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Yes,
it's what I mean by "I notice that every winter we have these increase of editors , most probably due to the fundraising campaign."
charles
Le 7 mars 2014 à 11:00, Federico Leva (Nemo) nemowiki@gmail.com a écrit :
Charles Andrès, 07/03/2014 09:35:
I've been surprised by the increase in january 2014 comparing to december 2013.
You really shouldn't. It happens each January, check better. :) Jan 2014 +8% 76273 Jan 2013 +7% 78717 Jan 2012 +6% 79000
etc.
Nemo
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Charles Andrès, 07/03/2014 11:20:
Yes,
it's what I mean by "I notice that every winter we have these increase of editors , most probably due to the fundraising campaign."
That's certainly not the reason, as Anders explained and as can easily be seen in stats. 1) January is consistently the month of high growth since 2003 (highest since 2006) and I don't think we always had such banners? 2) It happens in projects where the banners no longer run (though they did in the 2010-2011 "WIKIPEDIA FOREVER" campaign IIRC): http://stats.wikimedia.org/wiktionary/EN/TablesWikipediansEditsGt5.htm Jan 2014 +3% 836 Jan 2013 +4% 843 Jan 2012 +5% 779
Not to mention that now fundraising banners are enabled all year long.
Nemo
Yeah I'd rather log in/register than would eye these banners :) --Base
07.03.2014 12:32, Federico Leva (Nemo) написав(ла):
Charles Andrès, 07/03/2014 11:20:
Yes,
it's what I mean by "I notice that every winter we have these increase of editors , most probably due to the fundraising campaign."
That's certainly not the reason, as Anders explained and as can easily be seen in stats.
- January is consistently the month of high growth since 2003
(highest since 2006) and I don't think we always had such banners? 2) It happens in projects where the banners no longer run (though they did in the 2010-2011 "WIKIPEDIA FOREVER" campaign IIRC): http://stats.wikimedia.org/wiktionary/EN/TablesWikipediansEditsGt5.htm Jan 2014 +3% 836 Jan 2013 +4% 843 Jan 2012 +5% 779
Not to mention that now fundraising banners are enabled all year long.
Nemo
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On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 4:32 AM, Federico Leva (Nemo) nemowiki@gmail.comwrote:
(though they did in the 2010-2011 "WIKIPEDIA FOREVER" campaign IIRC)
Minor quibble: WIKIPEDIA FOREVER was 2009 :)
THIS IS EVERYTHING WE KNOW
On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 8:35 AM, Charles Andrès < charles.andres.wmch@gmail.com> wrote:
TLDR:transform the thank you campaign after the fundraising in a "Thank you campaign: became an editor"
We've tried this before and so far it hasn't worked very well. See results from 2012-13 at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Donor_engagement/Thank_You_campaign
Generally speaking, we're moving away from trying to use banners to blast lots of readers with the same messages. That's true in both fundraising (where they've learned to only show someone a donation request 1-2 times) and in editor engagement work. Our next work trying to convert unregistered people to become editors is going to be focusing on targeting anonymous editors, asking them to signup, and teaching them about the benefits of having an account so they can make an informed choice. See draft docs at: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Anonymous_editor_acquisition
Steven
On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 5:28 AM, Steven Walling steven.walling@gmail.comwrote:
We've tried this before and so far it hasn't worked very well. See results from 2012-13 at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Donor_engagement/Thank_You_campaign
Generally speaking, we're moving away from trying to use banners to blast lots of readers with the same messages. That's true in both fundraising (where they've learned to only show someone a donation request 1-2 times) and in editor engagement work. Our next work trying to convert unregistered people to become editors is going to be focusing on targeting anonymous editors, asking them to signup, and teaching them about the benefits of having an account so they can make an informed choice. See draft docs at: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Anonymous_editor_acquisition
Steven
Are you sure that's not because the banners are poorly suited for what you want to achieve? The "create account" link is hidden, the fact that the banner is trying to entice you to join and contribute is not obvious, it's content is similar enough to the regular fundraising banners that people accustomed to ignoring the banners won't notice any difference, etc.
It seems... obvious that those banners would not ultimately be very effective in converting readers to registered users, but I wouldn't use that as a basis to dismiss the entire idea of outreach campaigns. Certainly the WMF iterated the fundraising presentation many times before finding highly effective methods.
So, as has been suggested on this list before (by me, and others), maybe you should run a separate outreach campaign, with actually useful and targeted banners, and not make it an exhausting carry-on of the fundraiser or indistinguishably similar to fundraising banners.
Another version of this that has been tried by WMF, more similar to Charles's second suggestion, is documented here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Geo-targeted_Editors_Participation/r...
A.
On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 8:03 AM, Nathan nawrich@gmail.com wrote:
On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 5:28 AM, Steven Walling <steven.walling@gmail.com
wrote:
We've tried this before and so far it hasn't worked very well. See
results
from 2012-13 at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Donor_engagement/Thank_You_campaign
Generally speaking, we're moving away from trying to use banners to blast lots of readers with the same messages. That's true in both fundraising (where they've learned to only show someone a donation request 1-2 times) and in editor engagement work. Our next work trying to convert
unregistered
people to become editors is going to be focusing on targeting anonymous editors, asking them to signup, and teaching them about the benefits of having an account so they can make an informed choice. See draft docs at: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Anonymous_editor_acquisition
Steven
Are you sure that's not because the banners are poorly suited for what you want to achieve? The "create account" link is hidden, the fact that the banner is trying to entice you to join and contribute is not obvious, it's content is similar enough to the regular fundraising banners that people accustomed to ignoring the banners won't notice any difference, etc.
It seems... obvious that those banners would not ultimately be very effective in converting readers to registered users, but I wouldn't use that as a basis to dismiss the entire idea of outreach campaigns. Certainly the WMF iterated the fundraising presentation many times before finding highly effective methods.
So, as has been suggested on this list before (by me, and others), maybe you should run a separate outreach campaign, with actually useful and targeted banners, and not make it an exhausting carry-on of the fundraiser or indistinguishably similar to fundraising banners. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Asaf Bartov, 07/03/2014 22:49:
Another version of this that has been tried by WMF, more similar to Charles's second suggestion, is documented here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Geo-targeted_Editors_Participation/r...
Uh. Thanks for linking. Being on en.wiki, basically orphan and uncategorised, it's impossible to find.
Nemo
On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 12:20 AM, Federico Leva (Nemo) nemowiki@gmail.com wrote:
Asaf Bartov, 07/03/2014 22:49:
Another version of this that has been tried by WMF, more similar to Charles's second suggestion, is documented here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Geo-targeted_Editors_Participation/r...
Uh. Thanks for linking. Being on en.wiki, basically orphan and uncategorised, it's impossible to find.
Nemo
It was also summarized a bit later in this blog post: https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/02/english-wikipedia-editor-pilot-philipp...
Hello Charles,
I like this idea. Individual wikis can try this out effectively, in many different ways, using geotargeting. I wonder what sort of data we can get out of such banners: can we track total views and clickthroughs? (Is it any easier to get such data out of central banners coordinated through Meta?)
Asaf mentioned the geo-targeted campaign in the Philippines. It was not very successful; but noted: "no special tools are needed to attempt this, and interested community members could design and run their own experiments along these lines."
That seems like a constructive way to pursue this line of thinking. There have only been a few small campaigns so far that invited people to edit, so we don't yet know much about what works and what doesn't work.
Charles Andrès charles.andres.wmch@gmail.com wrote:
The easy one would be to add to the thank you message an invitation to join/meet/take information about users-group, thematic organisation or chapters. This move may help to improve the retention by a face to face approach.
This would be interesting: easy for a reader to say 'yes' and easy to measure the result. We could ask local groups which ones want signups from geolocated readers, and run banners in that area that help readers sign up.
The complex one would be to develop a system to invite people to contribute in specific article.
Yes. This is complex in a way, but your suggestion is much simpler than what has been tried so far: one click from the banner to editing a section. And inviting people to edit before asking them to register also seems simpler.
Identify the categories of the page currently displayed
Is it currently possible to page-target or category-target banners? This would be useful for all sorts of messaging.
I start a page on meta to see if this idea can be discuss/expand/improved/deployed https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CH/outreach_fundraising_campaign
Thanks for your comment or your help, you can also took my idea , change it totally and turn it in something doable! :-D
Thank you for sharing :) I'm not yet sure how much of it is currently doable, but it's a good area for experimentation.
Nathan writes:
So, as has been suggested on this list before (by me, and others), maybe you should run a separate outreach campaign, with actually useful and targeted banners
How could we experiment with a large number of banners and campaigns, driven by communities on individual wikis? I don't know if any WMF staff are considering this in the near future, but it's something that anyone can organize. Community groups can propose global banners via CentralNotice on Meta (easier if they are run at a low %, or wiki- or geo-targeted), and can run local banners as well, though with less flexibility.
SJ
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