[Wikitech-l] GrowthExperiments features on all Wikipedias

Hi all, (If you don't write code for Wikipedia-deployed skins/extensions you can skip this message.) Last month, we (Growth team) reached a milestone where GrowthExperiments features[0] are now deployed to 100% of newly created accounts[1] on nearly all Wikipedias. These features were built over the last four years[2] to increase the retention of new editors by giving them clear places to get started with editing and to get support. As a core/skin/extension developer, here are some changes to the new user account experience that you should know about: * after a user account is created, a user is redirected to Special:WelcomeSurvey[3]. From there we invite the user to visit Special:Homepage[4]. In addition the username in personal tools is linked to Special:Homepage * On Special:Homepage, the user is guided through editing with suggested edits[5], and can talk to a mentor via the mentorship tools[6] * When editing any page in the main namespace or selected other namespaces, users will see a help panel button[7] that offers in-context help and ways to contact mentors * After an edit is saved, we use the mw.postEdit hook (desktop & mobile) to display a dialog with suggested tasks to the user If you have ideas for building with any of these features (e.g. adding new functionality to Special:Homepage; adding your own in-context help to the help panel; developing new types of tasks for newcomers to work on) we would be happy to hear from you! Also, if you'd like to try the features yourself, you can read about how to enable them here[8]. Cheers, Kosta for the Growth Team [0] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Growth/Feature_summary [1] We have retained a few wikis where we experiment with a control group that does not get Growth features. Also, newcomers who are opted-in to the features can turn them off in their preferences. [2] Thank you to the ~50 contributors who have made this possible! https://github.com/wikimedia/mediawiki-extensions-GrowthExperiments/graphs/… [3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Growth/Personalized_first_day/Welcome_survey [4] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Growth/Feature_summary#Newcomer_homepage [5] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Growth/Feature_summary#Newcomer_tasks [6] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Growth/Mentor_dashboard [7] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Growth/Feature_summary/en#Help_panel [8] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Growth/Tools/Enable_the_Homepage