One of the ways to help retain newcomers in the wikis is through software. By building features for Mediawiki or changing existing components, we can make the wikis more welcoming, less confusing, and promote healthier interactions between new and experienced users. The WMF's Growth Team formed in July 2018 to work in this space. The team has worked closely with the Czech, Korean, Vietnamese, and Arabic communities to research newcomers and to pilot new features, such as the [[mw:Growth/Focus_on_help_desk|help panel]] and [[mw:Growth/Personalized_first_day/Newcomer_homepage|newcomer homepage]]. In this session, we want to share what we've learned about newcomers' goals, habits, and challenges so that more communities can operate with knowledge about their newcomers. We'll also demonstrate the features we've built so far, and invite attendees to share their experiences and ideas around future newcomers initiatives. Finally, we'll promote a discussion around the challenge that software can only go so far to help newcomers -- in order for the software to work, communities have to be enthusiastic about retention, and we'll ask for ideas about how to spread that enthusiasm.
Speakers: Marshall Miller Rita Ho Benoît Evellin Revi Martin Urbanec