Wikipedia:WikiProject Editor Retention/Project goals

Project Goals

A part of increasing retention of editors at Wikipedia is to encourage new editors to continue editing in a positive and constructive manner. We therefore encourage you to:
 * Greet and help new editors: stop and help them when you know they may be stuck, misguided, incorrect or just stumbling, but continue to encourage interaction if/ when you get a less than thankful response
 * Advise and encourage new editors to learn how to be a Wikipedia editor before they are discouraged by some early pitfall
 * Patrol Special:Log/newusers to identify newer users who already have made contributions and put a Welcome Template on their talk page along with a personal note telling them to feel free to contact you if they have a question
 * Scan "Recent changes" searching for either new editors to welcome or situations to which you feel you can contribute from a "retention viewpoint"; soften the blow of speedy deletions, etc.

Even experienced editors can get discouraged, and we should always consider ways to retain those who have been here awhile. Many editors become semi-retired or just stop editing without declaring so for various reasons, some of them more obvious than others. With regard to them, our project goals are to:
 * Establish methods for use to prevent editor loss, such as promotion of the project and its suggestions
 * Encourage departed editors to return. Even many retired editors will watch their user talkpage for passing comments, so consider leaving an encouraging, personally written comment and suggest an edit they might be interested in making
 * Promote a more positive environment in which editors will want to participate
 * Review WikiProject_Editor_Retention/FA_editors_list to find Featured Article (WP:FA) contributors who appear to have stopped contributing recently-- perhaps by contacting them you can encourage them to return to editing. WP:Good will lead you to Good Article (GA) contributors.


 * Document ways in which all editors can achieve these goals and organize them within the project's subpages


 * Sign up and participate with the various Help Projects located through Help Project. This project is undergoing substantial reorganizing to make it easier for editors to find the appropriate help, especially in high traffic areas where applicable, such as WikiProject Directory. Feel free to contribute to that project.

 Project Tasks 

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