Actionable cleanup templates

This document outlines ideas for a new mobile web feature intended to make cleanup templates more actionable on mobile, in order to give new/casual mobile users an easier entry-point into contribution.

Strategy

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User stories

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  • As a potential editor, I want to know exactly what needs to be done to improve an article, so I don't have to spend a lot of time scrolling up and down to find what needs to be improved.
  • As a new editor, I want to continue improving articles once I know how.

Product objectives

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  1. Give potential and new editors a focused, simple task that measurably improves an article
  2. Turn cleanup templates from a passive reader experience (i.e., a warning or disclaimer) to a more active, engaging one for new and potential editors

Goals

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  1. Give potential and new editors easy tasks
  2. Improve the quality of articles
  3. Reduce the cleanup backlog

User experience

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  1. When I land on a page with an actionable cleanup template, I get a call to action at the top of the page asking me to improve the page
  2. Depending on the cleanup action needed and the wiki preferences, when I tap on the call to action, I am taken to the wikitext editor or VE
  3. After I save my edit, I get a message asking me if I want to improve another article with similar issues
  4. If I tap the message, I am taken to another article in the same cleanup category and can repeat the process

Potential mobile-friendly tasks

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VisualEditor only

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No footnotes

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What: Articles that have references but no in-line citations.

How: [VE only] Get user to add in-line notes from existing references via the VE citation dialog

All English Wikipedia articles lacking footnotes

Wikifying

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What: Articles that lack internal links.

How: [VE only] Get user to add links via the VE link inspector

All English Wikipedia articles needing wikification

VE or wikitext

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Cleanup

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What: Articles needing spelling, grammar, or other text formatting changes

How: Take user into editor for sections that need cleanup

All English Wikipedia articles needing cleanup

Test plan

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  1. Test taking user directly into wikitext or VE editing vs. showing user a guided tour
  2. Test different kinds of actions (e.g., add links, copyedit, add reference)