View source for Grants:Project/WM HU/Editor retention program

==== Background, context ====
The figure below depicts how the Wikimedia projects work: the increasing number of volunteer editors and stronger community leads to a better content quality, which increases the use of the content and number of the readers; with increasing number of readers we can expect that more volunteer editors join the project. But this self-generating process can work in the other direction as well: if the size and activity of the volunteer community decreases, it could easily lead to a lower content quality, which has a negative effect on the reputation of the project, therefore it can reach less and less new editors, and so on. From these three areas, the most effective intervention point is the community, therefore if there is a problem in this circular process, the best we can do is handling the problems in the volunteer community and increase its activity.

The most important element, the backbone of the Wikimedia movement and Wikimedia projects is the volunteer community which creates, maintains and organizes these projects. If we would like to keep (or even increase) the diversity of the Wikimedia movement, we need to pay high-priority attention to the health and long-term development of the smaller language communities which face problems. The dynamics and momentum of the Hungarian language community (similarly to many other language communities) broke in 2008, but the decrease was significant even in comparison to other Wikimedia communities. '''Compared to the peak values in 2008-2009, both the number of editors and number of edits halved until 2015, and the number of new registrations dropped to one fifth.''' The 2016–2018 period can be characterized by a basically stagnating, minimally increasing trend; only the strong commitment and desperate fight of a smaller group of the core editors is behind this temporary stability. The size of the projects and the need for maintenance is continuously increasing (the Hungarian Wikipedia contained 100 thousand articles in 2008 and around 440 thousand articles now). In addition, (as a positive change) the number of [https://stats.wikimedia.org/v2/#/hu.wikipedia.org/contributing/editors/normal|line|2001-01-01~2018-09-01|editor_type~anonymous non-registered (anonymous) editors] and [https://stats.wikimedia.org/v2/#/hu.wikipedia.org/contributing/edits/normal|line|2001-01-01~2018-09-01|editor_type~anonymous their edits] started to increase again in the last two years. Both effects result in higher and higher workload for the decreasing number of editors, recent changes patrollers and administrators. As a consequence, the Hungarian community first decided to close the Hungarian Wikinews in 2011, then gradually gave up the other sister projects (Hungarian Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikibooks and Wiktionary). Almost all of the [[:w:hu:WP:M|around 100 Wikiprojects]] which were active ten years ago are inactive by now. The [[:w:hu:WPM:MENTOR|mentorship project]] has not worked in an organized, institutional form for years due to the lack of active mentors. Because of the higher workload, patrollers and the administrators can spend less time controlling edits, handling new or problematic editors, which leads to more effective but less tolerant, patient and helpful reactions. These symptoms have an influence on the effectiveness of editor recruitment and retention in the community, and there is a high possibility of burn-out of the overloaded core editors. The fact that despite the recently increasing number of anonymous editors and edits the [https://stats.wikimedia.org/v2/#/hu.wikipedia.org/contributing/new-registered-users/normal|line|All|~total number of new registrations] is still slightly decreasing, might be a sign of an unhealthy community. These phenomena together mean a self-generating negative process, and a future external shock (for example the next financial crisis similar to the one that happened in 2008) could cause a collapse of the community in its precarious state.

According to the [[:m:Community Engagement/Defining Emerging Communities|proposed definitions]], both the Hungarian language community and the community in Hungary are one of the emerging Wikimedia communities. The description mentions Hungary as an example for “countries where Wikimedia communities have had several years of difficulty growing or self-organizing”. The description is unfortunately accurate.

<gallery>
File:Virtuous_Circle.svg|Circle of Wikimedia projects
File:Editors on huwiki until 2018-09-01.png|Number of editors
File:Editors by activity level on huwiki until 2018-09-01.png|Editors by activity level
File:Edits on huwiki until 2018-09-01.png|Number of edits
File:New registered users on huwiki until 2018-09-01.png|New registered users
</gallery>

In accordance with [[:m:Wikimédia Magyarország|Wikimedia Hungary]]’s [https://wikimedia.hu/wiki/Az_egyes%C3%BClet_strat%C3%A9gi%C3%A1ja strategy] and the [https://wikimedia.hu/w/images/c/c7/K%C3%B6zgy%C5%B1l%C3%A9si_jegyz%C5%91k%C3%B6nyv_%E2%80%93_2018._m%C3%A1jus_19.pdf decision of Wikimedia Hungary’s AGM in May] about this grant application, Wikimedia Hungary considers its most important task for the next years strengthening the Hungarian Wikimedia community and assisting the community’s self-organizing. There are several external (for example the economical, legal, social and political environment) and internal (for example user-friendliness of the editing surfaces, complexity of the community rules, atmosphere and inclusivity of the community, recognition of the volunteer work) effects influencing the size of the active volunteer community. From these effects we could have smaller influence on the external ones, but changing the internal factors into a favorable direction can help the positive development of the community. Several people have dealt with this problem and its possible solutions over the last years (for example [[:m:Research:The Rise and Decline|research 1]], [[:m:Research:Active editor spike 2015 (July update)|research 2]], [[:m:Research:Teahouse|research 3]], [[:m:Research:Alternative life cycles of new users|research 4]], [[:m:Research:Guiding and Retaining Volunteers Using Social Media Bots|research 5]], [https://www.tdx.cat/bitstream/handle/10803/402142/tmmr.pdf doctoral dissertation], [[:m:Volunteer Supporters Network/Resources|learning patterns]] etc.). A [[:m:Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2018-20/Working Groups/Community Health|working group of the strategic design process]] works on the community health topic these months, and the Wikimedia Foundation started an [[:m:Community Capacity Development/New contributor engagement and growth|initiative]] to help the communities building up the necessary capacities as well. From the different approaches and recommendations we selected the ones, which can be realized with low human resources, or there are community capacities for their realistic realization based on previous experience.

In 2019, Wikimedia Hungary will concentrate on the (new and old) editors’ retention, while in the following years it will focus on the recruitment and retention of editors, and building up the capacities necessary for the long-term community development in the volunteer community and in the chapter as well.