Connection Team/Invitation list
The Invitation List Tool is a new feature designed by the Connection team to help organizers find people who might be interested in joining their projects or events. The tool was created as part of the Event Discovery project. It works by looking at a list of articles that an organizer plans to focus on during an activity and then finding users to invite based on the following criteria: the bytes they contributed to the articles, the number of edits they made to the articles, their overall edit count on the wikis, and how recently they have edited the wikis. This makes it easier for organizers to invite people who are already interested in the event’s topics, hence increasing the likelihood of participation.
The Invitation List Tool is available to users with the Event Organizer right, and it is a part of the CampaignEvents extension. The extension includes tools like Event Registration and the Event List. These tools help make organizing and finding events easier. Any wiki that has the CampaignEvents extension can easily enable the Invitation List Tool.
Background
[edit]We created the Invitation List Tool because we have heard from many community organizers that it would be helpful to have an easier way to identify people to invite to their events. Meanwhile, we learned from feedback from experienced editors that many were motivated to join an event based on the event’s topic and that some did not know how to find events that interested them.
A model to generate an invitation list was first created, and then an experiment was conducted to determine the usefulness of the Invitation list. During our Event Invitations Consultation Hours, we engaged with community organizers to gather insights and feedback on the needs and expectations surrounding the Invitation tool. We heard positive feedback on the usefulness of the tool, since it provided a simple way for organizers to identify users who may be interested in their events.
Based on these conversations, we decided to first build a basic version of the tool (called an MVP or Minimum Viable Product) that meets these needs. We’re excited to see how it helps organizers and to hear more feedback from the community.
Current Status
[edit]The Invitation List tool is available for any wiki with the CampaignEvents extension except on both Meta-Wiki and Spanish wikipedia. It is available for users who have the Event Organizer right.
How to Use
[edit]Prerequisites
- Ensure you have the event organizer right on the target wikipedia. You can check this by visiting the Special:UserRights page of that wiki. (Example, for Igbo Wikipedia, go to https://ig.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:UserRights)
- If you don't have the right, simply reach out to the admins on that wiki and request it.
Steps
- On the wiki where you plan to run your event, go to Special:GenerateInvitationList (example, on Igbo Wikipedia https://ig.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:GenerateInvitationList)
- Fill in:
- Invitation list name: any name that helps you find it later.
- Event page (optional): link to your event page (if it uses Event Registration).
- Article list: list the article pages you wish to work on or have related topic to the ones you intend to work on; you can list from 1 to 300 articles. Type the article name/title and press Enter for each. NB: each article listed here must be one that already exists on that same wiki. For example, if you are using the tool on Arabic Wikipedia, the articles you provide must already exist on Arabic Wikipedia.
- Fill in:
- Upon Submitting the form, the Invitation list will take about 5 to 10 mins to generate or even less.
- Refresh the page to view the generated list of editors who might be interested in your upcoming event/project
- From the generated list, copy the usernames of editors you wish to invite and invite them via your usual channel (e.g., talk-page outreach or MassMessage).
Testing the tool without organizer rights
[edit]If you would like to try it out before requesting the event organizer rights
Here’s how you can try the tool on Beta Wiki:
- Go to the Beta Wiki at https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/
- Login with your Beta account. If you don’t have one, you can create a new account. Please note that this is different from your regular wikimedia account. The Beta account is primarily used for testing and development purposes.
- Go to https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/Special:GenerateInvitationList
- Fill the form:
- Invitation list name: it can be anything you want. For example, let’s say you were running an event called “Awesome Editathon.” You could call your invitation list “Awesome Editathon Invitation List.” The purpose is so that you can find it later in an archive of your invitation lists.
- Event page: you can skip this; it is optional. This would be used if you have an event page with event registration tied to the event.
- Article List: These should be articles on the wiki where you are using the tool. For example, if you are using the tool on Arabic Wikipedia, the articles you provide must already exist on Arabic Wikipedia. If you are testing this tool on Beta, the article list you provide must be articles that already exist on Beta-Wiki. To add an article, simply type in the name of the article and hit the enter button. You can include up to 300 articles in this field. If you do not already have a list, you can use the sample list provided for testing purposes.
| Click "Expand" to show the sample articles list |
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If you prefer a Video guide, Here is one
How to exclude yourself from invitation lists
[edit]If you prefer not to be included in the invitation list, you can remove your name from the generated invitation list by following these steps:
- Go to your Preferences page
- You can find this link in the top-right corner of the page after logging in
- On the first tab "User profile" scroll to the bottom. look for the section "Invitation lists"
- Uncheck the option lebeled "Include me in invitation lists."
- At the bottom of the page, click Save