Editing Eurovision Wiki:Village pump (technical) (section)

== Phase 2: Reading lists results and scaling ==

Hi everyone,

[[Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 225#c-EBlackorby-WMF-20251112211600-Reading list test: entering phase 1|Back in November]] we shared that the [[mw:Reader/Reader_Experience|Reader Experience team]] was conducting an experiment to bring [[mw:Readers/Reader_Experience/WE3.3.4_Reading_lists|reading lists]] to the desktop and mobile web browser experience. We are back with updates and next steps. 

[[File:Mockup_of_saved_articles_page_on_desktop_English_Wikipedia.png|left|thumb|500x500px|Mockup of saved articles page on desktop English Wikipedia.]]

We are experimenting with potential improvements to the reader experience because of [[diffblog:2025/10/17/new-user-trends-on-wikipedia/|declining pageviews to Wikipedia and fewer readers returning to the site]]. We think by strengthening the connection between existing readers and Wikipedia, we can help reverse these trends and help engage potential future editors. One way to build that relationship is by giving readers more ways to shape their reading experience. Reading lists will allow for that participation by giving logged-in readers the option to save articles they want to come back to later in a list accessible in their account. The feature is already highly utilized on the Apps, where it has contributed to improved reader retention. 

The experiment went live on Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Indonesian, and Vietnamese wikis in November, where we collected data for eight weeks on mobile and desktop. The experimental feature included:

* Options for logged-in readers to save articles to a private list for reading later.
* Ability for logged-in readers to access their list and delete articles that are no longer relevant.

'''What did we find?'''

The feature had good engagement. Our primary success metric was the clickthrough rate (CTR) on the save article icon. CTR measures how often readers engage with the feature, helping us understand whether people notice it and choose to use it. Typical web CTR is between 1-5%, but can be much lower for features which require an active or participatory action from the user. On English Wikipedia, we observed a clickthrough rate of 0.88% for the “save” button in the reading list experiment. This aligned with our expectations for the feature. Because saving an article reflects a specific intent through participation — returning to that article later — we did not expect engagement rates comparable to more general navigation actions. 

Readers create accounts, but need reading focused features to sustain them. Our experiment was intentionally limited to a fraction of all readers who are not editors so we wouldn’t interfere with existing editing and moderation workflows. As a result, very few people saw the feature, making the exposure rate of the experimental feature too low to give conclusive evidence on how reading lists on web affect user retention. This was a helpful finding for us: currently, readers who do not edit do not have much reason to have an account, since most logged-in features on Wikipedia are designed for editors. The test helped us better understand how reader-focused features may reach a distinct audience of account holders who engage with Wikipedia differently than editors. For this reason, we are trying out a beta feature before full rollout so we can learn more about user retention with this feature with a larger audience. 

Reading list users are active readers. Additionally, we found that readers that engaged with the feature had much higher rates of internal referrals – that is, that is, they more frequently navigated to other pages on Wikipedia. While this relationship is correlational rather than causal, it suggests that readers who already tend to spend more time exploring Wikipedia find particular value in this feature.

'''What are we doing next?'''

Based on the results above, we believe that reading lists is a feature readers are interested in and would like to collect more data on how people use it. To do this, we are planning on releasing reading lists on the desktop and mobile websites as a beta feature for logged-in readers. 

To increase exposure among readers we will enable the beta feature for all new accounts. Existing users will be able to turn reading lists on manually in the beta section of their user preferences. We will be collecting feedback via QuickSurveys on whether beta users find it to be useful.

[[File:Screenshot_of_reading_lists_beta_feature_setting.png|thumb|500x500px|Screenshot of reading lists beta feature setting page.]]

We’re planning on the following timeline: 

* Week of April 6: Release the feature on Arabic, Chinese, French, Indonesian, and Vietnamese Wikipedias.
* April 6 - April 20: Monitor and fix any bugs.
* Week of April 20: Release to all other Wikipedias.

We encourage you to try out the beta feature and give us feedback on-wiki or via the survey. Additionally, we want to hear more from you. Do you have any other ideas for reading lists based on this information? Please share your thoughts and questions here. For more info, see our [[mw:Readers/Reader_Experience/WE3.3.4_Reading_lists|project page]].

Thank you. [[User:EBlackorby-WMF|EBlackorby-WMF]] ([[User talk:EBlackorby-WMF|talk]]) 21:05, 10 March 2026 (UTC)
:{{tbq|1=To support current active readers on the wikis in their goals of learning from Wikipedia, we want to experiment with allowing readers to save articles to a list for reading later, helping them organize their knowledge while also building a practice of content curation that could pave the way for future contributions to Wikipedia.}} Back in the day, this would be called "browser bookmarks".  [[user:sapphaline|<span class="skin-nightmode-reset-color" style="color:#c20;text-decoration:underline">sapphaline</span>]] ([[user talk:sapphaline|<span class="skin-nightmode-reset-color" style="color:#236;text-decoration:underline">talk</span>]]) 21:31, 10 March 2026 (UTC)
::[[Substack|Plenty]] [[Reddit|of]] [[X (social network)|other]] [[YouTube|websites]] have features to save posts or articles, perhaps because bookmarks are deemphasised in modern web browsers and people tend to use them less IME. In any case, I personally think anything that increases new editor intake is a good thing. &nbsp;[[User:Mir Novov|<b style="display:inline-flex;text-decoration:inherit;transform:matrix(1,0,0,1.4,1,-2);color:#070">novov</b>]] <b style="font-size:0.6em;filter:grayscale(1)">[[User talk:Mir Novov|talk]] [[Special:Contributions/Mir Novov|edits]]</b> 00:48, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
:::@[[User:Mir Novov|Mir Novov]]  "People tend to use them less".  How do you know that?  I think bookmarks are great and I use them frequently, [[User:David10244|David10244]] ([[User talk:David10244|talk]]) 02:21, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
::::Anecdotally, I notice a lot of younger browser users don't use bookmarks apart from a few generic favourited sites, and mainly rely on tabs or other functionality for content they wish to revisit. &nbsp;[[User:Mir Novov|<b style="display:inline-flex;text-decoration:inherit;transform:matrix(1,0,0,1.4,1,-2);color:#070">novov</b>]] <b style="font-size:0.6em;filter:grayscale(1)">[[User talk:Mir Novov|talk]] [[Special:Contributions/Mir Novov|edits]]</b> 02:39, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
:::::@[[User:Mir Novov|Mir Novov]] I think a lot of that comes from the fact that so much browsing is done on mobile, and mobile bookmarks generally suck. <span class="nowrap">--[[User:Ahecht|Ahecht]] ([[User talk:Ahecht|<b style="color:#FFF;background:#04A;display:inline-block;padding:1px;vertical-align:middle;font:bold 50%/1 sans-serif;text-align:center">TALK<br />PAGE</b>]])</span> 19:54, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
::::::I don't even have bookmarks in the mobile browser I use ([[Firefox Focus]]). [[User:Prototyperspective|Prototyperspective]] ([[User talk:Prototyperspective|talk]]) 21:13, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
:::::@[[User:Mir Novov|Mir Novov]]  From a statistician: "Anecdotes are not data".  :-) [[User:David10244|David10244]] ([[User talk:David10244|talk]]) 16:31, 15 March 2026 (UTC)
::Hello!! Hsuanwei from the WMF Reader Experience team here :)  This feature is definitely akin to browser bookmarks! We’re framing this as a first step toward readers participating more on Wikipedia by personalizing their experience, which we hope will eventually lead some of them to become interested in editing. To the tabs point, one tendency we’ve noticed in our user research is that some readers want to be able to “hoard” their information in one easily accessible spot, even though they may not revisit or organize it later, similar to how some people keep 100 tabs open. Do you have any suggestions for how to build on this work to make it more engaging or interactive?  [[User:HFan-WMF|HFan-WMF]] ([[User talk:HFan-WMF|talk]]) 23:49, 17 March 2026 (UTC)
:Great news, thanks. However, I'm more interested in the Recommended Reading List which can recommend articles one may be interested in based on these saved lists or on specified interests/articles-of-interest. Please get them to desktop too. See [[m:Community Wishlist/W505|Wish505: Show recommended articles on Wikipedia Main page on desktop & mobile web, not just in app]]. {{tq|and give us feedback on-wiki or…}} I'm using the saved reading list during distraction-free book-reading-like Wikipedia reading during commute or similar occasions where I save articles when there's something in it I'd like to look at later or select from articles saved earlier when it's an article I'm interested in reading but eg it's long and not of importance (ie not for editing or any immediate info-need and just for curiosity). Far more users use mobile Web than the app so they should be able to use this feature too if they'd like to. On desktop, it can be an alternative to watching articles. {{tq|Do you have any other ideas for reading lists based on this information}} I wonder whether some could be created dynamically based on some inputs like one's configured interests and a category. Enabling notes for these would be very useful too, [[m:Community Wishlist/W437|similar to watchlisted pages]]. [[User:Prototyperspective|Prototyperspective]] ([[User talk:Prototyperspective|talk]]) 00:09, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
::Excellent note, recommendations for articles to read based on what you’ve already saved is definitely something our team is interested in bringing to the web experience in the future. We’re also thinking about it as another way for editors to potentially organize articles for themselves, and for readers, as an easy entry point to starting to see Wikipedia as a place for participation. Readers are interested in collecting, organizing, and sharing information, so we see this work as a step toward providing that option to them. We’re starting with just “saving” articles for now, but we definitely envision a future where categories and interests can help shape the reading experience, allowing readers to feel a more personal connection to their reading. If reading lists could support recommendations, what kinds of signals would you want them to use: articles you’ve saved, categories, topics you follow, or something else? Also curious what the ideal experience would look like for you, like where you would want to see it and how often it should update? [[User:HFan-WMF|HFan-WMF]] ([[User talk:HFan-WMF|talk]]) 23:51, 17 March 2026 (UTC)
:::Thanks for the feedback. I think it would be best if articles saved would be used until the input for recommendations have been configured more explicitly by the user. As for using categories, see [[phab:T181157]] which is about exactly that. It would be great if articles and categories would be used for the recommendations. I don't know if there is a way for topics other than categories except for WikiProjects (their tags on articles' talk pages). As for what I think an ideal experience would be and how often I'd like them to update, see wish [[m:Community Wishlist/W506|W506]]. Basically in a feed that updates when, and only then, I open the feed page and scroll/swipe down. [[User:Prototyperspective|Prototyperspective]] ([[User talk:Prototyperspective|talk]]) 13:29, 18 March 2026 (UTC)