Wikipedia:Mentorship

Mentorship on Wikipedia is a program of the Wikimedia Growth Team that automatically assigns a mentor to each new editor. Mentors are experienced Wikipedia editors who volunteer to answer new users' questions about editing Wikipedia.

Mentors are a key factor in order to onboard new users and encourage them to edit Wikipedia. Newcomers are made aware of their mentor at the Newcomer's homepage. Mentors know who they mentor at the mentor dashboard. Since February 2025, 100% of new accounts have the mentorship feature.

Questions if you are a newcomer

Who is my mentor?

You can find out who your mentor is and view a brief introduction in section § Your mentor on your User homepage.

How do I ask my mentor a question?

On your homepage, look for the module labeled "Your mentor" and click "Ask your mentor a question about editing".

My mentor hasn't answered my question for a few days. What should I do?

Mentors do their best to answer question in a timely manner, but sometimes questions don't get answered for one reason or another. You can ask questions at the Teahouse, which can get faster answers as there are many experienced editors there answering questions.

What if I don't want a mentor?

You can opt out of mentorship by going to your homepage and clicking the three dots at the top of the mentorship module. Then select "Opt out of mentorship". You will be able to opt in again later, but you might end up with a different mentor.

How can I get a different mentor?

You can get a different mentor by opting out of mentorship as § described above, then re-opting back in. If you have a specific mentor in mind, you can also ask them on their talk page to claim you as their mentee.

What if I can't see my homepage?

If your homepage is not visible, go to the User Profile tab of your preferences, scroll down to Newcomer editor features, and click the checkbox to enable "Display newcomer homepage" and save the changes. This will enable the homepage as a link next to your User page and Talk at the top of your screen. You can disable the homepage at the same location by unchecking the box.

How can I request a mentor?

All accounts, regardless of account age, are assigned a mentor unless they have opted out of the program. To find yours, you can visit your homepage (or see the instructions above if it is not visible). If you have opted out of mentorship, you should be able to opt back in at that mentorship module, at which point you will be assigned a mentor.

Questions about being a mentor

Where can I sign up?

You can visit Special:MentorDashboard or Special:EnrollAsMentor to signup. The mentor list describes more of the details of mentorship.

How should I interact with newcomers?

Please check the resources available at best practices, and then introduce yourself as a mentor.

How do I introduce myself?

When you sign up to become a mentor, you are asked to explain to newcomers how you can help them. If you don't write this description, then a placeholder is used: "This experienced user knows you're new and can help you with editing." Admins can edit your description using Special:ManageMentors.

What kind of volume should I expect?

Mentors are randomly assigned to multiple newcomers, but not all of them contact their mentor. On average, a mentor receives between 0 to 6 questions each week from newcomers.

How do I pause my mentorship activity?

You can go to Special:MentorDashboard and pause your activity. You can define a duration for your pause. You can return as active or shorten or extend this duration anytime. No new newcomer will be assigned to you. Newcomers already assigned to you will be informed of you being away. They will have a different mentor name to contact. However, newcomers who had already started a conversation with you, or contact you by directly visiting your user talk page, may still leave you a message. If you plan to be off for more than a few weeks, please consider quitting mentorship instead (and returning!).

How do I quit mentorship?

You can go to Special:QuitMentorship and quit from there. This link is accessible from your MentorDashboard.

How can I select mentees, instead of having them randomly assigned to me?

Any mentor listed can be assigned to any new account. However, some event mentors would prefer to only have event participants assigned to them. You can go to Special:MentorDashboard and select "None (I claim them manually)" in the "Number of mentees assigned to me" menu. No new mentee will be assigned to you, but you can still claim mentees. Please note: this feature has been implemented for workshop hosts or campaigns organizers. We expect regular mentors not to use it, as it would change the number of mentors assigned to mentees.

Can I change the number of newcomers assigned to me?

On the MentorDashboard, you can increase or lower the number of newcomers assigned to you.

This setting will increase or decrease the number of new accounts assigned to you. However, we can't predict the volume of questions from assigned users. You might increase the number of newcomers assigned to you, and not end up getting many questions. Conversely, you might lower the number of newcomers and be randomly assigned newcomers who have lots of questions.

Management

How can I reassign a newcomer to a different mentor?

Any mentor can claim a mentee from another mentor, using Special:ClaimMentee. The process is different if you want to reassign all your mentees, or reassign all mentor's mentees.

How can I display the mentor of a given user?

Type the magic word {{#mentor:Foo}} in a wikitext page, replacing "Foo" by the username, and preview. This will display the name of User:Foo's mentor. This magic word can be used in a template: welcome message, user talk page messages, userbox, etc. If the mentor changes, then the magic word picks the new mentor's name.

You can "subst:" this message if needed: {{subst:#mentor:Foo}}. User:Foo's mentor will then be saved as wikitext.