English Wikipedia has templates like {{Retired}}, where if an editor uses it it might make sense to mark them as inactive.

In T321509#10924829, @Sdkb wrote:

English Wikipedia has templates like {{Retired}}, where if an editor uses it it might make sense to mark them as inactive.

That would be T370985

Another idea that came up at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Growth_Team_features#Mentor_inactivity_threshold is checking whether they've been answering questions.

In T321509#11134156, @Pppery wrote:

Another idea that came up at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Growth_Team_features#Mentor_inactivity_threshold is checking whether they've been answering questions.

Thanks, I agree that's what we ultimately care about: are Mentors failing to respond to questions and failing to support the mentees assigned to them. From a technical perspective, I imagine checking specific talk page message responses is more challenging (and prone to error) than just checking a "last active" timestamp, but we can consider it when we have time to address this.

I had hoped we could address this during the recent sprint focused on Mentorship tasks, but we weren’t able to complete it then. I'll see if we can find a way to squeeze in this work soon.

Arabic Wikipedia: community decided 14 days of inactivity to remove mentors.

checking specific talk page message responses

Edge case to consider: Sometimes mentee messages are spammy or off-topic enough that even a good Mentor might reasonably decide to not respond.
Example discussion on enwiki: Question_regarding_mentee_questions.

Noting that this request is coming up again:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Growth_Team_features#%22Mentorship_panel_question%22_edits_on_the_talk_page_of_an_absent_user

Growth team engineers discussed in backlog refinement.
Discussed setting a weekly job to check for this.
We will move to estimation, and try to get this prioritized.

We discussed this during estimation. There are many areas that are not clearly defined: for example, should the thresholds have a minimum value (e.g., at least 20 days), or should any number be allowed? We also discussed whether notifications would be required. We decided to go ahead with let's get what we can now within 5 storypoints and iterate/improve later on.

It seems to me that this simple request has been dragging on for 3 years. Why is it taking so long?

@Kudpung: See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Bug_management/Development_prioritization

In T321509#8367133, @Tkarcher wrote:

3. Add a column in Special:ManageMentors indicating whether this mentor is currently flagged as absent or not.

I like the idea, but I wonder instead of a boolean, we could make this a 'return date' column instead, with blank meaning not away. A column header 'Away<br/>until' should be self-explanatory, and we could default to dd-mm values and allow mm-dd if Preferences > Date format option 2 is selected. Year would be obvious in context if the max away period is 30 days (or even longer periods up to a year).

Would probably need specifics to investigate this (wiki, mentor username, mentee username, date this happened). Please consider providing that info if you're comfortable. Each wiki has different settings... perhaps this wiki's settings need adjusting.

@Novem Linguae. I don't think I want to enter a naming-and-shaming exercise, but the screenshot is genuine. (around March this year, en.Wiki)

In T321509#11881665, @Kudpung wrote:

Is there no vetting process or threshold for mentors? Are they accorded the mentorship right on simple request? Who allocates the mentors? Who sets these criteria?

The Mentorship system is designed to be community-configurable, which means each wiki can define its own criteria and level of oversight.

For example, on English Wikipedia, admins can set minimum requirements such as account age and edit count through the configuration page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CommunityConfiguration/Mentorship

There is also a setting that determines how mentors are enrolled. By default, editors who meet the eligibility criteria can enroll automatically. However, communities can disable this option. If they do, mentors must be explicitly added by an admin via Special:ManageMentors, allowing for a more curated or vetted process.

In practice, most wikis rely on the automatic eligibility model because it reduces admin overhead. Instead of pre-vetting all mentors, admins can remove mentors if they are not a good fit.

This task aims to reduce this ongoing manual oversight by automatically removing mentors who are inactive. It is important to note that this type of automation can address inactivity, but it cannot reliably identify or remove mentors who are ineffective, as that would be much harder (and likely problematic) to attempt to address programmatically.

In T321509#11882195, @KStoller-WMF wrote:

. . .
This task aims to reduce this ongoing manual oversight by automatically removing mentors who are inactive. It is important to note that this type of automation can address inactivity, but it cannot reliably identify or remove mentors who are ineffective, as that would be much harder (and likely problematic) to attempt to address programmatically.

The ability to make those hard decisions still requires a discerning, human eye to assess and deal with them manually. What neither the current system nor the proposed automated system to cull mentors provides, is the ability to provide admins with the information they need about mentor status and activity in order to make those decisions when warranted.

To support admins in this role, imho we need a Mentor Status Dashboard to provide that information. See T425232.

Change #1286825 had a related patch set uploaded (by Urbanecm; author: Urbanecm):

[mediawiki/extensions/GrowthExperiments@master] refactor(Mentorship): Narrow the interface for MentorRemover

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1286825

Change #1286826 had a related patch set uploaded (by Urbanecm; author: Urbanecm):

[mediawiki/extensions/GrowthExperiments@master] Create a maintenance script to automatically clean the mentor list

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1286826

Change #1286967 had a related patch set uploaded (by Urbanecm; author: Urbanecm):

[mediawiki/extensions/GrowthExperiments@master] refactor: Move mentor status logic change to the writer

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1286967

Change #1286825 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/GrowthExperiments@master] refactor(Mentorship): Narrow the interface for MentorRemover

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1286825

Change #1286967 abandoned by Urbanecm:

[mediawiki/extensions/GrowthExperiments@master] refactor: Move mentor status logic change to the writer

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1286967

Change #1286826 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/GrowthExperiments@master] Create a maintenance script to automatically clean the mentor list

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1286826

@DMburugu FYI ux copy is still in flux - related slack thread

Moving back to Needs Work as it awaits a second patch with new UX copy

In T321509#11948662, @DMburugu wrote:

Moving back to Needs Work as it awaits a second patch with new UX copy

I moved this to T427475. I'm repurposing this task as an Epic, given it will connect more similar tasks (that would be easier to track separately).

For Tech News:

Mentorship is most effective when active experienced users act as mentors. To support the community's efforts in curating the mentor list, the Growth team [[mw:Help:Growth/Mentorship#Automated_mentor_list_cleanup|made it possible to remove inactive users automatically]]. Inactivity is determined by edits made (users who log in periodically, but don't edit, will be considered inactive). Administrators may enable this feature via Community configuration using the Mentorship configuration section. [https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T321509]

In T321509#12010264, @Trizek-WMF wrote:

For Tech News:

Mentorship is most effective when active experienced users act as mentors. To support the community's efforts in curating the mentor list, the Growth team [[mw:Help:Growth/Mentorship#Automated_mentor_list_cleanup|made it possible to remove inactive users automatically]]. Inactivity is determined by edits made (users who log in periodically, but don't edit, will be considered inactive). Administrators may enable this feature via Community configuration using the Mentorship configuration section. [https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T321509]

@Trizek-WMF I am guessing this is not ready to be announced.

In T321509#12012962, @UOzurumba wrote:

@Trizek-WMF I am guessing this is not ready to be announced.

Yes. We will check on how it works at one or two wikis first.