User talk:Risker
Add topic
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog
Stats for pending changes trial |
Notes
[edit]
WP:ARBAP2
{{subst:W-screen}} {{subst:Suppressed}}
Wikipedia:SPI/CLERK and Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/SPI/Indicators
Note to self: Consider writing an article about the Forster Family Dollhouse in the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Some day.
Listeria Bot Wikipedia:New_page_patrol_source_guide#Africa
| Emergency desysops |
|---|
| The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it. |
|
Other note to self re "emergency" desysops:
|
Please post below
[edit]
Request for Independent Review
[edit]Hi @Risker, I'm reaching out to request if you can independently review an ongoing global ban on my community members. I'm only reaching out neutrally on their behalf because I know that they are all different individual and not Sock puppets.
Here is where the discussion taking place and these three users - Chinemeremprince, Ozims Divine and Anumodu favour Amarachi are all different.
To the best of my knowledged Anumodu favour Amarachi has appealed for unblock but was declined. Also Ozims Divine has written the stewards (I don't know the outcome yet).
What I'm requesting for is that you support in reviewing or directing them on how to go about appealing for unblock as they have no access to request via Wiki for now. Lucy Iwuala (talk) 17:40, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
- Hello, Lucy, nice to see your name here, but unfortunate about the situation. I will take a look, but this will not be quick as the blocks are over a year old and it will take a while to sort things out. From the very first look, it appears that the users may have been working together at a single location for some sort of edit-a-thon related to a 1Lib1Ref campaign? A little background on how the accounts wound up in the same place at about the same time would be very helpful, if you have access to that information. Please let me be clear, I am not a steward and thus cannot lift a global ban or block by myself. At most, I can advocate limiting the block (e.g., reducing it from a global lock to a global block) so that it is possible for the users to provide explanations for the issues that brought their editing to the attention of CheckUsers and stewards. On a very surface level, it appears that they were adding poorly referenced or genuinely problematic content on more than one project, and that's pretty serious. Risker (talk) 00:01, 28 June 2026 (UTC)
- Thanks for responding @Risker
- For context, these users were participating in this in-person and images of the event are here which is why I think their IP were flagged and thought to be one person.
- Yes, I quite understand your not being a steward and that it will likely take time to resolve. However, I needed to invite an admin that will understand the circumstances of sharing same IP due to location for users coming from regions like Africa.
- As for their contribution, they have been explained better on the importance of contributing meaningfully.
- And yes, reducing it to global block will give them access to explain their circumstance to the Admins.
- Thank you Risker and nice to connect here with you - even though it's based on a difficult situation like this. Lucy Iwuala (talk) 00:23, 28 June 2026 (UTC)
- Hi @Risker, I understand you mentioned it will take some time.
- I'm just reaching out to also let you know that we still look forward to the response you might have for us.
- Thank you. Lucy Iwuala (talk) 14:05, 16 July 2026 (UTC)
- Hi Lucy. I have done some preliminary review on this, and will be at Wikimania in the near future. Sometimes it works best when one can talk with the people who are most knowledgeable about a situation over a refreshing beverage, face to face. I haven't forgotten this. Risker (talk) 07:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
- Hello @Risker and thanks for getting back to me.
- Sure, I look forward to the outcome of the discussion and wishing a safe flight to Wikimania - hopefully I get to meet you there as well as i will be attending. Lucy Iwuala (talk) 16:12, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
- Hi Lucy. I have done some preliminary review on this, and will be at Wikimania in the near future. Sometimes it works best when one can talk with the people who are most knowledgeable about a situation over a refreshing beverage, face to face. I haven't forgotten this. Risker (talk) 07:00, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
July 2026 Wikimedia Café meetups regarding Wikimedia governance and options for reform
[edit]
Hello! There will be two Wikimedia Café discussion opportunities in July. Both sessions will focus on Wikimedia governance, including possible follow-ups to the Movement Charter and options for reform. Participants may attend either or both Café sessions.
This month, to deconflict the Café meetups from Wikimania, the meetups will be held one day later than usual.
- 26 July 2026 15:00 UTC (timestamp converter), at a time friendly to the Americas, Africa, and Europe
- 27 July 2026 03:00 UTC (timestamp converter), at a time friendly to Asia and the Pacific
Please see the Café page for more information, including how to register!
Signpost help request
[edit]Hi. I submitted a signpost article here: Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Newsroom/Submissions#Why_Wiki_wouldn't_get_off_the_ground_today_and_why_it's_nosediving. Blueraspberry looked at it and asked I have a wiki friend look it over but I don't have any wiki friends, so I decided to ask you since your article is just above mine on that signpost page. If you don't mind, could you look it over and copyedit it? The actual draft is here: User:BlueRockThrush/Why Wiki wouldn't get off the ground today and why it's nosediving Thank you. BlueRockThrush (talk) 22:34, 13 July 2026 (UTC)
- Hi BlueRockThrush. I am literally about to get on a plane, and I am not sure that I will be in a position to help over the next two weeks. If you can find someone else to help you, that would be your best bet. The article topic is very interesting; I gave it a quick skim, and I think it is just the kind of topic that would work well for the Signpost. If you're still struggling to find some assistance in two weeks, ping me again and I will do what I can. Sorry to not be more help. Risker (talk) 14:30, 14 July 2026 (UTC)
Wikimedia Café message distribution
[edit]Hello! To continue receiving announcements about the Wikimedia Café on your user talk page, please add your preferred user subscription page(s) to meta:Global message delivery/Targets/Wikimedia Café. This change only affects user talk page deliveries, and hopefully you'll appreciate the customization options. If you don't subscribe a user page then you won't receive further bulk announcements regarding the Café on your user talk page, although you can always subscribe later.
Thanks! ↠Pine (✉) 23:56, 2 August 2026 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 14
[edit]
Special Wikimania issue
This is a special Wikimania issue of the Bulletin. We'll be back to our regular format in the next issue
- Wikimania Paris: Paris hosted Wikimania 2026 as Wikipedia celebrates 25 years of free knowledge. Catch up on missed sessions of Wikimania 2026 by checking session pages in the program.
- Meet the Wikimedians of the Year 2026: The beloved Wikimedian of The Year awards shine the light on exceptional individuals, and through them, on the whole Wikimedia community. Learn about all of this year's winners.
- Daily highlights from Wikimania:
- Public policy advocacy: Overview of Wikimania 2026 sessions about public policy advocacy. While not all sessions are recorded, you can watch some by clicking the session.
- Users with extended rights pre-conference: 190 users with extended rights from all around the world gathered at a Wikimania pre-conference, to exchange experiences, learn from each other and connect.
- Media coverage: The event was mentioned in many media outlets as part of wider coverage about the Wikimedia projects including in Le Monde, El Nacional and Radio France.
Annual Goals Progress on Engage
See also: Growth · Product Safety and Integrity · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · The Wikipedia Library · list of movement events · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia
- Improvement to Reading Lists: Community feedback around the placement of watchstar and watchlist buttons for the Reading Lists beta feature has been incorporated. 93% of participating users reported that it was useful. This feature allows saving articles for later reading – a wishlist item to bring the functionality to web.
- Creating custom edit suggestions: With the TextMatch feature, volunteers can now create custom local suggestions within the VisualEditor for improving Wikipedia articles. You can find examples from other communities for inspiration. Share your feedback.
- Dark mode for Content Translation: Content Translation now supports dark mode, fulfilling a Community Wishlist request. This brings the tool in line with the accessibility features available in the Vector 2022 and Minerva skins, helping reduce visual fatigue for users translating content.
- Mobile page preview: Based on the conclusion of the experiment, mobile page previews feature will not be rolled out. The experiment showed flat retention and negative indicator metrics, suggesting that mobile web readers preferred navigating directly to linked articles rather than using page previews.
- Scaling of Explore Feed to iOS: The Explore Feed Refresh initiative was tested with new and casual Wikipedia app readers. The refreshed feed helps readers discover new and relevant content. After a 10.5% increase in engagement with the feed, Home Feed redesign will be scaled to iOS by applying the learnings from the Android release.
- Improving Account Creation process: After running several Account Creation Experiments to improve registration completion rates, a new version of the username field on Create Account has been rolled out. Read more.
- Latest experiments: An ongoing experiment is testing to better guide Temporary Account users toward full account creation. See all live, upcoming, and completed experiments in Product & Technology.
- Tech News: The latest highlights from Tech News week 30 and 31 include that now wikis can restrict editing in the “User” namespace to only the page owner and certain user groups. See also the 50 community submitted tasks that were resolved over the last two weeks.
- New bot detection system for all wikis: After a successful trial, which showed evidence of both deterring bots and being easier to use, hCaptcha (our new bot detection system) has been rolled out to all wikis, for account creation, and for most newcomer edits.
Annual Goals Progress on Protect
See also: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Online age verification: Around the world, governments are adopting different approaches to online age verification. Learn more about it and how it is shaping our experiences online in a new three-part blog series: "What is it, a timeline of age-based restrictions, and why it matters", "What means what, how it's done, and balancing child rights and safety", and "Age-based restrictions, draft bills to watch, global complexity, and engaging with lawsuits".
Board and Board committee updates
See also: Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Affiliation Committees: Celebrating 20 Years of the Wikimedia Affiliations Committee.
Other updates
- Enterprise: How Wikimedia Enterprise protects Wikipedia in the AI era.
- Unionization: Wikimedia Foundation Statement on US unionization request.
Other Movement-curated newsletters & news
Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. If you have feedback or suggestions about the bulletin, let us know at foundationbulletin@wikimedia.org. For questions about the Wikimedia Foundation's work, contact us!
Hi, you protected this in 2010, thought it could be removed now? LibStar (talk) 05:05, 6 August 2026 (UTC)
- Hi there. Wow, sixteen years. I certainly hope we won't have the same issues after all this time. Thanks for drawing this to my attention. The protection has been lifted. Risker (talk) 05:21, 6 August 2026 (UTC)
BLP
[edit]Hi Risker. I read your comment. If the subject of the article does not want it to exist I am happy to blabkbthe page for deletion. I think the subject is fascinating and very notable for a variety of reasons not least of which are being one of Wikipedia's parent organization's original employees and a leader in its tech over lany many years. More recebtly they've been involved in the union organizing efforts and controversial staffing changes.
Whether they meet Wikipedia notability standards is an issue. They are already mentioned on the site in articles and their name is redirected to an article where they are briefly noted and quoted.
Draftspace is where I develop entries on subjects, and I do not predetermine an outcome and am always open to suggestions and fixes from those who have more expertise on a subject or access to better sources than I do.
Take care. Please let me know if there is anything else I should know or you'd like to suggest. I am happy to take any input into consideration. All the best. 01:08, 10 August 2026 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 15
[edit]
Highlights
- Improving Account Creation process: As part of Account Creation Experiments an improved account creation form has been released. The form now provides live username validation, a clearer username policy popover, and a reveal password button. We also removed redundant elements and jarring warning messages, improved the form's information hierarchy, and aligned the design with Codex design system guidelines.
- Create charts from your own data: The new ChartWizard makes the Chart extension more beginner-friendly by allowing editors to create charts, such as bar and pie charts, without needing to use JSON. The ChartWizard is now available on Wikimedia Commons. Feedback on the new tool is welcome on the wish talk page.
Annual Goals Progress on Engage
See also: Growth · Product Safety and Integrity · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · The Wikipedia Library · list of movement events · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia
- Worklist Feature Setup Workshop: Are you organizing or planning a Wikimedia editing event soon? Join one of these workshops (Aug 18 at 16:00 UTC and Aug 19 at 11:00 UTC) to set up the new worklist feature for your event. With this feature, organizers can list the specific articles their event will focus on, directly on the event page.
- Reading Lists to launch as full feature: The Reading Lists, a Community Wishlist item, will be launched in September as a full feature. Volunteer translator help is needed for string translations into a number of languages before the launch.
- Improving Commons' section headings: The table of contents on Wikimedia Commons file pages was improved to make it easier to understand a file page’s structure, navigate to specific sections, and share links to individual sections.
- From Abstract Wikipedia: An apple is a fruit and new experimental type: anonymous functions.
- Latest experiments: An upcoming experiment would test methods for email confirmation enforcement for new accounts to determine which approach is the most effective at driving email confirmation. See all live, upcoming, and completed experiments in Product & Technology.
- Tech News: The latest highlights from Tech News week 32 and 33 include that Category pages will soon support sorting entries by the time they are added to a category to make it easier to find recently or long-standing categorized pages. See also the 43 community submitted tasks that were resolved over the last two weeks.
Annual Goals Progress on Protect
See also: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Don't blink: Representing Wikimedia at the United Nations’ Open Source Week and other latest developments from around the world about protecting the Wikimedia model, its people and its values.
- Online Identity Verification: Anonymity is Important for Democracy and It’s Also at Risk.
Board and Board committee updates
See also: Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees: Reflections on Wikimania 2026.
Other updates
- Leadership: Wikimedia Foundation will welcome Rena Kokalari as new Chief People Officer from 1 September.
Other Movement-curated newsletters & news
Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. If you have feedback or suggestions about the bulletin, let us know at foundationbulletin@wikimedia.org. For questions about the Wikimedia Foundation's work, contact us!
New pages patrol September 2026 Backlog drive
[edit]| September 2026 Backlog Drive | New pages patrol |  |
| |
| You're receiving this message because you are a new page patroller. To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here. | |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:49, 24 August 2026 (UTC)
A barnstar for you!
[edit] |
The Original Barnstar |
| Thank you for answering the question that I recently posted on my talk page. Ajk1962f (talk) 06:56, 29 August 2026 (UTC) |
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 16
[edit]
Highlights
- Simplifying account creation: The Special:CreateAccount page has been simplified as part of ongoing work to modernize the account creation experience. Multiple account creation experiments show that a simpler form helps newcomers complete registration.
- Movement Ecosystem strategy: Deadline to provide feedback on the first version of the proposal are extended until Sep 30 to allow more time for community feedback and discussion.
- New format for the Community Wishlist: You can read the proposed ideas on Meta. This new process plans to improve how wishes are triaged, voted on, and prioritized in a way that is transparent and balanced across project families and language editions. Please let us know what you think will work well or if there are ways to make this proposal stronger. This consultation is open for two weeks.
Annual Goals Progress on Engage
See also: Growth · Product Safety and Integrity · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · The Wikipedia Library · list of movement events · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia
- Improving page performance: In order to improve page performance, images now load when they are viewed. This means images that are lower down within an article will not load if a reader never scrolls to that part of the page, which may affect some image-related metrics.
- Android Reading list updates: Some of the recent Android releases include updates to the Saved feature. This first round of changes on the Android app include redesigning the "Saved" tab to include an "All articles" view, and remove the user-facing default "Saved" reading list.
- Reading list on desktop: Reading lists has been released on Chinese, Bengali, Czech, and Vietnamese Wikipedias. The feature is now available for logged-in users on those wikis.
- Event Registration tool: The Worklist feature for the Event Registration tool is now live on all Wikimedia wikis. With Worklist, event organizers can add the articles their event will focus on directly to the event page. The Worklist also powers Event Pathways which notifies other editors of the upcoming or ongoing event when they edit an article featured in the event’s Worklist.
- Call for Projects and Mentors for Outreachy: Wikimedia is participating in Round 33 of the Outreachy program that runs from December 2026 through March 2027. The deadline to submit projects on Phabricator is Sept 4 at 4pm UTC and the project list will be finalized by Sep 11.
- Latest experiments: A current experiment is testing to introduce a new content type in Apps home. See all live, upcoming, and completed experiments in Product & Technology.
- Tech News: The latest highlights from Tech News week 34 and 35 include that a new Wikipedia in Bole has been created. See also the 58 community submitted tasks that were resolved over the last two weeks.
- UwER Conference: In December, the Wikimedia Portugal and Wikimedia Foundation will be hosting a first-of-its-kind convening for users with extended rights. Applications to attend opened August 13 and will close on September 4.
Annual Goals Progress on Enable
See also: Research newsletter · WikiLearn News · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Wikimedia Endowment: Updates from the July 2026 Wikimedia Endowment Board Meeting.
Annual Goals Progress on Protect
See also: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Don't Blink: The latest developments from around the world about protecting the Wikimedia model, its people and its values.
- Legal footer update: The Foundation had updated the Legal and Safety Contact Information on 300+ content wikis. The project adds a link to a Foundation-managed central page where people can find contact information to report illegal issues and serve official legal notices. This helps to resolve gaps if community-managed contact pages are missing or incomplete.
Annual Goals Progress on Reach
See also: Wikimedia Apps · Readers
- Collaboration: UNESCO and Wikimedia Movement deepen their partnership at Wikimania 2026.
- Digitization: Bringing Balinese Manuscripts to Wikimania 2026.
- Language related projects: Read some key highlights from the latest edition of the Language and internationalization newsletter.
Board and Board committee updates
See also: Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- AffCom: The Affiliations Committee is extending the pause on new affiliate recognition until the affiliate recognition and funding model is further clarified.
Other Movement-curated newsletters & news
Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. If you have feedback or suggestions about the bulletin, let us know at foundationbulletin@wikimedia.org. For questions about the Wikimedia Foundation's work, contact us!
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 17
[edit]
Highlights
- Data center switch: All wikis will be read-only for a few minutes on September 23 at 14:00 UTC as part of a scheduled switchover to allow for essential maintenance and improvements. A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes in advance.
- Baseline NPOV Policy: The public conversation regarding the proposed baseline NPOV policy for Wikipedias that do not yet have one has been concluded. Read the summary report and the updated baseline NPOV policy text and enforcement guidance here.
- Save the date. Wikimania 2027 will be taking place in Santiago, Chile, and online from August 18 to 21, with the theme "The Internet we want". See the Wikimania 2026 coverage highlights and a brief update on what's ahead.
- Chart extension is now beginner-friendly: Creating graphs and charts previously required manual JSON editing. In response to a Community wish to make the Charts extension more user-friendly, a new Visual mode for adding values has been introduced.
Annual Goals Progress on Engage
See also: Growth · Product Safety and Integrity · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · The Wikipedia Library · list of movement events · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia
- Introducing TextMatch: Communities are shaping Suggestion Mode with TextMatch to create custom suggestions that are tailored to their own policies and writing conventions. Share your feedback.
- Visual editor becoming default: Design work on the user experience for visual editing for newcomers is underway. This follows visual editor becoming default on English Wikipedia following a community discussion.
- Community Wishlist 2027 consultation: The consultation on the proposed new Wishlist process is closing this week. This year's cycle plans for wish submissions in late October/early November, triage completed by late November, and voting in early to mid January. Share feedback in any language on the talk page.
- Improved Add a Link feature: Add a Link has been upgraded for English Wikipedia users with improved detection of links that have different capitalization. This will help reduce ambiguous suggestions caused by differences in capitalization in article titles, including articles about cultural goods.
- Wikipedia Android app: Latest release includes updates to the Saved feature, bringing the app’s saving experience closer to iOS and Web. The update redesigns the Saved tab with an “All articles” view, removes the default “Saved” reading list, renames reading lists to “Collections,” and modernizes the article-saving experience.
- Domain change for thumbnails: The domain of URLs for thumbnails is changing from
upload.wikimedia.orgtothumb.wikimedia.org. The old URLs will continue to work but MediaWiki will advertise the new domain instead. Original files, videos, and transcodes will still be served fromupload.wikimedia.org. - Reading lists rollout continues on desktop: Following the initial deployment to Bengali, Chinese, Czech, and Vietnamese Wikipedias, reading lists went live on Arabic, French, and Indonesian Wikipedias and will go live on English Wikipedia on Sep 14, with all remaining wikis following on Sep 28.
- New features of Pageviews Analysis: Several new features have been added to the Pageviews Analysis tool which allows users to compare pageviews across multiple pages. They include WikiNav which provides insights into how readers of Wikipedia explore the content, editing stats in Siteviews, the ability to lookup articles belonging to a WikiProject, and support for dark mode.
- Article guidance: As part of an A/B experiment, Article guidance is now available in Turkish and Simple English.
- Latest experiments: A current experiment for logged-out mobile readers on Bengali, Czech, English, Farsi, and Polish Wikipedias is testing whether simplifying the Minerva navigation bar improves reader retention. See all live, upcoming, and completed experiments in Product & Technology.
- Wikifunctions status updates: Thanks to all contributors, Wikifunctions has now reached 5,000 functions.
- Latest highlights from Tech News: Weeks 36 and 37 of Tech News include the Article guidance feature is now enabled by default for editors with less than 100 edits on Simple English and Turkish Wikipedia.
Annual Goals Progress on Enable
See also: Research newsletter · WikiLearn News · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Affiliates and grant funding: Have your say on proposals establishing (1) a new model and set of expectations for movement affiliates; (2) new, connected requirements to determine eligibility for receiving Community Fund grants from the Wikimedia Foundation; and (3) updated criteria for affiliate recognition processes.
- Community Fund reflections: Read the reflections on the fiscal year 2025–2026 of the Rapid Fund and General Support Fund, covering $17.73 million across 427 grants in 90 countries, with 56.2% distributed outside North America and Northern & Western Europe.
Annual Goals Progress on Reach
See also: Wikimedia Apps · Readers
- World of Wikipedia launches: The World of Wikipedia game has been released. It is an online collectible card game where players sort fact from fiction across Wikipedia articles to build their card library. The game is the latest experiment in reaching younger audiences through familiar formats, following Wikispeedia on Roblox and Which Came First? on the Wikipedia app.
Other updates
See also: Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Celebrate Women 2026: Read the impact of Celebrate Women 2026 as the campaign concluded with 112 events, 238,222 unreverted content edits and 2,499,773,577 bytes added.
- US staff union vote: On Sep 3, eligible Wikimedia Foundation staff in the United States voted in favor of union representation in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election.
Other Movement-curated newsletters & news
Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. If you have feedback or suggestions about the bulletin, let us know at foundationbulletin@wikimedia.org. For questions about the Wikimedia Foundation's work, contact us!
Hello, I think the page might be safe for now, there hasn't been enough vandalism for indef protection. The vandals might not return for a long time and the only known times I know this was vandalised was on 20th and 21 May. Could the protection be removed or could pending changes work instead? Love my dreams (talk) 03:32, 29 September 2026 (UTC)
- Hello there. While it may be worthwhile to look at shortening the length of the indefinite protection at some time in the future, the protection was added because certain edits needed to be suppressed after several related inappropriate edits that were just below the suppression threshold. Pending changes would not be apppropriate given those circumstances. I normally review my "indefinite" protections about once every six to eight months and consider whether the circumstances have changed sufficiently. School articles in particular are prone to BLP violations and "outing" or publishing of personal information about under-age students, which is why many of them wind up being under some level of protection for extended periods. I hope this helps. Risker (talk) 03:47, 29 September 2026 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 18
[edit]
Highlights
- Introducing the Wikipedia Starter Kit: The Foundation has launched a new Toolforge-hosted tool giving new and small language Wikipedia communities a guided pathway through essential onboarding tasks, activity indicators, and connections to the wider movement.
- Apply for a scholarship to Wikimania 2027: Scholarship applications are now open to attend Wikimania 2027 in Santiago. To help with preparing submissions, orientation sessions in Spanish, Portuguese, and English will be held starting the week of October 5. The final deadline is October 31.
- Reading Lists rolling out to all Wikipedias: Starting September 28, logged-in users on every Wikipedia will be able to save articles to a "read later" list using the bookmark icon, following successful rollouts on Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Czech, English, French, Indonesian, and Vietnamese Wikipedias.
- WikiCelebrate: WikiCelebrating Juan "BugWarp" Kulichevsky, who has contributed to Wikimedia projects since childhood and is passionate about sports photography and community building in Argentina and beyond.
- The 2026 appointment cycle is open now through 31 October 2026 for the Ombuds Commission (OC) and the Case Review Committee (CRC). You can learn more about the committees, the roles, and how to apply on the Committee Appointments page on Meta-wiki.
Annual Goals Progress on Engage
See also: Growth · Product Safety and Integrity · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · The Wikipedia Library · list of movement events · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia
- Community Wishlist 2027: The Community Wishlist Process is now updated, taking into account the feedback received. Look out for the call for wish submissions towards the end of October.
- Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2026: From Sep 18-20, Wikimedians, open-knowledge researchers, and free-culture advocates from Central and Eastern Europe gathered for the first time in Romania. Take a look at the novelties and history behind CEE Meeting.
- Increasing account creation: To convert more casual users into logged-in daily users, the evergreen account creation prompt is released into Beta / TestFlight for iOS and Android. Also, a new post-edit notice designed to encourage Temporary Account holders to register for a permanent account will now be released to all wikis. The new notice has proven to increase permanent account creation from 1.94% to 3.66%.
- VisualEditor is now the default at English Wikipedia: this wiki has now adopted VisualEditor as the default editor on both desktop and mobile web, following a sitewide discussion that found overwhelming consensus to make the change.
- Retesting image carousel: The image carousel experiment will be retested using three new versions of the design, updated based on community feedback. The team will assess results and determine with communities whether or not to proceed with the feature.
- Wikifunctions: Your code can now call back to the Wikidata fetch functions. Wikifunctions have deployed an initial capability by which a code Implementation (in JavaScript or Python) can call certain other Wikifunctions Functions, get back the result, and have it available for further processing.
- Latest experiments: A current experiment is testing whether offering a "generic guidance" path for Article Guidance that does not depend on a Wikidata match would increase the chances of more article creation attempts. See all live, upcoming, and completed experiments in Product & Technology.
- Tech News: The latest highlights from Tech News weeks 38 and 39 include a Reader Growth experiment testing whether showing only part of an article at first on mobile, with a “Read more” button to reveal the rest, encourages people to keep reading. See also the 56 community-submitted tasks that were resolved over the last two weeks.
- Suggestions for Transliterated Search: If you regularly use two different writing systems (such as Hindi and Latin alphabet), sometimes you accidentally type with the wrong one and need to switch to the right keyboard. Now, this gadget will be able to suggest query based on what you typed.
- Peer-to-peer learning program: Let’s Connect, a peer-to-peer learning program is shifting to a community-organized model.
- LLM Paste Check rolling out to Wikipedia: A new Edit Check will prompt editors who paste text likely copied from an external AI chatbot to consider whether it aligns with movement AI-use policies and decide whether to keep or remove it. It goes live as a default-on feature at English Wikipedia on Sep 24 and at all Wikipedias on Oct 8.
Annual Goals Progress on Enable
See also: Research newsletter · WikiLearn News · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Wikidata bulk downloads now free via Wikimedia Enterprise: New beta API endpoints let anyone download full Wikidata snapshots and pull hourly batch diffs at no cost, opening up bulk access that previously required a paid tier.
- Accountability for Wikimedia production services: To ensure clear accountability for responding to incidents in Wikimedia production services, Wikimedia Foundation published the Service Catalog page. The page is the canonical source of service ownership for code deployed to the Wikimedia Foundation cluster. See also FAQ pages which contain more background details.
- Datacenter switchover has been postponed: The equinox exercise revealed capacity issues, preventing the switch of all services to the other datacenter. The process has been paused, prioritizing investigating that issue, to ensure that we continue to be able to serve our users reliably. A new exercise will be scheduled. Meanwhile, all traffic and edits continue to work as usual.
- Affiliates and grant funding: The conversations on the new proposed model, requirements and criteria continues until the end of next week with public calls on 1) Tuesday, September 29, 16:00-17:00 UTC on affiliate growth paths and Friday, October 2nd, 17:00-18:00 UTC on affiliate overlaps.
Annual Goals Progress on Reach
See also: Wikimedia Apps · Readers
- AI literacy program: A new regional initiative in ASEAN was launched to support training and conversations around AI literacy, accountability, and Indigenous self-determination.
- Testing Google preferred sources: An experiment is proposed on English Wikipedia to run a temporary (2-week) notice asking readers who come from Google to set Wikipedia as a “preferred source” in Google. We would see if this causes people who use Google to visit Wikipedia more. If your language wiki is interested, please reach out on the project's talk page.
Other Movement-curated newsletters & news
Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · The Headword (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. If you have feedback or suggestions about the bulletin, let us know at foundationbulletin@wikimedia.org. For questions about the Wikimedia Foundation's work, contact us!
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 19
[edit]
Highlights
- Community Wishlist: Community Wishlist is looking for volunteers to join their working group. You can find details on the goal of the group, roles and expectations, norms we'll follow, and how to sign up on this Meta-Wiki page.
- Human knowledge at stake: Wikimedia Foundation makes the case for human knowledge at the UN General Assembly and how scrapers are straining our infrastructure and the larger human knowledge ecosystem online.
- Joy of contributing: How a simple thanks fuelled one of our Wikimedians of the Year as they connect the community.
- PTAC technical topics: The Product and Technology Advisory Council calls for the community to suggest topics that it should consider and discuss with the Wikimedia Foundation. Submit your topic on the council’s talk page.
- Wikimania scholarship deadline extended: The deadline for Wikimania 2027 scholarship applications has been extended through the end of day on November 4, 2026 (Anywhere on Earth). This is to compensate for a pause in the application window on October 15, 2026 from 1pm to 6pm UTC, to allow for an upgrade to the LimeSurvey platform.
Annual Goals Progress on Engage
See also: Growth · Product Safety and Integrity · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · The Wikipedia Library · list of movement events · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia
- OpenAI agent activities on Wikimedia projects: The Wikimedia Foundation have discovered some activity by “rogue” OpenAI agents on Wikimedia platforms. These unauthorized bot activities included edits to our wikis, some unsuccessful attempts to exploit a public note-taking tool we host, and heavy traffic.
- Listening to Wikipedia: The Phase 1 experiment for Listening to Article intros within the Android app’s “For you” feed has been released into the Wikipedia Beta App. This experiment tests whether adding a listening format into the "For you" feed has the potential to deliver improvements in reader retention.
- Wikimedia Hackathon: The 2027 Wikimedia Hackathon will be taking place in person April 9-11, 2027 in Tirana, Albania. Scholarship applications are open until October 30.
- Bookmark button on mobile web: Logged-out Wikipedia users on mobile web will begin to see a bookmark button for saving articles to their reading lists instead of the current Watchstar button. When clicked, the bookmark button prompts users to log in or create an account to save an article for later, to encourage more readers to become account holders.
- Abstract Wikipedia piloting showing articles to readers: Three initial pilot communities are currently working with the team to explore using abstract articles on their Wikipedias: Malayalam, Dagbani, and Igbo.
- Simplifying account creation: An experiment has begun on Spanish, Arabic, English, and French Wikipedias to simplify the experience users encounter immediately after account creation. The test will explore whether removing friction from the current Welcome Survey helps new users understand what to do next more easily.
- Suggestions mode: It is now possible for communities to configure Edit Checks and Suggestions so that they are shown within additional namespaces, such as a
Draft:namespace. Feedback is welcome. - Latest experiments: An upcoming experiment is testing a personalised module, called 'Review Changes', for Home which aims to introduce newer editors to the concept of reviewing the edits that other users are making. See all live, upcoming, and completed experiments in Product & Technology.
- Tech News: The latest highlights from Tech News weeks 40 and 41 include users of default skins on desktop and mobile web will now be informed if the search results displayed come from page redirects. See also the 20 community-submitted tasks that were resolved over the last two weeks.
Annual Goals Progress on Enable
See also: Research newsletter · WikiLearn News · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Wikimedia Enterprise: Mantic Uses Wikimedia Enterprise to Power AI Forecasting.
- Improving developers experience: Two new features has been shipped to improve developer experience: Spiderpig (deployment web interface) which allows developers to leave notes for each other about errors they see in the logs and Patchdemo, which now supports in-browser code editing, so developers can make quick changes without needing to push a new patch and recreate the demo.
- Strengthening infrastructure: To reduce the workload from non-pageview requests, the overall number of database queries per logged-out pageview has been reduced by 52%, from a baseline of 23 queries/pageview in August, to 11 queries/pageview today. Read more.
- Increasing test reliability: To reduce friction in post-merge validation and ultimately improve confidence in release decisions: Catalyst was proven to be a much more reliable environment to run daily Selenium tests (95.7% eventually green) compared with the beta cluster (79.1% over the same 10 suites). This gives confidence to automatically catch issues before they reach production.
Annual Goals Progress on Protect
See also: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Transparency Report: The latest Transparency Report has been published. Out of 953 requests for content alteration and takedown, only 2 requests were granted. The Foundation continues to prioritize the public interest and is guided by the content moderation policies the volunteer community has shaped over the past 25 years.
Annual Goals Progress on Reach
See also: Wikimedia Apps · Readers
- Grantmaking: Two reflections on transferring ownership of Rapid Funds to Wikimedia organizations.
Board and Board committee updates
See also: Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Affiliations Committee: Wikimedia Affiliations Committee Has New Officers and Advisors. Read also the latest issue of the AffCom News to learn more about their work.
- Governance committees looking for volunteers: Ombuds Commission (OC) and Case Review Committee (CRC) welcome new volunteers to contribute to important work across the Wikimedia ecosystem. Applications will open until October 31. Learn more about the committees, the roles, and how to apply on the Metapage.
- Board of Trustees Elections Process: The Board has reviewed the feedback received since July on its elections process proposal, and thanks everyone who shared input on Wiki, in person, or directly with Trustees. Based on that feedback, the Governance Committee has moved away from the eligibility criteria approach and developed two new options for the 2027 selection process and beyond. We'd like your feedback again before deciding. Please read the proposal and share your feedback on the Meta-Wiki talk page by October 27.
Other Movement-curated newsletters & news
Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · The Headword (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. If you have feedback or suggestions about the bulletin, let us know at foundationbulletin@wikimedia.org. For questions about the Wikimedia Foundation's work, contact us!
