User talk:NoSeptember

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This user is an administrator. My Admin Policy: I trust that my fellow admins' actions are done for the good of Wikipedia. So if any of my admin actions are overturned I will not consider such an action to be a "Wheel War", but rather an attempt to improve Wikipedia. If I disagree with your action, I will try to discuss it with you or with the admin community, but I absolve you in advance of any presumption of acting improperly. We should all extend the same benefit of the doubt to our fellow admins, until they repeatedly prove that they are unworthy of such a presumption.    This user has been a wikipedian for 20 years, 3 months and 19 days.    This user has been an administrator for 19 years, 6 months and 18 days. My current Wikipedia status: Busy may be absent for several days at a time and only moderately active when online.        The NoSeptember Admin Project Links to my admin pages and those of other users. ———————— NoSeptember (t · c · b · p · d · m · r) • A • H • N On: Meta, Commons, Source, German, Test, Wiktionary, Wikinews ———————— Historique des changements de statut Amministratori/Candidati/Elezioni The 2001 Archives... The 2002 Archives... The 2003 Archives... The 2004 Archives... The 2005 Archives... The 2006 Archives... The 2007 Archives... The 2008 Archives... The 2009 Archives... The 2010 Archives... Barnstars and Awards

Happy NoSeptember's Day!

User:NoSeptember has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian, and therefore, I've officially declared today as NoSeptember's day! For being such a beautiful person and great Wikipedian, enjoy being the Star of the day, dear NoSeptember! Peace, Rlevse 00:15, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply] A record of your Day will always be kept here.

For a userbox you can add to your userbox page, see User:Rlevse/Today/Happy Me Day! and my own userpage for a sample of how to use it. — Rlevse • Talk • 00:15, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much. I only wish I had the time to be more active right now. NoSeptember 20:42, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

WikiProject Administrator

Hey there. Hope you don't mind, I added your User:NoSeptember/The NoSeptember Admin Project page as a link from Wikipedia:WikiProject Administrator. This will give it wider exposure. Regards, œ^™ 18:56, 4 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That is fine, although many of the pages are a bit out of date - but anyone who wishes to can bring them up to date. Thanks, NoSeptember 20:42, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

/crat stats

Hi,

I was looking at the above page and would be curious to get the same for fr:. Did you run your own script, or do you know of one that is freely available on the toolserver?

Rgds, Popo le Chien ^{throw a bone} 08:18, 9 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I am not aware of any scripts available for this page. NoSeptember 13:50, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Bummer. Popo le Chien ^{throw a bone} 10:43, 10 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Recent bold edits to $1

Would you care to chime in on this discussion? YBG (talk) 06:28, 30 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jargon of The Rush Limbaugh Show (4th nomination)

You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jargon of The Rush Limbaugh Show (4th nomination). patsw (talk) 04:34, 6 April 2010 (UTC) (Using {{Please see}}) You voted on one of the earlier AFD's, are still active, and have a high edit count. patsw (talk) 04:34, 6 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

Wishing NoSeptember a very happy adminship anniversary on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Logan Talk ^Contributions 02:21, 22 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your adminship anniversary greeting. NoSeptember 21:39, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

question of admin data

Hi, NoSeptember,

Thanks for reading. I have found the project of admin made by you about graphs and some data. For my research, I want the list of admin in en.wikipedia with promotion and retired date. Do you know where I can get such data from? thanks very much!Zeyi (talk) 13:47, 22 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Happy First Edit Day

Happy First Edit Day, NoSeptember, from the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Have a great day! Armbrust ^Talk to me Contribs 01:47, 21 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your First Edit Day anniversary greeting. 6 years and counting :-) NoSeptember 09:57, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

User:NoSeptember/Desysop

Hi there! I spotted a small error in a link on this page and corrected it (diff) - thought it would be easiest to fix it myself - hope you don't mind. Regards. Mato (talk) 13:06, 9 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I appreciate any updates on these pages, even though sadly they are now several years out of date. Cheers, NoSeptember 22:34, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

User:SebastianHelm/Sheep vote

Just so you know, I deleted User:SebastianHelm/Sheep vote because it doesn't represent my view anymore. However, some of your userspace pages still link there; so, if you (or any of the many people who worked on this while it was in project space) want it in your userspace, please feel free to restore it. — Sebastian 08:06, 7 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the note. We all change our opinions as we go along, I'm sure that some of the things I have written and placed in my Admin project no longer represent my current views. I leave them because they still represent the historical views I had, and may agree with someone else's current views. It is something for anyone to read over and ponder, and either agree or disagree with as they choose. NoSeptember 21:30, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

MSU Interview

Dear NoSeptember,

My name is Jonathan Obar user:Jaobar, I'm a professor in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University and a Teaching Fellow with the Wikimedia Foundation's Education Program. This semester I've been running a little experiment at MSU, a class where we teach students about becoming Wikipedia administrators. Not a lot is known about your community, and our students (who are fascinated by wiki-culture by the way!) want to learn how you do what you do, and why you do it. A while back I proposed this idea (the class) to the communityHERE, where it was met mainly with positive feedback. Anyhow, I'd like my students to speak with a few administrators to get a sense of admin experiences, training, motivations, likes, dislikes, etc. We were wondering if you'd be interested in speaking with one of our students.

So a few things about the interviews:

• Interviews will last between 15 and 30 minutes.
• Interviews can be conducted over skype (preferred), IRC or email. (You choose the form of communication based upon your comfort level, time, etc.)
• All interviews will be completely anonymous, meaning that you (real name and/or pseudonym) will never be identified in any of our materials, unless you give the interviewer permission to do so.
• All interviews will be completely voluntary. You are under no obligation to say yes to an interview, and can say no and stop or leave the interview at any time.
• The entire interview process is being overseen by MSU's institutional review board (ethics review). This means that all questions have been approved by the university and all students have been trained how to conduct interviews ethically and properly.

Bottom line is that we really need your help, and would really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. If interested, please send me an email at [e-mail] (to maintain anonymity) and I will add your name to my offline contact list. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can post your nameHERE instead.

If you have questions or concerns at any time, feel free to email me at [e-mail]. I will be more than happy to speak with you.

Thanks in advance for your help. We have a lot to learn from you.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Obar --Jaobar (talk) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.11.206.39 (talk) 03:37, 21 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

RfA voting records

Hey NoSeptember, I'm pretty sure we haven't met before, but I was just updating your RfA voting records subpage (hope you don't mind) and I started wondering if it'd be a good idea to move some of its content into Wikipedia space under the same page name. I figured I should post here before doing anything, just to make sure you're OK with it. Kurtis (talk) 05:15, 23 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have no problem at all with the moving of the RfA voting records subpage or a portion thereof. Many of the pages in The NoSeptember Admin Project are years out of date because I was the primary updater of the pages. A page that has been brought up to date is certainly a good candidate for a move, but if the page gets out of date again, it should be moved back to my user space, since sooner or later someone will decide to mark the page as "historical" or delete it otherwise. You are somewhat taking on a commitment to keep the page updated to the extent others don't come along to help with this task. I know other editors did that for several years after I stopped work on this page, but I also note that in the three years before you started your 2012 edits there were only two edits to the page. Look through the others pages in the project to see if they are of interest to you too. Many pages are out of date but are still a good record of the early years of Wikipedia history. Cheers and Good Luck, NoSeptember 14:16, 24 August 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for your thorough response, I appreciate it. I've been very familiar with your admin project for some time now, and felt compelled to update it when I saw that very few pages have been added since that time. I think it is helpful for us to maintain a record of such things for easy reference should the need arise; I'm also planning on reworking the chronological unsuccessful candidacies pages so that they will also list the final tallies and the person who closed any given RfA. Kurtis (talk) 14:22, 24 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Name dropping?

I just namepage dropped you on MBisanz's talk page. All good. Hope you're well. --Dweller (talk) 16:50, 20 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the information. link link link NoSeptember 16:51, 26 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

	Happy Adminship	from the Birthday Committee
	Wishing NoSeptember a very happy adminship anniversary on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! -- Pratyya ^(Hello!) 13:58, 22 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. A lucky seven years... NoSeptember 17:36, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Admin's barnstar.

		The Admin's Barnstar
		A tear of pride rolls down my cheek when I see the people I nominated for adminship over half a decade ago keeping up the good work. Cheers! bd2412 T 21:28, 8 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

• Thank you, though I'm not nearly as active as I'd like to be. You OTOH are still incredibly active after all these years. Wow. NoSeptember 06:27, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Oral History Project

Hey, NoSeptember,

Just wanted to say how interesting your Admin Project pages are. It's hard to find much data on WP administration or any detailed history of the early years (2001-2005) that explains the process of how certain procedures or structures came to be. WP could really use an oral history project (which really could be done on WP or via email) before memories are forgotten.

Unless one is working on a grant project, collecting stats is kind of a thankless task so I just wanted to let you know that I found them useful. Thanks! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:35, 10 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

• Thank you for your comments. I did the pages on early history precisely because I found so little information about it when I was looking. I agree that it would be nice if someone did an oral history project on our early history. Anyone interested? NoSeptember 23:26, 14 November 2013 (UTC)

Consolidating the list of active admins

Hi, I assume you might be interested in this. Just pointing it out in case it causes problems for you (but I suspect, and hope, not). -- Rick Block (talk) 05:23, 8 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Request for comment

Hello there, a proposal regarding pre-adminship review has been raised at Village pump by Anna Frodesiak. Your comments here is very much appreciated. Many thanks. Jim Carter through MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:46, 28 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination of English and French monarchs overlap chart for deletion

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article English and French monarchs overlap chart is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/English and French monarchs overlap chart until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Feedback ^☎ 03:10, 21 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Admin lists

I'm going to cry. I'm not on your lists. I hope I'm the only one. Dougweller (talk) 17:23, 26 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

• My lists are many years out of date, so you are not alone. Keep up the good work. NoSeptember 20:00, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, no problem. Dougweller (talk) 21:43, 26 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Global account

Hi NoSeptember! As a Steward I'm involved in the upcoming unification of all accounts organized by the Wikimedia Foundation (see m:Single User Login finalisation announcement). By looking at your account, I realized that you don't have a global account yet. In order to secure your name, I recommend you to create such account on your own by submitting your password on Special:MergeAccount and unifying your local accounts. If you have any problems with doing that or further questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on my talk page. Cheers, —DerHexer (Talk) 17:27, 18 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Jenna and Barbara Bush listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Jenna and Barbara Bush. Since you had some involvement with the Jenna and Barbara Bush redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. - CHAMPION ^{(talk) (contributions) (logs)} 21:04, 5 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination of Ronald Reagan (disambiguation) for deletion

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Ronald Reagan (disambiguation) is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ronald Reagan (disambiguation) until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. --Nevé–selbert 19:14, 7 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

Wishing NoSeptember a very happy adminship anniversary on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Have a great day! Lepricavark (talk) 05:17, 22 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the greeting on my anniversary. For the record I have owned two Buick LeSabre's in my lifetime. Cheers, NoSeptember 05:51, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

Not a problem. My favorite LeSabre is the mid-1990s version, but I learned to drive on one from the early 2000s. Lepricavark (talk) 16:07, 31 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

12 years ago today

Hey, NoSeptember. I'd like to wish you a wonderful First Edit Day on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Have a great day! Chris Troutman (talk) 17:51, 21 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Descent of Elizabeth II from William the Conqueror

This not is to inform you that the page adding Descent of Elizabeth II from William the Conqueror that you created in 2006 has been nominated for deletion. Agricolae (talk) 17:36, 28 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Today's Wikipedian 10 years ago

Awesome

Ten years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:36, 3 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

Happy First Edit Day!

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

Problem with your custom signature

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Thank you, Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 23:46, 25 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

"List of former United States presidents who ran for office after leaving the presidency" listed at Redirects for discussion

A discussion is taking place to address the redirect List of former United States presidents who ran for office after leaving the presidency. The discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 February 20#List of former United States presidents who ran for office after leaving the presidency until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. Mdewman6 (talk) 01:45, 20 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Happy First Edit Day!

Happy First Edit Day, NoSeptember, from the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Have a great day! CAPTAIN RAJU^(T) 02:48, 21 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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Technical news

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Administrators will no longer be autopatrolled

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Administrators' newsletter – January 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2021).

Administrator changes Amalthea • Ihcoyc (deceased) • Kateshortforbob • Kirill Lokshin • Rifleman 82 • Ryan Norton • Wrp103 Interface administrator changes Mr. Stradivarius

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Arbitration

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Miscellaneous

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How we will see unregistered users

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18:13, 4 January 2022 (UTC)

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

Wishing NoSeptember a very happy adminship anniversary on behalf of the Birthday Committee! Best wishes! CAPTAIN RAJU^(T) 22:03, 22 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

Wishing NoSeptember a very happy adminship anniversary on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Bobherry Talk Edits 04:57, 23 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 January 2022

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Administrators' newsletter – February 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2022).

Administrator changes AustralianRupert • Cimon Avaro • Euryalus • Jehochman • Nunh-huh 28bytes Bureaucrat changes 28bytes

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Arbitration

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:02, 3 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 27 February 2022

• From the team: Selection of a new Signpost Editor-in-Chief
  

Bye-bye 'bones!

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Coffee in Teahouse and other secrets revealed in this interview with volunteers.

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A fantastic diverse mix of a record-breaking amount of content.

• Deletion report: The 10 most SHOCKING deletion discussions of February
  

You WON'T believe #8!

• Recent research: How editors and readers may be emotionally affected by disasters and terrorist attacks
  

And other recent research publications.

• Arbitration report: Parties remonstrate, arbs contemplate, skeptics coordinate
  

The report on lengthy litigation.

• By the numbers: Does birthplace affect the frequency of Wikipedia biography articles?
  

Some evidence from people born in France.

• Gallery: The vintage exhibit
  

Some good-ol' posters, restored to its former glory.

• Traffic report: Euphoria, Pamela Anderson, lies and Netflix
  

Plus quarterbacks, half-timers, Olympians, and Hulu!

• News from Diff: The Wikimania 2022 Core Organizing Team
  

Meet the folks in charge!

• Crossword: A Crossword, featuring Featured Articles
  

Can you fill in the boxes with Wikipedia's best content?

• Humour: Notability of mailboxes
  

Does yours pass?

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:20, 27 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – March 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2022).

Administrator changes Modussiccandi BOZ • Brookie (deceased) • Jackmcbarn • Jamesday • Jonathunder • Master of Puppets • Saravask

CheckUser changes Callanecc Oversighter changes Callanecc

Guideline and policy news

• A RfC is open to change the wording of revision deletion criterion 1 to remove the sentence relating to non-infringing contributions.
• A RfC is open to discuss prohibiting draftification of articles over 90 days old.

Technical news

• The deployment of the reply tool as an opt-out feature, as announced in last month's newsletter, has been delayed to 7 March. Feedback and comments are being welcomed at Wikipedia talk:Talk pages project. (T296645)
• Special:Nuke will now allow the selection of standard deletion reasons to be used when mass-deleting pages. This was a Community Wishlist Survey request from 2022. (T25020)
• The ability to undelete the talk page when undeleting a page using Special:Undelete or the API will be added soon. This change was requested in the 2021 Community Wishlist Survey. (T295389)

Arbitration

• Several unused discretionary sanctions and article probation remedies have been rescinded. This follows the community feedback from the 2021 Discretionary Sanctions review.

Miscellaneous

• The 2022 appointees for the Ombuds commission are Érico, Faendalimas, Galahad, Infinite0694, Mykola7, Olugold, Udehb and Zabe as regular members and Ameisenigel and JJMC89 as advisory members.
• Following the 2022 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: AntiCompositeNumber, BRPever, Hasley, TheresNoTime, and Vermont.
• The 2022 Community Wishlist Survey results have been published alongside the ranking of prioritized proposals.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:46, 2 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 27 March 2022

• From the Signpost team: How The Signpost is documenting the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
  

We stand in solidarity with free knowledge.

• News and notes: Of safety and anonymity
  

The diff that resulted in arrest and jail time in Belarus.

• Eyewitness Wikimedian, Kharkiv, Ukraine: Countering Russian aggression with a camera
  

A Ukrainian Wikipedian volunteers to document the war.

• Eyewitness Wikimedian, Vinnytsia, Ukraine: War diary
  

Reporting from on the ground in Ukraine.

• Eyewitness Wikimedian, Western Ukraine: Working with Wikipedia helps
  

Holding up the elephants!

• Disinformation report: The oligarchs' socks
  

For whom do the Bells toil?

• In the media: Ukraine, Russia, and even some other stuff
  

Lenin did not say "Wow, check out those yachts"!

• Recent research: Top scholarly citers, lack of open access references, predicting editor departures
  

And other research publications.

• Wikimedian perspective: My heroes from Russia, Ukraine & beyond
  

The thought of cities being destroyed is unbearable.

• Discussion report: Athletes are less notable now
  

The Discussion Report returns with a diverse mix of community proposals.

• Technology report: 2022 Wikimedia Hackathon
  

Plus, Desktop Improvements and a new uploading tool for Commons.

• Arbitration report: Skeptics given heavenly judgement, whirlwind of Discord drama begins to spin for tropical cyclone editors
  

Unclear whether storm will make landfall.

• Traffic report: War, what is it good for?
  

Ukraine, Russia and Anna Sorokin.

• Deletion report: Ukraine, werewolves, Ukraine, YouTube pundits, and Ukraine
  

Things that go "boom" in the night.

• Gallery: "All we are saying is, give peace a chance..."
  

The once-seen beauty of Ukraine, in high quality.

• From the archives: Burn, baby burn
  

A look at when early backups of Wikipedia were recovered.

• Essay: Yes, the sky is blue
  

There is such thing as over-citing.

• Tips and tricks: Become a keyboard ninja
  

And other useful Tips of the Day.

• On the bright side: The bright side of news
  

Happy-er current events.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:51, 27 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2022).

Administrator changes Firefly • Sdrqaz Ad Orientem Geschichte • Ryan Postlethwaite • Sabine's Sunbird • Wassupwestcoast

Interface administrator changes Evad37

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC is open proposing a change to the minimum activity requirements for administrators.

Technical news

• Access to Special:RevisionDelete has been expanded to include users who have the deletelogentry and deletedhistory rights. This means that those in the Researcher user group and Checkusers who are not administrators can now access Special:RevisionDelete. The users able to view the special page after this change are the 3 users in the Researcher group, as there are currently no checkusers who are not already administrators. (T301928)
• When viewing deleted revisions or diffs on Special:Undelete a back link to the undelete page for the associated page is now present. (T284114)

Arbitration

• Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Procedures § Opening of proceedings has been updated to reflect current practice following a motion.
• A arbitration case regarding Skepticism and coordinated editing has been closed.
• A arbitration case regarding WikiProject Tropical Cyclones has been opened.

Miscellaneous

• Voting for the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement guidelines has closed, and the results were that 56.98% of voters supported the guidelines. The results of this vote mean the Wikimedia Foundation Board will now review the guidelines.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:13, 7 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

New administrator activity requirement

The administrator policy has been updated with new activity requirements following a successful Request for Comment.

Beginning January 1, 2023, administrators who meet one or both of the following criteria may be desysopped for inactivity if they have:

1. Made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least a 12-month period OR
2. Made fewer than 100 edits over a 60-month period

Administrators at risk for being desysopped under these criteria will continue to be notified ahead of time. Thank you for your continued work.

22:53, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

Seventeenth anniversary on Wikipedia!

Happy First Edit Day! Hi NoSeptember! On behalf of the Birthday Committee, I'd like to wish you a very happy 17th anniversary of the day you made your first edit and became a Wikipedian! Chris Troutman (talk) 13:43, 21 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Chris Troutman (talk) 13:43, 21 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 24 April 2022

• News and notes: Double trouble
  

The second case of Wikipedian persecution.

• In the media: The battlegrounds outside and inside Wikipedia
  

What's hot in the media this month.

• Special report: Ukrainian Wikimedians during the war
  

Writing Wikipedia, joining the armed forces, and volunteering.

• Eyewitness Wikimedian, Vinnytsia, Ukraine: War diary (Part 2)
  

"Our proud Sparta bleeds too."

• Technology report: 8-year-old attribution issues in Media Viewer
  

Plus, a new status page and Desktop Improvements.

• Featured content: Wikipedia's best content from March
  

We showcase the best content that Wikipedians offered this past month.

• In focus: Editing difficulties on Russian Wikipedia
  

A multi-national encyclopedia tries to move forward.

• Gallery: A voyage around the world with WLM winners
  

Wiki Loves Monuments 2021 winners announced.

• Interview: On a war and a map
  

How a war map predated Wikimedia's map of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

• Serendipity: Wikipedia loves photographs, but hates photographers
  

Why not just link to an article to attribute famous photographers?

• Traffic report: Justice Jackson, the Smiths, and an invasion
  

Plus deaths, films, and the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification.

• Recent research: Student edits as "civic engagement"; how Wikipedia readers interact with images
  

And other new research findings

• News from the WMF: How Smart is the SMART Copyright Act?
  

The deceptively simple Strengthening Measures to Advance Rights Technologies Copyright Act of 2022.

• Essay: The problem with elegant variation
  

An elegant Wikipedia essay.

• Humour: Really huge message boxes
  

A serious statement of Wikipedia policy.

• From the archives: Wales resigned WMF board chair in 2006 reorganization
  

A look at when the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees was reorganized.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:41, 24 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2022).

Administrator changes Colin M David.Monniaux • Fribbler • Grue • Kpjas • West.andrew.g

CheckUser changes Ks0stm Oversighter changes Ks0stm

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, a change has been made to the administrators inactivity policy. Under the new policy, if an administrator has not made at least 100 edits over a period of 5 years they may be desysopped for inactivity.
• Following a discussion on the bureaucrat's noticeboard, a change has been made to the bureaucrats inactivity policy.

Technical news

• The ability to undelete the associated talk page when undeleting a page has been added. This was the 11th wish of the 2021 Community Wishlist Survey.
• A public status system for WMF wikis has been created. It is located at https://www.wikimediastatus.net/ and is hosted separately to WMF wikis so in the case of an outage it will remain viewable.

Arbitration

• Remedy 2 of the St Christopher case has been rescinded following a motion. The remedy previously authorised administrators to place a ban on single-purpose accounts who were disruptively editing on the article St Christopher Iba Mar Diop College of Medicine or related pages from those pages.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:34, 9 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 May 2022

• From the team: A changing of the guard
  

Your two new Signpost Editors in Chief.

• News and notes: 2022 Wikimedia Board elections
  

Plus, Form 990, fundraising, RfA and UCoC.

• Community view: Have your say in the 2022 Wikimedia Foundation Board elections
  

Community shortlisting in an affiliate-based process, and a poll for you to speak your mind.

• Opinion: The Wikimedia Endowment – a lack of transparency
  

A little more information, please.

• In the media: Putin, Jimbo, Musk and more
  

A varied collection of "special operations", and interviews.

• Special report: Three stories of Ukrainian Wikimedians during the war
  

Tales of hope, perseverance and even a little humor.

• In focus: Measuring gender diversity in Wikipedia articles
  

A new approach at the article level.

• Discussion report: Portals, April Fools, admin activity requirements and more
  

We summarize the drama for you.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject COVID-19 revisited
  

March 2020 WikiProject report interviewees return discussing project's evolution and future.

• Technology report: A new video player for Wikimedia wikis
  

Plus, Growth Features configuration, the Hackathon, and more.

• Featured content: Featured content of April
  

Showcasing the very best articles, pictures, videos, and other contributions from Wikipedians last month.

• Interview: Wikipedia's pride
  

An interview with queer Wikimedians.

• Serendipity: Those thieving image farms
  

Stopping them from taking your photos from Commons.

• Recent research: 35 million Twitter links analysed
  

And other recent research findings.

• Tips and tricks: The reference desks of Wikipedia
  

Helpful advice from Tips of the Day.

• Traffic report: Strange highs and strange lows
  

Were Johnny and Amber exchanging blows?

• News from Diff: Winners of the Human rights and Environment special nomination by Wiki Loves Earth announced
  

Photos raise awareness for nature protection and human impact on nature.

• News from the WMF: The EU Digital Services Act: What’s the Deal with the Deal?
  

New regulations governing online censorship.

• Video: How the entire country of Qatar was blocked from editing
  

A lighthearted video recalling the 2006 incident.

• Gallery: Diving under the sea for World Oceans Day
  

Exploring Featured Pictures of the world's oceans.

• From the archives: The Onion and Wikipedia
  

A look at when The Onion published an humorous article regarding Wikipedia.

• Essay: How not to write a Wikipedia article
  

On creative works.

• Humour: A new crossword
  

Test your word-puzzle skills!

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:47, 29 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2022).

Administrator changes Tamzin Barek • Darkwind • Geometry guy • ProcseeBot • RoyBoy • Sean Whitton • Valereee • Visorstuff • WAvegetarian Sn0wflake → VersedFenrir

CheckUser changes Ivanvector

Guideline and policy news

• Several areas of improvement collated from community member votes have been identified in the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement guidelines. The areas of improvement have been sent back for review and you are invited to provide input on these areas.

Technical news

• Administrators using the mobile web interface can now access Special:Block directly from user pages. (T307341)
• The IP Info feature has been deployed to all wikis as a Beta Feature. Any autoconfirmed user may enable the feature using the "IP info" checkbox under Preferences → Beta features. Autoconfirmed users will be able to access basic information about an IP address that includes the country and connection method. Those with advanced privileges (admin, bureaucrat, checkuser) will have access to extra information that includes the Internet Service Provider and more specific location.

Arbitration

• Remedy 2 of the Rachel Marsden case has been rescinded following a motion. The remedy previously authorised administrators to delete or reduce to a stub, together with their talk pages, articles related to Rachel Marsden when they violate Wikipedia's biographies of living persons policy.
• An arbitration case regarding WikiProject Tropical Cyclones has been closed.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:55, 2 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 26 June 2022

• News and notes: WMF inks new rules on government-ordered takedowns, blasts Russian feds' censor demands, spends big bucks
  

Office actions to secretly delete stuff when told to? Well, at least not if they're Putin's.

• In the media: Editor given three-year sentence, big RfA makes news, Guy Standing takes it sitting down
  

Belarusian Mark Bernstein to serve 36 months of "home chemistry" for unapproved posting, Slate covers historically large adminship bid, UBI economist with goofy infobox caption thinks it's funny.

• Special report: "Wikipedia's independence" or "Wikimedia's pile of dosh"?
  

A review of Wikipedia's fundraising messages and financial status.

• Discussion report: MoS rules on CCP name mulled, XRV axe plea nulled, BLPPROD drafting bid pulled
  

Just three for the history books this month (or not).

• Opinion: Picture of the Day – how Adam plans to ru(i)n it
  

Famed FP ace steps up to run main page outfit. Millions tremble in fear, or something.

• Featured content: Articles on Scots' clash, Yank's tux, Austrian's action flick deemed brilliant prose
  

And who can forget the black-breasted buttonquail.

• Essay: RfA trend line haruspicy: fact or fancy?
  

Don't be dumb, says math whiz: avoid the gambler's fallacy. Illustrated for your pleasure.

• Recent research: Wikipedia versus academia (again), tables' "immortality" probed
  

Tables "like to socialize" and "share genes": ooh la la!

• Serendipity: Was she really a Swiss lesbian automobile racer?
  

What's the deal with Anita Forrer, redlinked woman of mystery who saved Schwarzenbach archives?

• News from the WMF: Wikimedia Enterprise signs first deals
  

Google and Internet Archive sold on new product, more customers hoped to follow.

• Traffic report: Top view counts for shows, movies, and celeb lawsuit that keeps on giving
  

Plus editing stampedes for cheery subjects: shootings, deaths, and virus.

• Gallery: Celebration of summer, winter
  

Lest Southern Hemisphere be forgotten.

• Humour: Shortcuts, screwballers, Simon & Garfunkel
  

Can we offer you a nice crossword in this trying time?

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:31, 26 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2022).

Administrator changes AA • Gwalla • Ioeth • Laurascudder • Moriori (deceased) • Nat • Rfl Drilnoth → AFigureOfBlue Bureaucrat changes Lee Vilenski

Interface administrator changes Nihiltres

Technical news

• user_global_editcount is a new variable that can be used in abuse filters to avoid affecting globally active users. (T130439)

Arbitration

• An arbitration case regarding conduct in deletion-related editing has been opened.

Miscellaneous

• The New Pages Patrol queue has around 10,000 articles to be reviewed. As all administrators have the patrol right, please consider helping out. The queue is here. For further information on the state of the project, see the latest NPP newsletter.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:29, 10 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 1 August 2022

• From the editors: Rise of the machines, or something
  

The future of stuff? Who knows, but two articles were written by a computer this month.

• News and notes: Information considered harmful
  

Wikipedia and human rights, publishers and the Internet Archive, Russia and Wikipedia.

• In the media: Censorship, medieval hoaxes, "pathetic supervillains", FB-WMF AI TL bid, dirty duchess deeds done dirt cheap
  

Real news or silly season?

• Op-Ed: The "recession" affair
  

IGNORANCE IS NOT STRENGTH.

• Eyewitness Wikimedian, Vinnytsia, Ukraine: War diary (part 3)
  

"This year's victory was sad and dull."

• Election guide: The chosen six: 2022 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees elections
  

Candidate op-eds, open question spaces, and more.

• Community view: Youth culture and notability
  

Was Minecraft YouTuber a GNG pass in life, or only in death?

• Opinion: Criminals among us
  

Mass murderers, sex criminals, Ponzi schemers, insider traders, and business people.

• Arbitration report: Winds of change blow for cyclone editors, deletion dustup draws toward denouement
  

The last three months of arbitration through the eyes of a GPT-3

• Deletion report: This is Gonzo Country
  

GPT-3 whips it out.

• Discussion report: Notability for train stations, notices for mobile editors, noticeboards for the rest of us
  

And when is 'today'?

• Traffic report: US TV, JP ex-PM, outer space, and politics of IN, US, UK top charts for July
  

The world shows its messy complexity.

• Featured content: A little list with surprisingly few lists
  

More lists expected next month.

• Tips and tricks: Cleaning up awful citations with Citation bot
  

It doesn't have to be a pain in the butt!

• In focus: Wikidata insights from a handy little tool
  

PAC2 explains the item documentation template.

• On the bright side: Ukrainian Wikimedians during the war — three (more) stories
  

Education, climate change, and journalism.

• Essay: How to research an image
  

Zoom and enhance.

• Recent research: A century of rulemaking on Wikipedia analyzed
  

And other new research findings.

• Serendipity: Don't cite Wikipedia
  

But Commons is a treasure trove.

• Gallery: A backstage pass
  

All the things about theatre that the general public misses out on.

• From the archives: 2012 Russian Wikipedia shutdown as it happened
  

Ten years ago, Russian Wikipedia went dark in protest of new Russian laws. Today...

• Humour: Why did the chicken cross the road?
  

Strange mysteries of our animal world.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:39, 1 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2022).

Administrator changes

Valereee

Anthony Appleyard (deceased) • Capitalistroadster • Samsara

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC has been closed with consensus to add javascript that will show edit notices for editors editing via a mobile device. This only works for users using a mobile browser, so iOS app editors will still not be able to see edit notices.
• An RfC has been closed with the consensus that train stations are not inherently notable.

Technical news

• The Wikimania 2022 Hackathon will take place virtually from 11 August to 14 August.
• Administrators will now see links on user pages for "Change block" and "Unblock user" instead of just "Block user" if the user is already blocked. (T308570)

Arbitration

• The arbitration case request Geschichte has been automatically closed after a 3 month suspension of the case.

Miscellaneous

• You can vote for candidates in the 2022 Board of Trustees elections from 16 August to 30 August. Two community elected seats are up for election.
• Wikimania 2022 is taking place virtually from 11 August to 14 August. The schedule for wikimania is listed here. There are also a number of in-person events associated with Wikimania around the world.
• Tech tip: When revision-deleting on desktop, hold ⇧ Shift between clicking two checkboxes to select every box in that range.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:44, 5 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 August 2022

• News and notes: Admins wanted on English Wikipedia, IP editors not wanted on Farsi Wiki, donations wanted everywhere
  

[e-mail] [e-mail] (not a typo?) wants a moment of your time.

• Special report: Wikimania 2022: no show, no show up?
  

Why the 'Festival Edition' was less than perfect, and what we can do better.

• In the media: Truth or consequences? A tough month for truth
  

But Annie Rauwerda is the real thing!

• Discussion report: Boarding the Trustees
  

2022 elections, new page patrol, Fox News, Vector 2022, Royal Central and external links

• News from Wiki Education: 18 years a Wikipedian: what it means to me
  

Change and stability.

• In focus: Thinking inside the box
  

All there is to know about userboxen.

• Tips and tricks: The unexpected rabbit hole of typo fixing in citations...
  

Sometimes Citation bot is not enough.

• Technology report: Vector (2022) deployment discussions happening now
  

Plus, the Private Incident Reporting System, and new bots & user scripts!

• Serendipity: Two photos of every library on earth
  

One exterior, one interior.

• Featured content: Our man drills are safe for work, but our Labia is Fausta.
  

Also includes a campaign to "Suck for Luck".

• Recent research: The dollar value of "official" external links
  

And other new research

• Traffic report: What dreams (and heavily trafficked articles) may come
  

Because there really is no real theme this month you can grab onto to give a catchy title.

• Essay: Delete the junk!
  

Some articles aren't worth saving

• Gallery: A Fringe Affair (but not the show by Edward W. Feery that was on this year)
  

Edinburgh in August.

• Humour: CommonsComix No. 1
  

Because the Signpost needs a cartoon.

• From the archives: 5, 10, and 15 years ago
  

The Signpost looks back on The Signpost: New reports, conceived in a spirit of collaboration, and dedicated to the proposition of information and, uh, more information for all.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:00, 1 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2022).

Administrator changes DanCherek • DatGuy • Femke • Z1720 Aldux • Graham Beards • Nyttend

Interface administrator changes Mr. Stradivarius

Guideline and policy news

• A discussion is open to define a process by which Vector 2022 can be made the default for all users.
• An RfC is open to gain consensus on whether Fox News is reliable for science and politics.

Technical news

• The impact report on the effects of disabling IP editing on the Persian (Farsi) Wikipedia has been released.
• The WMF is looking into making a Private Incident Reporting System (PIRS) system to improve the reporting of harmful incidents through easier and safer reporting. You can leave comments on the talk page by answering the questions provided. Users who have faced harmful situations are also invited to join a PIRS interview to share the experience. To sign up please email Madalina Ana.

Arbitration

• An arbitration case regarding Conduct in deletion-related editing has been closed. The Arbitration Committee passed a remedy as part of the final decision to create a request for comment (RfC) on how to handle mass nominations at Articles for Deletion (AfD).
• The arbitration case request Jonathunder has been automatically closed after a 6 month suspension of the case.

Miscellaneous

• The new pages patrol (NPP) team has prepared an appeal to the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) for assistance with addressing Page Curation bugs and requested features. You are encouraged to read the open letter before it is sent, and if you support it, consider signing it. It is not a discussion, just a signature will suffice.
• Voting for candidates for the Wikimedia Board of Trustees is open until 6 September.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:12, 1 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Please vote in the 2022 Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Board of Trustees election

Hello hello. I hope this message finds you well.

The Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Board of Trustees election ends soon, please vote. At least one of the candidates is worthy of support. --MZMcBride (talk) 14:49, 5 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 September 2022

• News and notes: Board vote results, bot's big GET, crat chat gives new mop, WMF seeks "sound logo" and "organizer lab"
  

Candidates sign off and peel out – Sigalov is on and Peel is in.

• In focus: NPP: Still heaven or hell for new users – and for the reviewers
  

Just what is NPP? Why does it need the WMF? Why does it need YOU?

• In the media: A few complaints and mild disagreements
  

Was Katherine Maher a former encyclopedia salesperson?

• Special report: Decentralized Fundraising, Centralized Distribution
  

The latest from the Wikimedia Deutschland Movement Strategy & Global Relations Team.

• Discussion report: Much ado about Fox News
  

Source reliability, NPP, and appearance discussions.

• Interview: ScottishFinnishRadish's Request for Adminship
  

Find out firsthand what our newest admin, ScottishFinnishRadish, does with a chainsaw.

• Opinion: Are we ever going to reach consensus?
  

Some Articles for Deletion just drag on.

• Serendipity: Removing watermarks, copyright signs and cigarettes from photos
  

Suggestion: promote removal of visible copyright signs of images under a CC-BY license.

• Recent research: How readers assess Wikipedia's trustworthiness, and how they could in the future
  

And other research news.

• Traffic report: Kings and queens and VIPs
  

Repeat after me: I solemnly swear not to put "oh my!" in a headline.

• Featured content: Farm-fresh content
  

This month: A FACBot upgrade, a completed list of lists.

• Gallery: A Festival Descends on the City: The Edinburgh Fringe, Pt. 2
  

Lo!

• CommonsComix: CommonsComix 2: Paulus Moreelse
  

When Commons gives you a blank space...

• From the archives: 5, 10, and 15 Years ago: September 2022
  

Yes, again.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:02, 1 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – October 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2022).

Administrator changes ScottishFinnishRadish Staxringold Ahoerstemeier (deceased) • Ched

Interface administrator changes Cyberpower678 CheckUser changes GorillaWarfare

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, consensus was found that if the rationale for a block depends on information that is not available to all administrators, that information should be sent to the Arbitration Committee, a checkuser or an oversighter for action (as applicable, per ArbCom's recent updated guidance) instead of the administrator making the block.
• Following an RfC, consensus has been found that, in the context of politics and science, the reliability of FoxNews.com is unclear and that additional considerations apply to its use.
• Community comment on the revised Universal Code of Conduct enforcement guidelines is requested until 8 October.

Technical news

• The Articles for creation helper script now automatically recognises administrator accounts which means your name does not need to be listed at WP:AFCP to help out. If you wish to help out at AFC, enable AFCH by navigating to Preferences → Gadgets and checking the "Yet Another AfC Helper Script" box.

Arbitration

• Remedy 8.1 of the Muhammad images case will be rescinded 1 November following a motion.
• A modification to the deletion RfC remedy in the Conduct in deletion-related editing case has been made to reaffirm the independence of the RfC and allow the moderators to split the RfC in two.
• The second phase of the 2021-22 Discretionary Sanctions Review closes 3 October.

Miscellaneous

• An administrator's account was recently compromised. Administrators are encouraged to check that their passwords are secure, and reminded that ArbCom reserves the right to not restore adminship in cases of poor account security. You can also use two-factor authentication (2FA) to provide an extra level of security.
• Self-nominations for the electoral commission for the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections open 2 October and close 8 October.
• You are invited to comment on candidates in the 2022 CUOS appointments process.
• An RfC is open to discuss whether to make Vector 2022 the default skin on desktop.
• Tech tip: You can do a fuzzy search of all deleted page titles at Special:Undelete.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:43, 1 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 October 2022

• From the team: A new goose on the roost
  

Or maybe the spit -- only time will tell.

• News and notes: Wikipedians question Wikimedia fundraising ethics after "somewhat-viral" tweet
  

News from Twitter, Commons and the WMF C-Suite.

• News from the WMF: Governance updates from, and for, the Wikimedia Endowment
  

501(c)(3) application approved, Amazon donates another million.

• In the media: Scribing, searching, soliciting, spying, and systemic bias
  

Wading into several controversies.

• Disinformation report: From Russia with WikiLove
  

I can has Kremlin sockfarms?

• Recent research: Disinformatsiya: Much research, but what will actually help Wikipedia editors?
  

And other new research publications.

• Interview: Isabelle Belato on their Request for Adminship
  

The newest sysop speaks on the process that got them there.

• Featured content: Topics, lists, submarines and Gurl.com
  

Featured content from October.

• Serendipity: We all make mistakes – don’t we?
  

The strength of Wikipedia is the peer review afterwards.

• Traffic report: Mama, they're in love with a criminal
  

More serial killers than you can shake a stick at!

• From the archives: Paid advocacy, a lawsuit over spelling mistakes, deleting Jimbo's article, and the death of Toolserver
  

What tales echo in these hallowed halls.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:43, 31 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2022).

Administrator changes

• 
  • Isabelle Belato
  • Whpq
• 
• 
  • Atama
  • Astronautics~enwiki
  • Athaenara
  • Eddie891
  • GraemeL
  • Marianocecowski
  • Natalya
  • Pratyeka
  • SB Johnny

Interface administrator changes

• TheresNoTime
• Ragesoss

CheckUser changes

• 
  • Blablubbs
  • Firefly
• Joe Roe

Oversight changes

• DGG

Guideline and policy news

• The article creation at scale RfC opened on 3 October and will be open until at least 2 November.
• An RfC is open to discuss having open requests for adminship automatically placed on hold after the seven-day period has elapsed, pending closure or other action by a bureaucrat.

Arbitration

• Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate themselves from 13 November 2022 until 22 November 2022 to stand in the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections.
• The arbitration case request titled Athaenara has been resolved by motion.
• The arbitration case Reversal and reinstatement of Athaenara's block has entered the proposed decision stage.
• AmandaNP, Mz7 and Cyberpower678 have been appointed to the Electoral Commission for the 2022 Arbitration Committee Elections. Xaosflux and Dr vulpes are reserve commissioners.

Miscellaneous

• The 2022 CheckUser and Oversight appointments process has concluded with the appointment of two new CheckUsers.
• You can add yourself to the centralised page listing time zones of administrators.
• Tech tip: Wikimarkup in a block summary is parsed in the notice that the blockee sees. You can use templates with custom options to specify situations like {{rangeblock|create=yes}} or {{uw-ublock|contains profanity}}.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:23, 1 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 28 November 2022

• News and notes: English Wikipedia editors: "We don't need no stinking banners"
  

Joe Roe's close sows dough woes, manifestos... vetoes? overthrows?

• In the media: "The most beautiful story on the Internet"
  

Ineffective altruism, return of the toaster, Jess Wade keeps wading through it, Russia censors searches, schools embrace Wikipedia.

• Interview: Lisa Seitz-Gruwell on WMF fundraising in the wake of big banner ad RfC
  

An interview with Wikimedia's Chief Advancement Officer.

• Opinion: Privacy on Wikipedia in the cyberpunk future
  

Oh, just one more thing... AI couldn't help but notice you use that punctuation a little bit more than most people...

• Disinformation report: Missed and Dissed
  

Are government goons prowling our fair encyclopedia?

• Op-Ed: Diminishing returns for article quality
  

Have we gotten past the point where better articles makes us a better encyclopedia? And what comes next?

• Book review: Writing the Revolution
  

Heather Ford's new volume on Wikipedia, knowledge and power in the 2011 Egyptian revolution.

• Technology report: Galactic dreams, encyclopedic reality
  

Facebook's Galactica demo provides a case study in large language models for text generation at scale: this one was silly, but we cannot ignore them forever.

• Essay: The Six Million FP Man
  

Okay, six hundred, but either way, the bionic editor speaks.

• Tips and tricks: (Wiki)break stuff
  

Productively doing nothing

• Recent research: Study deems COVID-19 editors smart and cool, questions of clarity and utility for WMF's proposed "Knowledge Integrity Risk Observatory"
  

And other research findings.

• Featured content: A great month for featured articles
  

Do consider joining FPC, though: we need you.

• Obituary: A tribute to Michael Gäbler
  

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

• Concept: The relevance of legal certainty to the English Wikipedia
  

A lost article from our deep annals

• Traffic report: Musical deaths, murders, Princess Di's nominative determinism, and sports
  

The weeks and weeks, as reviewed by Wikipedia's readers.

• From the archives: Five, ten, and fifteen years ago
  

Search upgrades, lawsuits, paid editing, and personal reflection.

• CommonsComix: Joker's trick
  

A toast to good health, a health to good hoax, a hoax to good toast.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:42, 28 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2022 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 12 December 2022. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2022 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:27, 29 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – December 2022

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2022).

Administrator changes

• Eddie891
• Euryalus
• TheresNoTime

• Alex.muller
• Excirial
• RedWordSmith
• Ron Ritzman
• TheresNoTime
• Stephen

Interface administrator changes

TheresNoTime

TheresNoTime

CheckUser changes

TheresNoTime

Oversight changes

TheresNoTime

Guideline and policy news

• Consensus has been found in an RfC to automatically place RfAs on hold after one week.
• The article creation at scale RfC has been closed.
• An RfC on the banners for the December 2022 fundraising campaign has been closed.

Technical news

• A new preference named "Enable limited width mode" has been added to the Vector 2022 skin. The preference is also shown as a toggle on every page if your monitor is 1600 pixels or wider. When disabled it removes the whitespace added by Vector 2022 on the left and right of the page content. Disabling this preference has the same effect as enabling the wide-vector-2022 gadget. (T319449)

Arbitration

• Eligible users are invited to vote on candidates for the Arbitration Committee until 23:59 December 12, 2022 (UTC). Candidate statements can be seen here.
• The proposed decision for the 2021-22 review of the discretionary sanctions system is open.
• The arbitration case Reversal and reinstatement of Athaenara's block has been closed.
• The arbitration case Stephen has been opened and the proposed decision is expected 1 December 2022.
• A motion has modified the procedures for contacting an admin facing Level 2 desysop.

Miscellaneous

• Tech tip: A single IPv6 connection usually has access to a "subnet" of 18 quintillion IPs. Add /64 to the end of an IP in Special:Contributions to see all of a subnet's edits, and consider blocking the whole subnet rather than an IP that may change within a minute.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:44, 1 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 1 January 2023

• News and notes: Wikimedia Foundation ousts, bans quarter of Arabic Wikipedia admins
  

Plus admin update and cool tools for the new year.

• In the media: Odd bedfellows, Elon and Jimbo, reliable sources for divorces, and more
  

Sometimes you need to read more than just the headlines!

• Interview: ComplexRational's RfA debrief
  

Interview of ComplexRational about their recent request for adminship.

• Technology report: Wikimedia Foundation's Abstract Wikipedia project "at substantial risk of failure"
  

Wikifunctions might drag it down.

• Essay: Mobile editing
  

Frustrations and successes.

• Arbitration report: Arbitration Committee Election 2022
  

Congratulations.

• Recent research: Graham's Hierarchy of Disagreement in talk page disputes
  

And other new research findings.

• Serendipity: Wikipedia about FIFA World Cup 2022: quick, factual and critical
  

How Iranian press agencies help Wikipedia to reflect football in a better way.

• Featured content: Would you like to swing on a star?
  

You head into the featured content report. Amongst the features you see astronauts, both Gilbert and Sullivan, Ursula K. Le Guin's incredibly talented mother, and Billboard charts. It is pitch black, you are likely to be eaten by a grue.

• Traffic report: Football, football, football! Wikipedia Football Club!
  

It is mostly about football!

• CommonsComix: #4: The Course of WikiEmpire
  

In which a couple sentences of text recontextualises an image.

• From the archives: Five, ten, and fifteen years ago
  

Photographers, Sandy Hook, the shocking use of Nazi symbols in articles about Nazis, and "You wouldn't recognise a fact if it bit you in the ass".

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:46, 1 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2022).

Administrator changes

• ComplexRational
• Extraordinary Writ

Stephen

• Andrew Yong
• Dbenbenn
• DESiegel
• GlassCobra
• Joe Decker
• Nancy
• Pathoschild
• StuffOfInterest
• William Pietri
• Wwwwolf
• Xdamr

Interface administrator changes

Nihiltres

CheckUser changes

Moneytrees

• Ivanvector
• SilkTork

Oversighter changes

• GeneralNotability
• Moneytrees

• Guerillero
• SilkTork

Guideline and policy news

• Speedy deletion criterion A5 (transwikied articles) has been repealed following an unopposed proposal.

Arbitration

• Following the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Barkeep49, CaptainEek, GeneralNotability, Guerillero, L235, Moneytrees, Primefac, SilkTork.
• The 2021-22 Discretionary Sanctions Review has concluded with many changes to the discretionary sanctions procedure including a change of the name to "contentious topics". The changes are being implemented over the coming month.
• The arbitration case Stephen has been closed.

Miscellaneous

• Voting for the Sound Logo has closed and the winner is expected to be announced February to April 2023.
• Tech tip: You can view information about IP addresses in a centralised location using bullseye which won the Newcomer award in the recent Coolest Tool Awards.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:09, 6 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 16 January 2023

• From the team: We heard zoomers liked fortnights: the biweekly Signpost rides again
  

It's not just a phase! Well, maybe it is.

• Special report: Coverage of 2022 bans reveals editors serving long sentences in Saudi Arabia since 2020
  

Long-time contributors imprisoned for 32 and 8 years after "swaying public opinion" and "violating public morals".

• News and notes: Revised Code of Conduct Enforcement Guidelines up for vote, WMF counsel departs, generative models under discussion
  

UCoC draws nearer, alongside the rise of the machines, in mainspace this time.

• In the media: Court orders user data in libel case, Saudi Wikipedia in the crosshairs, Larry Sanger at it again
  

Wikipedia's birthday, a cute dog, and nipplefruit.

• Technology report: View it! A new tool for image discovery
  

The depths of Commons, at your fingertips. Or eyetips.

• In focus: Busting into Grand Central
  

Debunking widely-told myths about New York's grandest and centralest railway station.

• Serendipity: How I bought part of Wikipedia – for less than $100
  

The economics of Wikipedia.

• Gallery: What is our responsibility when it comes to images?
  

When notability conflicts with what it might be used for.

• Humour: New geologically speedy deletion criteria introduced
  

7,000,000-year Landmasses for Subduction discussions considered "too long".

• Opinion: Good old days, in which fifth-symbol-lacking lipograms roam'd our librarious litany
  

Allow us to bring you back, back, back, to days of Wikifun rampant.

• Featured content: Flip your lid
  

...and your ambigram. Also: Boring lava fields, birds of Tuvalu, and commelinid family names with etymologies.

• Traffic report: The most viewed articles of 2022
  

War, sports, and all types of chaos.

• From the archives: Five, ten, and fifteen years ago
  

The editor with five million edits, the death of Aaron Swartz, and rollback.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:14, 16 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Seventeenth Adminship Anniversary!

Wishing NoSeptember a very happy adminship anniversary on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Chris Troutman (talk) 16:44, 22 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

Administrators' newsletter – February 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2023).

Administrator changes Gimmetrow Bjelleklang Bob the Wikipedian Leithp WhisperToMe 100 inactive admins

CheckUser changes BDD Bradv Donald Albury Maxim MusikAnimal Oversighter changes BDD Bradv Donald Albury Maxim

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, the administrator policy now requires that prior written consent be gained from the Arbitration Committee to mark a block as only appealable to the committee.
• Following a community discussion, consensus has been found to impose the extended-confirmed restriction over the topic areas of Armenia and Azerbaijan and Kurds and Kurdistan.

Technical news

• The Vector 2022 skin has become the default for desktop users of the English Wikipedia.

Arbitration

• The arbitration case Armenia-Azerbaijan 3 has been opened and the proposed decision is expected 24 February 2023.
• In December, the contentious topics procedure was adopted which replaces the former discretionary sanctions system. The contentious topics procedure is now in effect following an initial implementation period. There is a detailed summary of the changes and administrator instructions for the new procedure. The arbitration clerk team are taking suggestions, concerns, and unresolved questions about this new system at their noticeboard.

Miscellaneous

• Voting in the 2023 Steward elections will begin on 05 February 2023, 21:00 (UTC) and end on 26 February 2023, 21:00 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
• Voting in the 2023 Community Wishlist Survey will begin on 10 February 2023 and end on 24 February 2023. You can submit, discuss and revise proposals until 6 February 2023.
• Tech tip: Syntax highlighting is available in both the 2011 and 2017 Wikitext editors. It can help make editing paragraphs with many references or complicated templates easier.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:38, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 4 February 2023

• From the editor: New for the Signpost: Author pages, tag pages, and a decent article search function
  

Last issue's vow for "something to show for these efforts" revisited.

• News and notes: Foundation update on fundraising, new page patrol, Tides, and Wikipedia blocked in Pakistan
  

As well as the continued rise of the machines, and Amanda Keton's WMF departure.

• Section 230: Twenty-six words that created the internet, and the future of an encyclopedia
  

Section 230 before the Supreme Court in two cases, with broad implications for the web.

• Disinformation report: Wikipedia on Santos
  

Or Santos on Wikipedia?

• Special report: Legal status of Wikimedia projects "unclear" under potential European legislation
  

WMF issues salvo in latest battles of the Posting Wars

• In the media: Furor over new Wikipedia skin, followup on Saudi bans, and legislative debate
  

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

• Op-Ed: Estonian businessman and political donor brings lawsuit against head of national Wikimedia chapter
  

Isamaa party sponsor Parvel Pruunsild files claim in Tartu County Court against WMEE head Ivo Kruusamägi and Reform Party politicians.

• Opinion: Study examines cultural leanings of Wikimedia projects' visual art coverage
  

English Wikipedia among most "global" and Thai Wikipedia's among most "Western", but non-Western works neglected overall.

• Recent research: Wikipedia's "moderate yet systematic" liberal citation bias
  

And other new research publications.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Organized Labour
  

An interview with those who pitch in together

• Tips and tricks: XTools: Data analytics for your list of created articles
  

Letting you find out about yourself (and others).

• Featured content: 20,000 Featureds under the Sea
  

An exceptionally good period for featured articles.

• Traffic report: Films, deaths and ChatGPT
  

Can we have a chat?

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:45, 4 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 20 February 2023

• News and notes: Terms of Use update, Steward elections, and Wikipedia back in Pakistan
  

UCoC Enforcement Guidelines pass, Wikimedia Enterprise financials, GPTs gone wild, and a speedy deletion criterion removed.

• In the media: Arbitrators open case after article alleges Wikipedia "intentionally distorts" Holocaust coverage
  

Also: Russ Baker's BLP, the digital commons, the NSA, and more on Pakistan.

• Disinformation report: The "largest con in corporate history"?
  

Gautam Adani and his companies possibly behind scheme featuring scores of socks, infiltration of articles for creation process.

• Essay: Machine-written articles: a new challenge for Wikipedia
  

GPT: friend or foe?

• Tips and tricks: All about writing at DYK
  

Your one-stop hooker's handbook.

• Featured content: Eden, lost.
  

But much else to be found.

• Gallery: Love is in the air
  

Lovey-dovey stuff for Valentine's.

• Traffic report: Superbowl? Pfft. Give me some Bollywood! Yours sincerely, the world
  

And maybe a side of AI.

• From the archives: 5, 10, and 15 years ago: Let's (not) delete the Main Page!
  

Also: let's delete images of Muhammed! Let's delete portals!

• Cobwebs: Editorial: The loss of the moral high ground
  

Yesterday's controversies, reported on today.

• Humour: The RfA Candidate's Song
  

A musical interlude.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:02, 20 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – March 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2023).

Administrator changes The Wordsmith Fuhghettaboutit Spinningspark (deceased)

CheckUser changes Callanecc Oversighter changes Callanecc

Guideline and policy news

• Following a request for comment, F10 (useless non-media files) has been deprecated.
• Following a request for comment, the Portal CSD criteria (P1 (portal subject to CSD as an article) and P2 (underpopulated portal)) have been deprecated.
• A request for comment is open to discuss making the closing instructions for the requested moves process a guideline.

Technical news

• The results of the 2023 Community Wishlist Survey have been posted.

Arbitration

• Remedy 11 ("Request for Comment") of the Conduct in deletion-related editing case has been rescinded.
• The proposed decision for the Armenia-Azerbaijan 3 case is expected 7 March 2023.
• A case related to the Holocaust in Poland is expected to be opened soon.

Miscellaneous

• The 2023 appointees for the Ombuds commission are AGK, Ameisenigel, Bennylin, Daniuu, Emufarmers, Faendalimas, JJMC89, MdsShakil, Minorax and Renvoy as regular members and Zabe as advisory members.
• Following the 2023 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: Mykola7, Superpes15, and Xaosflux.
• The Terms of Use update cycle has started, which includes a [p]roposal for better addressing undisclosed paid editing. Feedback is being accepted until 24 April 2023.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:19, 1 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 9 March 2023

• News and notes: What's going on with the Wikimedia Endowment?
  

A lack of transparency.

• Technology report: Second flight of the Soviet space bears: Testing ChatGPT's accuracy
  

Using failed AI Galactica's worst mistakes to test a new AI.

• In the media: What should Wikipedia do? Publish Russian propaganda? Be less woke? Cover the Holocaust in Poland differently?
  

Probable answers: No, no, maybe?

• Featured content: In which over two-thirds of the featured articles section needs to be copied over to WikiProject Military History's newsletter
  

Seriously, even the chef has a major military history connection.

• Recent research: "Wikipedia's Intentional Distortion of the Holocaust" in Poland and "self-focus bias" in coverage of global events
  

And other new research publications.

• From the archives: Five, ten, and fifteen years ago
  

Wikizine, Wikipedia Zero, Single User Login, and Wales allegedly editing his girlfriend's article.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:42, 9 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 20 March 2023

• News and notes: Wikimania submissions deadline looms, Russian government after our lucky charms, AI woes nix CNET from RS slate
  

Be part of the Wikimania 2023 program!

• Eyewitness: Three more stories from Ukrainian Wikimedians
  

One year in: volunteering, science, art, and candlelight.

• In the media: Paid editing, plagiarism payouts, proponents of a ploy, and people peeved at perceived preferences
  

Everything is broken, again.

• Featured content: Way too many featured articles
  

Seriously, it's only a fortnight's worth!

• Interview: 228/2/1: the inside scoop on Aoidh's RfA
  

An interview with Wikipedia's newest admin.

• Traffic report: Who died? Who won? Who lost?
  

All the pop culture that's fit to print, with a sprinkling of cocaine (bear).

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:17, 20 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 03 April 2023

• From the editor: Some long-overdue retractions
  

Errata regretted.

• News and notes: Sounding out, a universal code of conduct, and dealing with AI
  

Skynet believed to be in violation of the new Universal Code of Conduct.

• In the media: Twiddling Wikipedia during an online contest, and other news
  

Taking the phrase "gaming the system" to the next level.

• Arbitration report: "World War II and the history of Jews in Poland" case is ongoing
  

Desysop case request still in accept/decline phase.

• Featured content: Hail, poetry! Thou heav'n-born maid
  

Thou gildest e'en the Signpost's trade.

• Recent research: Language bias: Wikipedia captures at least the "silhouette of the elephant", unlike ChatGPT
  

And a dataset of article revisions to provide a corpus for promotional content.

• From the archives: April Fools' through the ages
  

A retrospective of the best and worst pranks.

• Disinformation report: Sus socks support suits, seems systemic
  

Do important banks sock? Maybe – but don't grab your money and run just yet!

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:46, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2023).

Administrator changes Aoidh KillerChihuahua

CheckUser changes Ferret

Guideline and policy news

• A community RfC is open to discuss whether reports primarily involving gender-related disputes or controversies should be referred to the Arbitration enforcement noticeboard.

Technical news

• Some older web browsers will not be able to use JavaScript on Wikimedia wikis starting this week. This mainly affects users of Internet Explorer 11. (T178356)
• The rollback of Vector 2022 RfC has found no consensus to rollback to Vector legacy, but has found rough consensus to disable "limited width" mode by default.
• A link to the user's Special:CentralAuth page will now appear in the subtitle links shown on Special:Contributions. This was voted #17 in the Community Wishlist Survey 2023.

Arbitration

• The Armenia-Azerbaijan 3 case has been closed.
• A case about World War II and the history of Jews in Poland has been opened, with the first evidence phase closing 6 April 2023.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:11, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Happy First Edit Day!

Hey, NoSeptember. I'd like to wish you a wonderful First Edit Day on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Have a great day! interstatefive  00:17, 21 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Happy First Edit Day!

The Signpost: 26 April 2023

• News and notes: Staff departures at Wikimedia Foundation, Jimbo hands in the bits, and graphs' zeppelin burns
  

Plus: Wikipedians get own Mastodon account, and Wikiprojects move to uniform quality assessment.

• In the media: Contested truth claims in Wikipedia
  

Covering Russia, Poland, the Vatican, the U.S., and the "perilously thin" boundary between real life and Wikipedia.

• Obituary: Remembering David "DGG" Goodman
  

The prolific editor, former Arbitration Committee member and co-founder of Wikimedia New York City died in April.

• Arbitration report: Holocaust in Poland, Jimbo in the hot seat, and a desysopping
  

No news is good news, and this isn't no news.

• Opinion: What Jimbo's question revealed about scamming
  

The problem we haven't solved.

• Op-Ed: Wikipedia as an anchor of truth
  

Can Wikipedia help keep AI agents honest?

• Special report: Signpost statistics between years 2005 and 2022
  

In this article, we will look at The Signpost statistics. More precisely: Signpost article statistics by year, TOP 20 titles of Signpost articles, TOP 20 article authors, and the home wikis of article authors.

• News from the WMF: Collective planning with the Wikimedia Foundation
  

First of a two part series summarising the priorities for the Wikimedia Foundation's next fiscal year (July 2022–June 2023) including staffing, budget and other changes, and how to provide your feedback.

• Featured content: In which we described the featured articles in rhyme again
  

And somehow made it more readable than when it's not rhyming.

• From the archives: April Fools' through the ages, part two
  

2011 and on.

• Humour: The law of hats
  

The Selfish Hatnote, the Disambiguation Singularity, and other information-theoretic conundra of encyclopedic note.

• Traffic report: Long live machine, the future supreme
  

Wrestling bumps world-changing technology from the #1 spot, imagine that.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:17, 26 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2023).

Administrator changes Spicy Ale jrb Dbachmann DGG (deceased) Jimbo Wales

CheckUser changes Jimbo Wales Oversighter changes Jimbo Wales

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment about removing administrative privileges in specified situations is open for feedback.

Technical news

• Progress has started on the Page Triage improvement project. This is to address the concerns raised by the community in their 2022 WMF letter that requested improvements be made to the tool.

Arbitration

• The proposed decision in the World War II and the history of Jews in Poland case is expected 11 May 2023.

Miscellaneous

• The Wikimedia Foundation annual plan 2023-2024 draft is open for comment and input through May 19. The final plan will be published in July 2023.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:23, 3 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 8 May 2023

• News and notes: New legal "deVLOPments" in the EU
  

... and at WP:Mastodon.

• In the media: Vivek's smelly socks, online safety, and politics
  

Fake fines, false alarms and faux headlines!

• Recent research: Gender, race and notability in deletion discussions
  

And other new research publications.

• Featured content: I wrote a poem for each article, I found rhymes for all the lists; My first featured picture of this year now finally exists!
  

...Layout lovers will hate this featured content's title.

• Arbitration report: "World War II and the history of Jews in Poland" approaches conclusion
  

There will likely be more to say next issue.

• News from the WMF: Planning together with the Wikimedia Foundation
  

The second article in a series describing the priorities and work of the Wikimedia Foundation. The article invites Wikimedians to collaborate with the Foundation.

• Special report: There Shall Be Seasons Refreshing – Stories from WikiConference India 2023
  

First national-level conference in the Indian subcontinent in seven years.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:25, 8 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 22 May 2023

• News and notes: Golden parachutes: Record severance payments at Wikimedia Foundation
  

... and a referendum on Jimmy Wales' traditional role as a final court of appeal in arbitration policy.

• In the media: History, propaganda and censorship
  

Opposing scholars on ArbCom case.

• Arbitration report: Final decision in "World War II and the history of Jews in Poland"
  

Includes stronger sourcing restriction, and a nod to the UCoC.

• Recent research: Create or curate, cooperate or compete? Game theory for Wikipedia editors
  

And other new research results.

• Featured content: A very musical week for featured articles
  

Bird is the word for featured pictures.

• Traffic report: Coronation, chatbot, celebs
  

Celebs and Bollywood film dominated reader interest, as usual, but with a new persistent presence on the lists of a certain AI.

• WikiProject report: Wikipedians Convene for Queering Wikipedia 2023: The First International LGBT+ Wikipedia Conference
  

An online conference with 12 distributed trans-local in-person meetup "Nodes" on 5 continents.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:40, 22 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 5 June 2023

• News and notes: WMRU director forks new 'pedia, birds flap in top '22 piccy, WMF weighs in on Indian gov's map axe plea
  

Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee Building Committee Commences Command By Convening.

• In the media: Section 230 stands tall, WP vs. UK bill, Miss Information dissed again
  

Also: Goog gets delist ask for en-wp yt-dl ar-ticle, wacky football fails.

• Featured content: Poetry under pressure
  

Now is not this ridiculous, and is not this preposterous? A thorough-paced absurdity - explain it if you can.

• Traffic report: Celebs, controversies and a chatbot in the public eye
  

Plus mortalities, and movies about mermaids.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:22, 5 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2023).

Administrator changes Ingenuity Ddstretch Prodego Resolute

CheckUser changes Courcelles

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, editors indefinitely site-banned by community consensus will now have all rights, including sysop, removed.
• As a part of the Wikimedia Foundation's IP Masking project, a new policy has been created that governs the access to temporary account IP addresses. An associated FAQ has been created and individual communities can increase the requirements to view temporary account IP addresses.

Technical news

• Bot operators and tool maintainers should schedule time in the coming months to test and update their tools for the effects of IP masking. IP masking will not be deployed to any content wiki until at least October 2023 and is unlikely to be deployed to the English Wikipedia until some time in 2024.

Arbitration

• The arbitration case World War II and the history of Jews in Poland has been closed. The topic area of Polish history during World War II (1933-1945) and the history of Jews in Poland is subject to a "reliable source consensus-required" contentious topic restriction.

Miscellaneous

• Following a community referendum, the arbitration policy has been modified to remove the ability for users to appeal remedies to Jimbo Wales.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:33, 5 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 19 June 2023

• News and notes: WMF Terms of Use now in force, new Creative Commons licensing
  

Problems with emergency emails sent to WMF.

• In the media: English WP editor glocked after BLP row on Italian 'pedia
  

... and an AI writer explains why he just bought a paper encyc.

• Featured content: Content, featured
  

Poetry still present.

• Recent research: Hoaxers prefer currently-popular topics
  

And other new research findings.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:10, 19 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2023).

Administrator changes

Novem Linguae

• Deckiller
• Electionworld
• MBisanz
• Penwhale
• Raul654
• Roadrunner
• Viridae
• Yannismarou

Bureaucrat changes

MBisanz

Guideline and policy news

• Contributions to the English Wikipedia are now released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) license instead of CC BY-SA 3.0. Contributions are still also released under the GFDL license.

Technical news

• Discussion is open regarding a proposed global policy regarding third-party resources. Third-party resources are computer resources that reside outside of Wikimedia production websites.

Arbitration

• Two arbitration cases are currently open. Proposed decisions are expected 5 July 2023 for the Scottywong case and 9 July 2023 for the AlisonW case.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:58, 1 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 3 July 2023

• News and notes: Online Safety Bill: Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK launch open letter
  

... and a new Elections Committee.

• Disinformation report: Imploded submersible outfit foiled trying to sing own praises on Wikipedia
  

A few editors who fought many times to keep advertisements out.

• In the media: Journo proposes mass Wiki dox, sponsored articles on Fandom, Section 230 discussed
  

Are you now, or have you ever been, a Wikipedia editor?

• Featured content: Incensed
  

In which featured pictures have a pleasing orange/blue colour scheme for some reason.

• Traffic report: Are you afraid of spiders? Arnold? The Idol? ChatGPT?
  

Don't worry, they are mostly harmless.

• Humour: United Nations dispatches peacekeeping force to Wikipedia policy discussions
  

Mission to ensure stability in conflict-ridden area.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:15, 3 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 17 July 2023

• News and notes: Big bux hidden beneath wine-dark sea as we wait for the Tides to go out?
  

Gitz666 unglocked, Wikimania scholarships given and a new admin anointed.

• In the media: Tentacles of Emirates plot attempt to ensnare Wikipedia
  

Ruwiki on the Ruinternet, Rauwerda on TEDx, and Jimbo on Fridman.

• Obituary: David Thomsen (Dthomsen8) and Ingo Koll (Kipala)
  

Philadelphians and Tanzanians say goodbye.

• News from the WMF: ABC for Fundraising: Advancing Banner Collaboration for fundraising campaigns
  

The collaboration process for the 2023 English fundraising campaign is kicking off now, right from the start of the fiscal year.

• In focus: Are the children of celebrities over-represented in French cinema?
  

Wikidata queries investigate nepo babies.

• Tips and tricks: What automation can do for you (and your WikiProject)
  

A summary of various tools designed over the years.

• Recent research: Wikipedia-grounded chatbot "outperforms all baselines" on factual accuracy
  

And various other research on large language models and Wikipedia.

• Humour: New fringe theories to be introduced
  

Bold move intended to "get some variety" into Wikipedia arguments.

• Cobwebs: If you're reading this, you're probably on a desktop
  

The annual report that tries to understand the Signpost through data, written in 2020, which never saw the light of day until now.

• Featured content: Scrollin', scrollin', scrollin', keep those readers scrollin', got to keep on scrollin', Rawhide!
  

In which choices have been made™.

• Traffic report: The Idol becomes the Master
  

Sex, drugs and violence, English, math and science.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:01, 17 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 1 August 2023

• News and notes: City officials attempt to doxx Wikipedians, Ruwiki founder banned, WMF launches Mastodon server
  

And French gov't proposes legislation to slam Wikipedia, others.

• In the media: Truth, AI, bull from politicians, and climate change
  

Or just another brouhaha?

• Disinformation report: Hot climate, hot hit, hot money, hot news hot off the presses!
  

Hot damn, it's damned hot!

• Obituary: Donald Cram, Peter McCawley, and Eagleash
  

Three editors have departed.

• Tips and tricks: Citation tools for dummies!
  

You don't really want to do this stuff by yourself, do you?

• Humour: Does Wikipedia present neutral perspectives?
  

A serious visual investigation.

• In focus: Journals cited by Wikipedia
  

A compilation of over 3M citations.

• Opinion: Are global bans the last step?
  

Possible solutions after being re-harassed.

• Featured content: Featured Content, 1 to 15 July
  

Due to unfortunate events, this issue is published as is, in its unfinished state.

• Traffic report: Come on Oppie, let's go party
  

Oppenheimer, Barbie, and a couple other scandals.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:38, 1 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2023).

Administrator changes

Firefangledfeathers

• AlisonW
• Amberrock
• Closedmouth
• Scottywong

Interface administrator changes

Novem Linguae

Technical news

• The tag filter on Special:NewPages and revision history pages can now be inverted. This allows hiding edits made by automated tools. (T334338)
• Special:BlockedExternalDomains is a new tool that allows easier blocking of plain domains (and their subdomains). This is more easily searchable and is faster for the software to use than the existing MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. It does not support regex (for complex cases), URL path-matching, or the MediaWiki:Spam-whitelist. (T337431)

Arbitration

• The arbitration cases named Scottywong and AlisonW closed 10 July and 16 July respectively.
• The SmallCat dispute arbitration case is in the workshop phase.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:54, 8 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Accidentally reverted your edit

Hi Noseptember, I accidentally undid one of your edits. The edit has been restored. Thanks, Wikiexplorationandhelping (talk) 23:50, 13 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 15 August 2023

• News and notes: Dude, Where's My Donations? Wikimedia Foundation announces another million in grants for non-Wikimedia-related projects
  

Jimbo promises more transparency, Wikimania in Singapore, move away from Tides still planned, and Wikifunctions rolls out.

• In the media: An accusation of bias from Brazil, a lawsuit from Portugal, plagiarism from Florida
  

Harsh words from problematic fave Glenn Greenwald.

• In focus: 2023 Good Article Nomination drive is underway: get your barnstars here!
  

Rigorous Review of Content for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Wikipedia.

• Special report: Thirteen years later, why are most administrators still from 2005?
  

Damn kids need to get off our lawn and onto RfA.

• Tips and tricks: How to find images for your articles, check their copyright, upload them, and restore them
  

Because one gets some secondary skills when one has 645 featured pictures.

• Cobwebs: Getting serious about writing
  

The innards of the Signpost received a major overhaul in March/April 2019. Here's how we reduced behind-the-scenes busywork and improved writers resources.

• Opinion: Copyright trolls, or the last beautiful free souls on this planet?
  

For whom does the Creative Commons enforcement clause toll?

• Serendipity: Why I stopped taking photographs almost altogether
  

An announcement of 335,000 new images on Wikimedia Commons.

• Featured content: Barbenheimer confirmed
  

Some improvement on last week.

• Humour: Arbitration Committee to accept case against Right Honorable Frimbley Cantingham, 15th Viscount Bellington-upon-Porkshire
  

Case request cited misuse of tools by administrator who last used tools in 1661.

• Traffic report: 'Cause today it just goes with the fashion
  

Barbenheimer, Pee-Wee Herman and the Women's World Cup.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:17, 15 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 August 2023

• From the editor: Beta version of signpost.news now online
  

News for the editoriat. Stuff that matters.

• News and notes: You like RecentChanges?
  

Wikipedia really comes into its own, editorially and artistically.

• In the media: Taking it sleazy
  

"Poli", which means "many", and "tics", which means "under-the-table Wikipedia article whitewashing campaigns".

• Recent research: The five barriers that impede "stitching" collaboration between Commons and Wikipedia
  

And other recent research publications.

• Draftspace: Bad Jokes and Other Draftspace Novelties
  

The good, the bad, and the nonsense.

• Humour: The Dehumourification Plan
  

A message from the Counter-Fun Unit.

• Traffic report: Raise your drinking glass, here's to yesterday
  

I just poured HOT GRITS down my pants ohh yeah

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:43, 31 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2023).

Administrator changes Pppery Theleekycauldron Dwheeler G.A.S Royalbroil Ssd

CheckUser changes Bradv Oversighter changes Bradv

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, TFAs will be automatically semi-protected the day before it is on the main page and through the day after.
• A discussion at WP:VPP about revision deletion and oversight for dead names found that [s]ysops can choose to use revdel if, in their view, it's the right tool for this situation, and they need not default to oversight. But oversight could well be right where there's a particularly high risk to the person. Use your judgment.

Technical news

• Special:Contributions now shows the user's local edit count and the account's creation date. (T324166)

Arbitration

• The SmallCat dispute case has closed. As part of the final decision, editors participating in XfD have been reminded to be careful about forming local consensus which may or may not reflect the broader community consensus. Regular closers of XfD forums were also encouraged to note when broader community discussion, or changes to policies and guidelines, would be helpful.

Miscellaneous

• Tech tip: The "Browse history interactively" banner shown at the top of Special:Diff can be used to easily look through a history, assemble composite diffs, or find out what archive something wound up in.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:22, 1 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 16 September 2023

• News and notes: Wikimedia power sharing – just an advisory role for the volunteer community?
  

Plus: Africa news, funding report, U4C draft, roads fork and another ChatGPT block.

• In the media: "Just flirting", going Dutch and Shapps for the defence?
  

Plus a new judge, an "unimportant" record, and staying in the swim!

• Obituary: Nosebagbear
  

A Wikipedian and a friend.

• Serendipity: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no paywall, for thou, Wikipedia Library, art with me
  

Non-flammable, BPA-free, and really whips the llama's ass.

• Featured content: Catching up
  

Covering all of August. Pretty much.

• Concept: Strange portal opened by CERN researchers brings Wikipedia articles from "other worlds"
  

The Signpost brings you the latest from the source.

• Traffic report: Some of it's magic, some of it's tragic
  

Sports, film and singers. We've got it all!

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:37, 16 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 3 October 2023

• News and notes: Wikimedia Endowment financial statement published
  

Finances during Tides Foundation management of the endowment are shown for the first time.

• In the media: History is written by whoever can harness the most editors
  

Plus Harvard, Yale, Lords and Commons, partners and trolls!

• Recent research: Readers prefer ChatGPT over Wikipedia; concerns about limiting "anyone can edit" principle "may be overstated"
  

And other new research publications

• Featured content: By your logic,
  

The first issue to feature two poetry article

• Concept: Wikipedia policies from other worlds: WP:NOANTLERS
  

Material must be written with the greatest care and attention; the level of detail and commentary regarding the antlers of living persons is to be kept to a minimum.

• Poetry: "The Sight"
  

Tamzin reflects on the hunt.

• Traffic report: There shall be no slaves in the land of lands, it's a Bollywood jam
  

Taylor Swift with an NFL tight end and Lauren Boebert with a Democrat?

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:31, 3 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 23 October 2023

• News and notes: Where have all the administrators gone?
  

Long time passing

• In the media: Thirst traps, the fastest loading sites on the web, and the original collaborative writing
  

Also: High fives, Wikipedia as a guide for counterfeiters and crossword makers, and Iskander at the UN.

• Gallery: Before and After: Why you don't need to know how to restore images to make massive improvements
  

The benefits of research.

• Featured content: Yo, ho! Blow the man down!
  

These titles never make much sense even at the best of times, so why not be random?

• Traffic report: The calm and the storm
  

They are still fighting.

• News from Diff: Sawtpedia: Giving a Voice to Wikipedia Using QR Codes
  

Sounds good!

• Humour: New citation template introduced for divine revelations, drug use, and really thinking about it
  

"Cite altered state" to join the distinguished ranks of CS1 templates

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:01, 23 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 6 November 2023

• Arbitration report: Admin bewilderingly unmasks self as sockpuppet of other admin who was extremely banned in 2015
  

"Is this an ArbCom case request or an M. Night Shyamalan movie?"

• In the media: UK shadow chancellor accused of ripping off WP articles for book, Wikipedians accused of being dicks by a rich man
  

Plus Gaza bias, Speaker Johnson, Maher, the music of websites, and antisemitism.

• News and notes: Board candidacy process posted, editors protest WMF privacy measure, sweet meetups
  

And three new admins!

• Opinion: An open letter to Elon Musk
  

You should learn some of our rules!

• WikiCup report: The WikiCup 2023
  

The winner is...

• News from Wiki Ed: Equity lists on Wikipedia
  

Do you ever wonder where Wikipedia articles come from?

• Recent research: How English Wikipedia drove out fringe editors over two decades
  

And other new research findings.

• Featured content: Like putting a golf course in a historic site.
  

Only literally.

• Wikidata: Evaluating qualitative systemic bias in large article sets on Wikipedia
  

A systematic approach.

• Traffic report: Cricket jumpscare
  

Plus Kollywood, Killers of the Flower Moon, and ongoing war.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:44, 6 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2023).

Administrator changes

0xDeadbeef

Tamzin

Dennis Brown

Interface administrator changes

Pppery

• Ragesoss
• TheresNoTime

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

• The WMF is working on making it possible for administrators to edit MediaWiki configuration directly. This is similar to previous work on Special:EditGrowthConfig. A technical RfC is running until November 08, where you can provide feedback.
• There is a proposed plan for re-enabling the Graph Extension. Feedback on this proposal is requested.

Arbitration

• Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate themselves from 12 November 2023 until 21 November 2023 to stand in the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections.
• Xaosflux, RoySmith and Cyberpower678 have been appointed to the Electoral Commission for the 2023 Arbitration Committee Elections. BusterD is the reserve commissioner.
• Following a motion, the contentious topic designation of Prem Rawat has been struck. Actions previously taken using this contentious topic designation are still in force.
• Following several motions, multiple topic areas are no longer designated as a contentious topic. These contentious topic designations were from the Editor conduct in e-cigs articles, Liancourt Rocks, Longevity, Medicine, September 11 conspiracy theories, and Shakespeare authorship question cases.
• Following a motion, remedies 3.1 (All related articles under 1RR whenever the dispute over naming is concerned), 6 (Stalemate resolution) and 30 (Administrative supervision) of the Macedonia 2 case have been rescinded.
• Following a motion, remedy 6 (One-revert rule) of the The Troubles case has been amended.
• An arbitration case named Industrial agriculture has been opened. Evidence submissions in this case close 8 November.

Miscellaneous

• The Articles for Creation backlog drive is happening in November 2023, with 700+ drafts pending reviews for in the last 4 months or so. In addition to the AfC participants, all administrators and New Page Patrollers can conduct reviews using the helper script, Yet Another AFC Helper Script, which can be enabled in the Gadgets settings. Sign up here to participate!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:23, 7 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 20 November 2023

• In the media: Propaganda and photos, lunatics and a lunar backup
  

Comic-con, Media summit, and a classic!

• News and notes: Update on Wikimedia's financial health
  

Plus: Sockpuppet investigators asking for help.

• Traffic report: If it bleeds, it leads
  

Or if it's Indian sport or cinema.

• Recent research: Canceling disputes as the real function of ArbCom
  

And other new research findings.

• Wikimania: Wikimania 2024 scholarships
  

Scholarship applications for Wikimania 2024 are now open!

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:44, 20 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2023 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 11 December 2023. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2023 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:22, 28 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 4 December 2023

• News and notes: Beeblebrox ejected from Arbitration Committee following posts on Wikipediocracy
  

Just as his term was ending!

• In the media: Turmoil on Hebrew Wikipedia, grave dancing, Olga's impact and inspiring Bhutanese nuns
  

Plus Apple Pay, fiction, registration, expulsion, and elimination!

• Disinformation report: "Wikipedia and the assault on history"
  

An analysis of a literary mystery.

• In focus: Tens of thousands of freely available sources flagged
  

Continuing years of efforts to improve free-to-read access.

• Comix: Bold comics for a new age
  

"I think we ought to read only the kind of comics that wound or stab us. If the comic we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for?" — Franz Kafka

• Essay: I am going to die
  

And so are you.

• Featured content: Real gangsters move in silence
  

Quite literally, and other fascinating featured articles, pictures and lists

• Traffic report: And it's hard to watch some cricket, in the cold November Rain
  

If you don't fancy the sport that occupies over 25% of the slots in these lists, there's always movies, celebrities, and political follies to fall back on – or an unusual fired-for-the-weekend CEO.

• Humour: Mandy Rice-Davies Applies
  

This page in a nutshell: Whether or not someone has denied unsavory allegations — though such a denial may not merit being given equal weight in an article — a worthless shitpost should still be included.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:09, 4 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – December 2023

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2023).

Administrator changes

• Ganesha811
• JPxG

• Ajpolino
• Lourdes
• Mairi
• RockMFR
• Somno
• WilyD

Beeblebrox → Just Step Sideways

CheckUser changes

• Beeblebrox
• Opabinia regalis

Oversight changes

• Beeblebrox
• Opabinia regalis

Guideline and policy news

• Following a talk page discussion, the Administrators' accountability policy has been updated to note that while it is considered best practice for administrators to have notifications (pings) enabled, this is not mandatory. Administrators who do not use notifications are now strongly encouraged to indicate this on their user page.

Arbitration

• Following a motion, the Extended Confirmed Restriction has been amended, removing the allowance for non-extended-confirmed editors to post constructive comments on the "Talk:" namespace. Now, non-extended-confirmed editors may use the "Talk:" namespace solely to make edit requests related to articles within the topic area, provided that their actions are not disruptive.
• The Arbitration Committee has announced a call for Checkusers and Oversighters, stating that it will currently be accepting applications for CheckUser and/or Oversight permissions at any point in the year.
• Eligible users are invited to vote on candidates for the Arbitration Committee until 23:59 December 11, 2023 (UTC). Candidate statements can be seen here.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:54, 8 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 24 December 2023

• Special report: Did the Chinese Communist Party send astroturfers to sabotage a hacktivist's Wikipedia article?
  

Wikipedia article histories are public records that can be easily examined, so unlike other websites, we can answer this question thoroughly.

• News and notes: The Italian Public Domain wars continue, Wikimedia RU set to dissolve, and a recap of WLM 2023
  

Not the best of times for Wikipedians across the world, but there are still glimpses of hope...

• In the media: Consider the humble fork
  

Forky on forky on forky, plus a strange donation scheme and other interesting bits of news.

• Discussion report: Arabic Wikipedia blackout; Wikimedians discuss SpongeBob, copyrights, and AI
  

Wiki goes dark and adopts Palestine flag logo; intellectual property rumblings from the bowels of the law.

• In focus: Liquidation of Wikimedia RU
  

Wikimedia Russia closes after founder is declared a "foreign agent".

• Technology report: Dark mode is coming
  

No more must Wikipedia always be a lightbulb in the dark — except metaphorically of course.

• Recent research: "LLMs Know More, Hallucinate Less" with Wikidata
  

And other new research publications.

• Gallery: A feast of holidays and carols
  

Peace on earth, goodwill to all!

• Comix: Lollus lmaois 200C tincture
  

the dilution makes it stronger.

• Crossword: when the crossword is sus
  

The Signpost Crossword is a 2018 online multiplayer social deduction game that takes place in space-themed settings where players are colorful, armless cartoon astronauts.

• Traffic report: What's the big deal? I'm an animal!
  

Bollywood, Hollywood, and both kinds of football to close out December.

• From the editor: A piccy iz worth OVAR 9000!!!11oneone! wordz ^_^
  

The debugging will continue until performance improves.

• Apocrypha: Local editor discovered 1,380 lost subheadings in ancient Signpost scrolls. And what he found was shocking.
  

Heartwarming — MUST READ — You Won't BELIEVE #4!!!!!

• Humour: Guess the joke contest
  

Winner receives a special prize!

• BJAODN: Bad jokes and other deleted nonsense
  

Edit summary: "Only need this page for about 30 minutes to demonstrate to a friend how easy it is to create a Wikipedia page. Then it will be deleted."

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:58, 24 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2023).

Administrator changes

Clovermoss

Dennis Brown

• Julia W
• Marasmusine
• PBS

CheckUser changes

• Aoidh
• HJ Mitchell
• Sdrqaz
• Spicy
• ToBeFree
• Vanamonde93
• Z1720

Maxim

• Enterprisey
• Izno
• SilkTork

Oversighter changes

• Aoidh
• Firefly
• Sdrqaz
• ToBeFree
• Z1720

Maxim

• Enterprisey
• Izno
• SilkTork

Arbitration

• Following the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Aoidh, Cabayi, Firefly, HJ Mitchell, Maxim, Sdrqaz, ToBeFree, Z1720.
• Following a motion, the Arbitration Committee rescinded the restrictions on the page name move discussions for the two Ireland pages that were enacted in June 2009.
• The arbitration case Industrial agriculture has been closed.

Miscellaneous

• The New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in January 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles in the new pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 13,000 unreviewed articles awaiting review. Sign up here to participate!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:54, 1 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 10 January 2024

• From the editor: NINETEEN MORE YEARS! NINETEEN MORE YEARS!
  

The Signpost can now drink beer and chant slogans in Canada. What slogans should we chant for the next nineteen years?

• Special report: Public Domain Day 2024
  

Mickey & You: What can you do?

• Technology report: Wikipedia: A Multigenerational Pursuit
  

A techie looks at the big questions.

• News and notes: In other news ... see ya in court!
  

Let the games begin! The 2024 WikiCup is off to a strong start. With copyright enforcement, AI training and freedom of expression, it's another typical week in the wiki-sphere!

• In focus: The long road of a featured article candidate
  

The first of two installments, regarding a process of many installments.

• In the media: What is plagiarism? Oklahoma Disneyland? Reaching a human being at Wikipedia?
  

Watch out for those space ships!

• WikiProject report: WikiProjects Israel and Palestine
  

What are the editorial processes behind covering some of the most politically polarizing and contentious topics on English Wikipedia?

• Obituary: Anthony Bradbury
  

Rest in peace.

• Traffic report: The most viewed articles of 2023
  

Around the world in 365 days (with many stops in India).

• Crossword: everybody gangsta till the style sheets start cascading
  

The good news is that I've perfected the templates that allow other people to make actually good crosswords.

• Comix: Conflict resolution
  

Getting down to brass tacks &c.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:49, 12 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship

Happy Adminship	from the Birthday Committee
Wishing NoSeptember a very happy adminship anniversary on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! -- Ezra Cricket (talk) 04:06, 22 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

The Signpost: 31 January 2024

• News and notes: Wikipedian Osama Khalid celebrated his 30th birthday in jail
  

Plus WMF child rights impact assessment, Chinese Wikipedia changes admin rules

• Opinion: Until it happens to you
  

A stream of consciousness about plagiarism on Wikipedia from the perspective of a user who directly witnessed it.

• Disinformation report: How paid editors squeeze you dry
  

And how you can stop them!

• In the media: Katherine Maher new NPR CEO, go check Wikipedia, race in the race
  

Another wobble, more Ackman, our usual pathological optimist, and football in dirty pants!

• In focus: The long road of a featured article candidate, part 2
  

Everything you really wanted to know about writing featured articles.

• Recent research: Croatian takeover was enabled by "lack of bureaucratic openness and rules constraining [admins]"
  

And other new research publications.

• Comix: We've all got to start somewhere
  

Writing a good subheading for a one-sentence joke is basically like writing an entire second joke so I'm not going to do it.

• Traffic report: DJ, gonna burn this goddamn house right down
  

Job changes, death, sex, murder, suicide and a vacation!

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:14, 31 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – February 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2024).

Administrator changes

• Red-tailed hawk
• Robertsky

• Ameliorate!
• Ancheta Wis
• Anthony Bradbury (deceased)
• Cobi
• Ev
• Moondyne
• Worm That Turned

Bureaucrat changes

Worm That Turned

CheckUser changes

Wugapodes

Interface administrator changes

• Enterprisey
• Izno

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC about increasing the inactivity requirement for Interface administrators is open for feedback.

Technical news

• Pages that use the JSON contentmodel will now use tabs instead of spaces for auto-indentation. This will significantly reduce the page size. (T326065)

Arbitration

• Following a motion, the Arbitration Committee adopted a new enforcement restriction on January 4, 2024, wherein the Committee may apply the 'Reliable source consensus-required restriction' to specified topic areas.
• Community feedback is requested for a draft to replace the "Information for administrators processing requests" section at WP:AE.

Miscellaneous

• Voting in the 2024 Steward elections will begin on 06 February 2024, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 27 February 2024, 14:00 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
• A vote to ratify the charter for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is open till 2 February 2024, 23:59:59 (UTC) via Secure Poll. All eligible voters within the Wikimedia community have the opportunity to either support or oppose the adoption of the U4C Charter and share their reasons. The details of the voting process and voter eligibility can be found here.
• Community Tech has made some preliminary decisions about the future of the Community Wishlist Survey. In summary, they aim to develop a new, continuous intake system for community technical requests that improves prioritization, resource allocation, and communication regarding wishes. Read more
• The Unreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in February 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with {{Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles. Sign up to participate!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:00, 1 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 13 February 2024

• News and notes: Wikimedia Russia director declared "foreign agent" by Russian gov; EU prepares to pile on the papers
  

"the exact extent of the obligations" unclear... many such cases!

• Disinformation report: How low can the scammers go?
  

Lower, trust me!

• Gallery: Before and After: Why you don't need to touch grass to dramatically improve images of flora and fauna
  

Finding the right bumblebee among all the bumblebees!

• In the media: Speaking in tongues, toeing the line, and dressing the part
  

The usual odd articles about Wikipedia.

• Serendipity: Is this guy the same as the one who was a Nazi?
  

The hunt for Bertil Ragnar Anzén.

• Traffic report: Griselda, Nikki, Carl, Jannik and two types of football
  

Plus films, Grammys and a rumble!

• Crossword: Our crossword to bear
  

&c.

• Comix: Strongly
  

That's more than weakly!

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:36, 13 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – March 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2024).

Administrator changes Sdkb The Night Watch East718 Isabelle Belato Mzajac Staecker Stan Shebs Sugarfish Tamzin

Bureaucrat changes SilkTork

Guideline and policy news

• Phase I of the 2024 RfA review is now open for participation. Editors are invited to review, comment on, and propose improvements to the requests for adminship process.
• Following an RfC, the inactivity requirement for the removal of the interface administrator right increased from 6 months to 12 months.

Technical news

• The mobile site history pages now use the same HTML as the desktop history pages. (T353388)

Miscellaneous

• The 2024 appointees for the Ombuds commission are だ＊ぜ, AGK, Ameisenigel, Bennylin, Daniuu, Doǵu, Emufarmers, Faendalimas, MdsShakil, Minorax, Nehaoua, Renvoy and RoySmith as members, with Vermont serving as steward-observer.
• Following the 2024 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: Ajraddatz, Albertoleoncio, EPIC, JJMC89, Johannnes89, Melos and Yahya.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:22, 1 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 2 March 2024

• News and notes: Wikimedia enters US Supreme court hearings as "the dolphin inadvertently caught in the net"
  

Plus, the U4C Charter keeps planting seeds, the RfA process is set to become more sustainable, and more news from the Wikimedia ecosystem.

• Recent research: Images on Wikipedia "amplify gender bias"
  

And other new findings

• In the media: The Scottish Parliament gets involved, a wikirace on live TV, and the Foundation's CTO goes on record
  

Plus, naughty politicians, Federal judge not a fan, UFOs and beavers.

• Obituary: Vami_IV
  

Rest in peace.

• Traffic report: Supervalentinefilmbowlday
  

If you say it loud enough the views will come your way!

• WikiCup report: High-scoring WikiCup first round comes to a close
  

135 battle it out; 67 advance

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:02, 2 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 March 2024

• Technology report: Millions of readers still seeing broken pages as "temporary" disabling of graph extension nears its second year
  

Much effort was spent drafting a movement charter about becoming "essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge". How much is spent maintaining it?

• Interview: Interview on Wikimedia Foundation fundraising and finance strategy
  

Signpost interviews Wikimedia Foundation leadership on fundraising banners

• Special report: 19-page PDF accuses Wikipedia of bias against Israel, suggests editors be forced to reveal their real names, and demands a new feature allowing people to view the history of Wikipedia articles
  

And does it have anything to do with the unusual decision to let a zero-edit user open an arbitration request?

• Op-Ed: Wikipedia in the age of personality-driven knowledge
  

Can we compete with social media? Will aoomers forget Wikipedia?

• Recent research: "Newcomer Homepage" feature mostly fails to boost new editors
  

And several papers look at climate change on Wikipedia

• News and notes: Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee Charter ratified
  

WLM winners announced, Wikimania 2024, a new Wikimedia movement affiliate, and active enwp admins reach a record low.

• In the media: "For me it’s the autism": AARoad editors on the fork more traveled
  

Worldwide women turned blue and controversies on Serbian & French Wikipedia.

• Traffic report: He rules over everything, on the land called planet Dune
  

Let me take you to the movies.

• Humour: Letters from the editors
  

The only worthwhile grievance is the one that prompts satire.

• Comix: Layout issue
  

margin: 0 auto !important;

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:40, 29 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2024).

Administrator changes

• Kbdank71
• Kosack
• NrDg
• TLSuda

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC is open to convert all current and future community discretionary sanctions to (community designated) contentious topics procedure.

Technical news

• The Toolforge Grid Engine services have been shut down after the final migration process from Grid Engine to Kubernetes. (T313405)

Arbitration

• An arbitration case has been opened to look into "the intersection of managing conflict of interest editing with the harassment (outing) policy".

Miscellaneous

• Editors are invited to sign up for The Core Contest, an initiative running from April 15 to May 31, which aims to improve vital and other core articles on Wikipedia.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:48, 1 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Happy First Edit Day!

The Signpost: 25 April 2024

• In the media: Censorship and wikiwashing looming over RuWiki, edit wars over San Francisco politics, and another wikirace on live TV
  

Plus, tribute songs and shout-outs outweighing vandalism and hoaxes, a dispute about the real king of the platform and other bits of news.

• News and notes: A sigh of relief for open access as Italy makes a slight U-turn on their cultural heritage reproduction law
  

Plus, new updates on the privacy and research ethics whitepaper and the graphs outage situation, and an Iranian former steward is globally banned from Wikimedia projects

• WikiConference report: WikiConference North America 2023 in Toronto recap
  

Outcomes of the event including newly published videos and photos, the archived conference website and program, and some attendee reflections on its significance.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Newspapers (Not WP:NOTNEWS)
  

A WikiProject report on the 📰🌍 globe's finest news source!

• Recent research: New survey of over 100,000 Wikipedia users
  

And other recent research publications

• Traffic report: O.J., cricket and a three body problem
  

Plus Godzilla meets Francis Scott Key!

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:49, 25 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2024).

Administrator changes

Nyttend

• JohnOwens
• Killiondude
• MelanieN
• Nihonjoe

Bureaucrat changes

Nihonjoe

CheckUser changes

Joe Roe

Oversight changes

GeneralNotability

Guideline and policy news

• Phase I of the 2024 requests for adminship review has concluded. Several proposals have passed outright and will proceed to implementation, including creating a discussion-only period (3b) and administrator elections (13) on a trial basis. Other successful proposals, such as creating a reminder of civility norms (2), will undergo further refinement in Phase II. Proposals passed on a trial basis will be discussed in Phase II, after their trials conclude. Further details on specific proposals can be found in the full report.

Technical news

• Partial action blocks are now in effect on the English Wikipedia. This means that administrators have the ability to restrict users from certain actions, including uploading files, moving pages and files, creating new pages, and sending thanks. T280531

Arbitration

• The arbitration case Conflict of interest management has been closed.

Miscellaneous

• This may be a good time to reach out to potential nominees to ask if they would consider an RfA.
• A New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in May 2024 to reduce the number of unreviewed articles in the new pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 15,000 articles awaiting review. Sign up here to participate!
• Voting for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) election is open until 9 May 2024. Read the voting page on Meta-Wiki and cast your vote here!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:24, 2 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 16 May 2024

• News and notes: Democracy in action: multiple elections
  

WMF trustee elections, U4C results, Italian ArbCom, WMF and Endowment annual reports.

• Special report: Will the new RfA reform come to the rescue of administrators?
  

We don't know yet, but there is some encouraging news, nevertheless.

• Arbitration report: Ruined temples for posterity to ponder over – arbitration from '22 to '24
  

Some go out with a bang, some with a whimper, few with much of a comprehensible explanation.

• In the media: Deadnames on the French Wikipedia, and a duel between Russian wikis
  

Plus, the WMF joins the Unicode Consortium, Chris Albon talks about AI tools on Wikipedia, communities address under-representation on the site.

• Op-Ed: Wikidata to split as sheer volume of information overloads infrastructure
  

More queries are failing, and more frequently, so what is to be done?

• Comix: Generations
  

It do be like that sometimes.

• Traffic report: Crawl out through the fallout, baby
  

With cricket and some cute baby reindeer!

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:58, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2024).

Administrator changes

Graham Beards

• Deskana
• Mets501
• Staxringold

Bureaucrat changes

• Deskana
• Warofdreams

Oversight changes

Dreamy Jazz

Guideline and policy news

• Phase II of the 2024 RfA review has commenced to improve and refine the proposals passed in Phase I.

Technical news

• The Nuke feature, which enables administrators to mass delete pages, will now correctly delete pages which were moved to another title. T43351

Arbitration

• The arbitration case Venezuelan politics has been closed.
• The Committee is seeking volunteers for various roles, including access to the conflict of interest VRT queue.

Miscellaneous

• WikiProject Reliability's unsourced statements drive is happening in June 2024 to replace {{citation needed}} tags with references! Sign up here to participate!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:44, 5 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 8 June 2024

• News and notes: Wikimedia Foundation publishes its Form 990 for fiscal year 2022-2023
  

The Form 990, as well as highlights and FAQs, are now available for review.

• Technology report: New Page Patrol receives a much-needed software upgrade
  

A new model for collaboration between the WMF and the community?

• Deletion report: The lore of Kalloor
  

Hoaxes and the genesis of information.

• In the media: National cable networks get in on the action arguing about what the first sentence of a Wikipedia article ought to say
  

First line, sixth paragraph, body text or unified Reich?

• News from the WMF: Progress on the plan — how the Wikimedia Foundation advanced on its Annual Plan goals during the first half of fiscal year 2023-2024
  

Outlining progress against the four key goals

• Opinion: Public response to the editors of Settler Colonial Studies
  

A letter.

• Recent research: ChatGPT did not kill Wikipedia, but might have reduced its growth
  

And various research findings about Wikidata and knowledge graphs.

• Featured content: We didn't start the wiki
  

No we didn't write it, but we tried to cite it

• Essay: No queerphobia
  

An essay.

• Special report: RetractionBot is back to life!
  

... and flagging your articles with big ugly red notices! (This is a good thing.)

• Traffic report: Chimps, Eurovision, and the return of the Baby Reindeer
  

Movies, deaths, elections (but no cricket).

• Comix: The Wikipediholic Family
  

Some stuff's only okay in the privacy of the home.

• Humour: Wikipedia rattled by sophisticated cyberattack of schoolboy typing "balls" in infobox
  

Project in shambles – "it had never occurred to us that this was possible".

• Concept: Palimpsestuous
  

Hypertext.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:27, 8 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 4 July 2024

• News and notes: WMF board elections and fundraising updates
  

Three new admins, but overall numbers still shrinking.

• Special report: Wikimedia Movement Charter ratification vote underway, new Council may surpass power of Board
  

Will we weather the storm?

• In focus: How the Russian Wikipedia keeps it clean despite having just a couple dozen administrators
  

Unbundling, automation, fighting spirit, and a bot named Reimu Hakurei.

• Discussion report: Wikipedians are hung up on the meaning of Madonna
  

Debate unsettled after seventeen years.

• In the media: War and information in war and politics
  

Advocacy organizations, a journalist, mycophobes, conservatives, leftists, photographers, and a disinformation task force imagine themselves in Wikipedia.

• Sister projects: On editing Wikisource
  

A journey to a sister project.

• Obituary: Hanif Al Husaini, Salazarov, Hyacinth, and PirjanovNurlan
  

Rest in peace.

• Opinion: Etika: a Pop Culture Champion
  

An article about Etika's appeal and legacy in pop culture.

• Gallery: Spokane Willy's photos
  

A virtual visit to the Inland Northwest.

• Op-Ed: Why you should not vote in the 2024 WMF BoT elections
  

"Simply not good enough".

• Crossword: On a day of independence, beat crosswords into crossploughshares
  

How well do you know the main page (no peeking)?

• Humour: A joke
  

...!

• Cobwebs: Counting to a billion — manuscripts don't burn
  

Special:Diff/1 and related techno-trivia more complicated than you'd think.

• Recent research: Is Wikipedia Politically Biased? Perhaps
  

And other new publications on systemic bias and other topics.

• Traffic report: Talking about you and me, and the games people play
  

Elections, movies, sports.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:39, 4 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2024).

Administrator changes

• Elli
• HouseBlaster
• Pickersgill-Cunliffe

• Brianga
• De728631
• Georgewilliamherbert
• Hyacinth (deceased)
• ProveIt
• The Night Watch

Technical news

• Local administrators can now add new links to the bottom of the site Tools menu without using JavaScript. Documentation is available on MediaWiki. (T6086)

Miscellaneous

• The Community Wishlist is re-opening on 15 July 2024. Read more

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:59, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 22 July 2024

• Discussion report: Internet users flock to Wikipedia to debate its image policy over Trump raised-fist photo
  

Iconic photograph, invalid fair use exemption criterion #3a claimant, or both?

• News and notes: Wikimedia community votes to ratify Movement Charter; Wikimedia Foundation opposes ratification
  

Establishment of power-sharing agreement between WMF corporation and volunteer user community in limbo.

• News from the WMF: Wikimedia Foundation Board resolution and vote on the proposed Movement Charter
  

Natalia Tymkiv, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, on the Charter vote results, the resolution, meeting minutes, and proposed next steps.

• Essay: Reflections on editing and obsession
  

A lost Signpost submission from fifteen years ago brought into the light, as good and true now as it was then.

• In the media: What's on Putin's fork, the court's docket, and in Harrison's book?
  

Failing forks, smart and well-researched stories, LGBT rights, and oral sex!

• Obituary: JamesR
  

Rest in peace.

• Crossword: Vaguely bird-shaped crossword
  

Do you know these Wikipedia quotes?

• Humour: Joe Biden withdraws RfA, Donald Trump selects co-nom
  

Dems in disarray, GOP in chaos — analysts say news expected, but few can predict how race will shape up from here.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:31, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2024).

Administrator changes

Isabelle Belato

• Ian.thomson
• Modussiccandi

Interface administrator changes

Izno

CheckUser changes

Barkeep49

Technical news

• Global blocks may now target accounts as well as IP's. Administrators may locally unblock when appropriate.
• Users wishing to permanently leave may now request "vanishing" via Special:GlobalVanishRequest. Processed requests will result in the user being renamed, their recovery email being removed, and their account being globally locked.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee appointed the following administrators to the conflict of interest volunteer response team: Bilby, Extraordinary Writ

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:00, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 14 August 2024

• In the media: Portland pol profile paid for from public purse
  

A STORM over an AI that writes articles. And other notes of interest.

• Recent research: STORM: AI agents role-play as "Wikipedia editors" and "experts" to create Wikipedia-like articles, a more sophisticated effort than previous auto-generation systems
  

And other findings.

• In focus: Twitter marks the spot
  

Musk's Twitter acquisition and rebranding have caused long debates on Wikipedia.

• News and notes: Another Wikimania has concluded.
  

And Movement Charter ratification vote comments have been published

• Special report: Nano or just nothing: Will nano go nuclear?
  

Possibly paid articles.

• Opinion: HouseBlaster's RfA debriefing
  

HouseBlaster's reflections on his RfA. In particular, do not ask superlative questions.

• Traffic report: Ball games, movies, elections, but nothing really weird
  

Just normally weird!

• Humour: I'm proud to be a template
  

Come in, you whippersnapper, have a cup of tea.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:49, 14 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – September 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2024).

Administrator changes

Pppery

Interface administrator changes

Pppery

Oversighter changes

Wugapodes

CheckUser changes

• Courcelles
• GeneralNotability

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, there is a new criterion for speedy deletion: C4, which applies to unused maintenance categories, such as empty dated maintenance categories for dates in the past.
• A request for comment is open to discuss whether Notability (species) should be adopted as a subject-specific notability guideline.

Arbitration

• Following a motion, remedies 5.1 and 5.2 of World War II and the history of Jews in Poland (the topic and interaction bans on My very best wishes, respectively) were repealed.
• Remedy 3C of the German war effort case ("Cinderella157 German history topic ban") was suspended for a period of six months.
• The arbitration case Historical Elections is currently open. Proposed decision is expected by 3 September 2024 for this case.

Miscellaneous

• Editors can now enter into good article review circles, an alternative for informal quid pro quo arrangements, to have a GAN reviewed in return for reviewing a different editor's nomination.
• A New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in September 2024 to reduce the number of unreviewed articles and redirects in the new pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 13,900 articles and 26,200 redirects awaiting review. Sign up here to participate!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:43, 2 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 4 September 2024

• News and notes: WikiCup enters final round, MCDC wraps up activities, 17-year-old hoax article unmasked
  

JCW compilation now tracks free DOIs, Wiki Loves Monuments getting started, WMF's status as UN observer stymied by China for fourth time.

• In the media: AI is not playing games anymore. Is Wikipedia ready?
  

Updates from the Portland pol's case, the war in Gaza, and other Wiki-related reports.

• Recent research: Simulated Wikipedia seen as less credible than ChatGPT and Alexa in experiment
  

And other new research findings

• News from the WMF: Meet the 12 candidates running in the WMF Board of Trustees election
  

Who are they, why are they running and what are they bringing to the Board?

• Wikimania: A month after Wikimania 2024
  

What all happened in Katowice?

• Serendipity: What it's like to be Wikimedian of the Year
  

Hannah Clover shares her fondest memories of her first Wikimania.

• Traffic report: After the gold rush
  

The Olympics (yay!) and the American election (oh no).

• Humour: Local man halfway through rude reply no longer able to recall why he hates other editor
  

"I can't remember whether he is an incompetent moron, or an incorrigible POV warrior, or some other thing, but either way, to hell with him."

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:27, 4 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 26 September 2024

• In the media: Courts order Wikipedia to give up names of editors, legal strain anticipated from "online safety laws"
  

ANI (but probably not the one you're thinking of), bias and bans, crisis and Clover, Engelhorn's euros, and will the zoomers inherit the project?

• Community view: Indian courts order Wikipedia to take down name of crime victim, editors strive towards consensus
  

In response to a takedown request, Wikipedia editors reached a consensus on how to handle it appropriately.

• Serendipity: A Wikipedian at the 2024 Paralympics
  

User Hawkeye7 opens up on his experience as a media representative following the Australian team at the latest Summer Paralympics in Paris.

• Opinion: asilvering's RfA debriefing
  

User asilvering reflects on their recent successful request for adminship.

• News and notes: Are you ready for admin elections?
  

More changes to RfA on the way in October, final results for the U4C elections revealed, and other news from the Wikimedia world.

• Gallery: Are Luddaites defending the English Wikipedia?
  

Picture this: medicine, drugs, JFK, Cleopatra, anachronism, and global catastrophe.

• Recent research: Article-writing AI is less "prone to reasoning errors (or hallucinations)" than human Wikipedia editors
  

And other recent research publications.

• Traffic report: Jump in the line, rock your body in time
  

Band reunions and Beetlejuice!

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:10, 26 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – October 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2024).

Administrator changes

• Asilvering
• Significa liberdade

• Good Olfactory
• Hesperian
• I JethroBT
• TommyBoy
• Woody

CheckUser changes

• Barkeep49
• Izno

• Doug Weller
• Spicy

Guideline and policy news

• Administrator elections are a proposed new process for selecting administrators, offering an alternative to requests for adminship (RfA). The first trial election will take place in October 2024, with candidate sign-up from October 8 to 14, a discussion phase from October 22 to 24, and SecurePoll voting from October 25 to 31. For questions or to help out, please visit the talk page at Wikipedia talk:Administrator elections.
• Following a discussion, the speedy deletion reason "File pages without a corresponding file" has been moved from criterion G8 to F2. This does not change what can be speedily deleted.
• A request for comment is open to discuss whether there is a consensus to have an administrator recall process.

Arbitration

• The arbitration case Historical elections has been closed.
• An arbitration case regarding Backlash to diversity and inclusion has been opened.
• Editors are invited to nominate themselves to serve on the 2024 Arbitration Committee Electoral Commission until 23:59 October 8, 2024 (UTC).

Miscellaneous

• If you are interested in stopping spammers, please put MediaWiki talk:Spam-whitelist and MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist on your watchlist, and help out when you can.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:00, 2 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 19 October 2024

• News and notes: One election's end, another election's beginning
  

Find more about the new Trustees, the first election cycle for admins, and other news from the Wikimedia world.

• Recent research: "As many as 5%" of new English Wikipedia articles "contain significant AI-generated content", says paper
  

And other searchings and findings.

• In the media: Off to the races! Wikipedia wins!
  

Perplexing persistence, pay to play, potential president's possible plagiarism, crossword crossover to culture, and a wish come true!

• Contest: A WikiCup for the Global South
  

Can it be fun to address systemic bias? Eighty participants say yes, it can!

• Traffic report: A scream breaks the still of the night
  

Help me make it through the night!

• Book review: The Editors
  

A novel about us, from the point of view of three of us.

• Humour: The Newspaper Editors
  

Where do I even start?

• Crossword: Spilled Coffee Mug
  

Pasta, acronyms, and one computer-crashing talk page.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:15, 19 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Invitation to participate in a research

Hello,

The Wikimedia Foundation is conducting a survey of Wikipedians to better understand what draws administrators to contribute to Wikipedia, and what affects administrator retention. We will use this research to improve experiences for Wikipedians, and address common problems and needs. We have identified you as a good candidate for this research, and would greatly appreciate your participation in this anonymous survey.

You do not have to be an Administrator to participate.

The survey should take around 10-15 minutes to complete. You may read more about the study on its Meta page and view its privacy statement .

Please find our contact on the project Meta page if you have any questions or concerns.

Kind Regards,

WMF Research Team

BGerdemann (WMF) (talk) 19:22, 23 October 2024 (UTC) [reply]

Administrators' newsletter – November 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2024).

Administrator changes

• Crisco 1492

• Babajobu
• Daniel
• Elf
• Jayron32
• Thue
• Wugapodes

CheckUser changes

Maxim

Oversighter changes

Maxim

Guideline and policy news

• Following a discussion, the discussion-only period proposal that went for a trial to refine the requests for adminship (RfA) process has been discontinued.
• Following a request for comment, Administrator recall is adopted as a policy.

Technical news

• Mass deletions done with the Nuke tool now have the 'Nuke' tag. This change will make reviewing and analyzing deletions performed with the tool easier. T366068

Arbitration

• RoySmith, Barkeep49 and Cyberpower678 have been appointed to the Electoral Commission for the 2024 Arbitration Committee Elections. ThadeusOfNazereth and Dr vulpes are reserve commissioners.
• Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate from 3 November 2024 until 12 November 2024 to stand in the 2024 Arbitration Committee elections.
• The Arbitration Committee is seeking volunteers for roles such as clerks, access to the COI queue, checkuser, and oversight.

Miscellaneous

• An unreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in November 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with {{Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles. Sign up to participate!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:21, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 6 November 2024

• From the editors: Editing Wikipedia should not be a crime
  

But not everybody is able to legally read Wikipedia, and not everybody is able to legally edit Wikipedia.

• News and notes: Wikimedia Foundation shares ANI lawsuit updates; first admin elections appoint eleven sysops; first admin recalls opened; temporary accounts coming soon?
  

Defamation, privacy, censorship, and elections.

• In the media: An old scrimmage, politics and purported libel
  

Plus human knowledge and Ozzie places!

• Special report: Wikipedia editors face litigation, censorship
  

Asian News International, the Delhi High Court, and the encyclopedia.

• Gallery: Why you should take more photos and upload them
  

Your photos are more valuable than you may realize.

• In focus: Questions and answers about the court case
  

What is going on?

• Traffic report: Twisted tricks or tempting treats?
  

And Tata too!

• Technology report: Wikimedia tech, the Asian News International case, and the ultra-rare BLACKLOCK
  

IP address privacy tools, and mysterious archive sites.

• Humour: Man quietly slinks away from talk page argument after realizing his argument dumb, wrong
  

Many such cases.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:05, 6 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Reminder to participate in Wikipedia research

Hello,

I recently invited you to take a survey about administration on Wikipedia. If you haven’t yet had a chance, there is still time to participate– we’d truly appreciate your feedback. The survey is anonymous and should take about 10-15 minutes to complete. You may read more about the study on its Meta page and view its privacy statement.

Take the survey here.

Kind Regards,

WMF Research Team

BGerdemann (WMF) (talk) 00:17, 13 November 2024 (UTC) [reply]

The Signpost: 18 November 2024

• News and notes: Open letter to WMF about court case breaks one thousand signatures, big arb case declined, U4C begins accepting cases
  

Many cases: many such cases.

• In the media: Summons issued for Wikipedia editors by Indian court, "Gaza genocide" RfC close in news, old admin Gwern now big AI guy, and a "spectrum of reluctance" over Australian place names
  

Publisher versus intermediary, bias versus verifiability, and probing questions about Gwern's personal finances.

• Recent research: SPINACH: AI help for asking Wikidata "challenging real-world questions"
  

And other recent publications.

• News from the WMF: Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Endowment audit reports: FY 2023–2024
  

An overview of the finances and an explanation of what the numbers mean.

• Traffic report: Well, let us share with you our knowledge, about the electoral college
  

It's so over.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:43, 18 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2024 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2024 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 2 December 2024. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2024 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:09, 19 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – December 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2024).

Administrator changes

• Ahecht
• DoubleGrazing
• Dr vulpes
• FOARP
• Peaceray
• Queen of Hearts
• Rsjaffe
• SD0001
• SilverLocust
• Sohom Datta
• ThadeusOfNazereth
• Voorts

• Ajpolino
• Fathoms Below
• Pppery
• Tamzin
• Worm That Turned

• Aervanath
• Christopher Sundita
• Dank
• Dennis Brown
• Dragons flight
• Fastily
• Graham87
• JaGa
• Kbh3rd
• Marine 69-71
• Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington
• Yamamoto Ichiro

Interface administrator changes

• SD0001
• Sohom Datta

Pppery

CheckUser changes

• Spicy
• TheresNoTime

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RFC, the policy on restoration of adminship has been updated. All former administrators may now only regain the tools following a request at the Wikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard within 5 years of their most recent admin action. Previously this applied only to administrators deysopped for inactivity.
• Following a request for comment, a new speedy deletion criterion, T5, has been enacted. This applies to template subpages that are no longer used.

Technical news

• Technical volunteers can now register for the 2025 Wikimedia Hackathon, which will take place in Istanbul, Turkey. Application for travel and accommodation scholarships is open from November 12 to December 10, 2024.

Arbitration

• The arbitration case Yasuke (formerly titled Backlash to diversity and inclusion) has been closed.
• An arbitration case titled Palestine-Israel articles 5 has been opened. Evidence submissions in this case will close on 14 December.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:19, 3 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 12 December 2024

• News and notes: Arbitrator election concludes
  

New arbs to be seated in January.

• Arbitration report: Palestine-Israel articles 5
  

Will the fifth try at achieving peace be a mudfight, or something better?

• Disinformation report: Sex, power, and money revisited
  

Should old acquaintance be forgot?

• Op-ed: On the backrooms
  

An editor's reflection on social capital and their changing relationship with Wikipedia culture.

by Tamzin

• In focus: Are Wikipedia articles representative of Western or world knowledge?
  

Wikipedia aims to represent the sum of all knowledge. Is there an imbalance between Western countries and the rest of the world.

• In the media: Like the BBC, often useful but not impartial
  

Ballooning British bias bombast!

• Traffic report: Something Wicked for almost everybody
  

Fighting and killing – on screen, in politics, and in the ring – competes for attention with Disney.

• Opinion: Worm That Turned's reconfirmation RfA debriefing
  

The importance of feedback.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:58, 12 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 24 December 2024

• News and notes: Responsibilities and liabilities as a "Very Large Online Platform"
  

What the VLOP – findings of an outside auditor for "responsibilization" of Wikipedia. Plus, new EU Commissioners for tech policy, WLE 2024 winners, and a few other bits of news from the Wikipedia world.

• Op-ed: Beeblebrox on Wikipediocracy, the Committee, and everything
  

A personal essay.

• Opinion: Graham87 on being the first-ever administrator recall subject
  

Explanations for what led to it and what it was like to undergo it.

• In the media: Delhi High Court considers Caravan and Ken for evaluating the ANI vs. WMF case
  

Plus, the dangers of editing, Morrissey's page gets marred, COVID coverage critique, Kimchi consultation, kids' connectivity curtailed, centenarian Claudia, Christmas cramming, and more.

• From the archives: Where to draw the line in reporting?
  

Who's news?

• Recent research: "Wikipedia editors are quite prosocial", but those motivated by "social image" may put quantity over quality
  

And other new research findings.

• Humour: Backlash over Santa Claus' Wikipedia article intensifies
  

Good faith edits REVERTED and accounts BLOCKED.

• Gallery: A feast of holidays and carols
  

Peace on earth, goodwill to all!

• Traffic report: Was a long and dark December
  

Wicked war, martial law, killing, death and an Indian movie with a new chess champ!

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:01, 25 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – January 2025

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2024).

Administrator changes

Sennecaster

• Daniel
• Hog Farm

• BozMo
• Ferret
• John M Wolfson
• MaxSem
• Panyd
• Tide rolls
• Titoxd

CheckUser changes

• Daniel
• Elli
• Liz
• ScottishFinnishRadish
• Theleekycauldron

Worm That Turned

Ferret

Oversight changes

• Daniel
• Elli
• Liz
• ScottishFinnishRadish
• Theleekycauldron

Worm That Turned

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RFC, Wikipedia:Notability (species) was adopted as a subject-specific notability guideline.
• A request for comment is open to discuss whether admins should be advised to warn users rather than issue no-warning blocks to those who have posted promotional content outside of article space.

Technical news

• The Nuke feature also now provides links to the userpage of the user whose pages were deleted, and to the pages which were not selected for deletion, after page deletions are queued. This enables easier follow-up admin-actions.

Arbitration

• Following the 2024 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been elected to the Arbitration Committee: CaptainEek, Daniel, Elli, KrakatoaKatie, Liz, Primefac, ScottishFinnishRadish, Theleekycauldron, Worm That Turned.

Miscellaneous

• A New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in January 2025 to reduce the number of unreviewed articles and redirects in the new pages feed. Sign up here to participate!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:46, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 15 January 2025

• From the editors: Looking back, looking forward
  

The 20th anniversary of The Signpost.

• Traffic report: The most viewed articles of 2024
  

A lot of psephology!

• In the media: Will you be targeted?
  

HUMINT or humbug?

• Technology report: New Calculator template brings interactivity at last
  

Hallelujah!

• Essay: Meet the Canadian who holds the longest editing streak on Wikipedia
  

Johnny Au has edited for 17 years straight without missing a day.

• Opinion: Reflections one score hence
  

Some thoughts from the original editor-in-chief.

• News and notes: It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me... and I'm feeling free
  

Public Domain Day 2025, Women in Red hits 20% biography milestone, Spanish Wikipedia reaches two million articles, and other news from the Wikimedia world.

• Serendipity: What we've left behind, and where we want to go next
  

The Signpost staff on achievements of '24 and hopes for '25.

• Op-ed: Elon Musk and the right on Wikipedia
  

The latest crusade?

• In focus: Twenty years of The Signpost: What did it take?
  

Our alumni speak!

• Arbitration report: Analyzing commonalities of some contentious topics
  

Applying the scientific method to a model of conflict that leads to arbitration.

• Humour: How to make friends on Wikipedia
  

This post fact-checked by real Wikipedian patriots.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:55, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Adminship Anniversary!

Administrators' newsletter – February 2025

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2025).

Administrator changes

• Arcticocean
• Wugapodes

Euryalus

CheckUser changes

• Firefly
• L235

Oversighter changes

• Firefly
• Guerillero
• L235
• Moneytrees

Technical news

• Administrators can now nuke pages created by a user or IP address from the last 90 days, up from the initial 30 days. T380846
• A 'Recreated' tag will now be added to pages that were created with the same title as a page which was previously deleted and it can be used as a filter in Special:RecentChanges and Special:NewPages. T56145

Arbitration

• The arbitration case Palestine-Israel articles 5 has been closed.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:28, 5 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 7 February 2025

• Recent research: GPT-4 writes better edit summaries than human Wikipedians
  

But an open language model is ready to help.

• News and notes: Let's talk!
  

The WMF executive team delivers a new update; plus, the latest EU policy report, good-bye to the German Wikipedia's Café, and other news from the Wikimedia world.

• Opinion: Fathoms Below, but over the moon
  

Editor Fathoms Below reminisces over their successful RfA from February 2024.

• In the media: Wikipedia is an extension of legacy media propaganda, says Elon Musk
  

Plus, reports on the ARBPIA5 case, new concerns over projects targeting Wikipedia editors, John Green gets his sponsor flowers, and other news.

• Community view: 24th Wikipedia Day in New York City
  

Wikimedians and newbies celebrate 24 years of Wikipedia in the Brooklyn Central Library. Special guests Stephen Harrison and Clay Shirky joined in conversation.

• Arbitration report: Palestine-Israel articles 5 has closed
  

Ending with some bans, and a new set of editing sanctions.

• Traffic report: A wild drive
  

The start of the year was filled with a few unfortunate losses, tragic disasters, emerging tech forces and A LOT of politics.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * Sent manually via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:46, 7 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 27 February 2025

• News and notes: Administrator elections up for reapproval and 1bil GET snagged on Commons
  

French Wikipedia defends a user against public threats, steward elections, and other news from the Wikimedia world.

• Serendipity: Guinea-Bissau Heritage from Commons to the World
  

"The only time I ever took photos in my entire life".

• Technology report: Hear that? The wikis go silent twice a year
  

From patrolling new edits to uploading photos or joining a campaign, you can count on the Wikimedia platform to be up and running — in your language, anywhere in the world. That is, except for a couple of minutes during the equinoctes.

• In the media: The end of the world
  

Or just the end of Wikipedia as we know it?

• Recent research: What's known about how readers navigate Wikipedia; Italian Wikipedia hardest to read
  

Of "hunters", "busybodies" and "dancers".

• Opinion: Sennecaster's RfA debriefing
  

User Sennecaster shares her thoughts on her recent RfA and the aspects that might have played a role in making it successful.

• Tips and tricks: One year after this article is posted, will every single article on Wikipedia have a short description?
  

What are they? Why are they important? How can we make them better? And what can you do to help?

• Community view: Open letter from French Wikipedians says "no" to intimidation of volunteer contributors
  

Liberté, liberté chérie.

• Traffic report: Temporary scars, February stars
  

Grammys, politics and the Super Bowl.

• Essay: The source, the whole source, and nothing but the source
  

Straight from the source's mouth. A source is a source, of course, of course!

• Obituary: Ümüt Çınar (Kmoksy) and Vinícius Medina Kern (Vmkern)
  

Turkish linguist wrote about languages and plants; Brazilian informaticist studied Wikimedia projects and education.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:29, 27 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – March 2025

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2025).

Administrator changes

• Jarry1250
• Lethe

CheckUser changes

• AmandaNP
• Drmies

Oversighter changes

AmandaNP

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment is open to discuss whether AI-generated images (meaning those wholly created by generative AI, not human-created images modified with AI tools) should be banned from use in articles.
• A series of 22 mini-RFCs that double-checked consensus on some aspects and improved certain parts of the administrator elections process has been closed (see the summary of the changes).
• A request for comment is open to gain consensus on whether future administrator elections should be held.

Technical news

• A new filter has been added to the Special:Nuke tool, which allows administrators to filter for pages in a range of page sizes (in bytes). This allows, for example, deleting pages only of a certain size or below. T378488
• Non-administrators can now check which pages are able to be deleted using the Special:Nuke tool. T376378

Miscellaneous

• The 2025 appointees for the Ombuds commission are だ＊ぜ, Arcticocean, Ameisenigel, Emufarmers, Faendalimas, Galahad, Nehaoua, Renvoy, Revi C., RoySmith, Teles and Zafer as members, with Vermont serving as steward-observer.
• Following the 2025 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: 1234qwer1234qwer4, AramilFeraxa, Daniuu, KonstantinaG07, MdsShakil and XXBlackburnXx.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:38, 4 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Invitation to participate in research

Hello,

The Wikimedia Foundation is conducting a survey of a group of Wikipedians to better understand their experiences! We are also looking to interview some survey respondents in more detail, and you will be eligible to receive a thank-you gift for the completion of an interview. The outcomes of this research will shape future work designed to improve on-wiki experiences.

We have identified you as a good candidate for this research, and would greatly appreciate your participation in this survey, which shouldn’t take more than 2-3 minutes. You may view its privacy statement here. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Kind regards, Sam Walton (talk) 16:35, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 22 March 2025

• From the editor: Hanami
  

It's an ecstasy, my spring.

• Opinion: Talking about governments editing Wikipedia
  

Let them know what you think!

• News and notes: Deeper look at takedowns targeting Wikipedia
  

Read this, then forget all about it.

• In the media: The good, the bad, and the unusual
  

Life on the Wiki as usual!

• Recent research: Explaining the disappointing history of Flagged Revisions; and what's the impact of ChatGPT on Wikipedia so far?
  

And WMF invites multi-year research fund proposals

• Traffic report: All the world's a stage, we are merely players...
  

The Oscars, politics, and death elbow for the most attention.

• Gallery: WikiPortraits rule!
  

The photographers are the celebrities!

• Essay: Unusual biographical images
  

And very unusual biographical images.

• Obituary: Rest in peace
  

Send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:06, 22 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – April 2025

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2025).

Administrator changes

• Giraffer
• Goldsztajn

Dennis Brown

• Cyclonebiskit
• Nohat
• Someguy1221

Bureaucrat changes

Barkeep49

CheckUser changes

0xDeadbeef

Oversighter changes

GB fan

Moneytrees

Miscellaneous

• Sign up for The Core Contest, a competition running from 15 April to 31 May to improve vital articles.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:46, 7 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 9 April 2025

• Special report: Wikipedian and physician Ziyad al-Sufiani reportedly released from Saudi prison
  

Fellow doctor Osama Khalid remains behind bars for "violating public morals" by editing.

• In focus: WMF to explore "common standards" for NPOV policies; implications for project autonomy remain unclear
  

Major changes to core content policy, or still-developing plan for new initiative?

• In the media: Indian judges demand removal of content critical of Asian News International
  

Defeat, or just a setback?

• News and notes: 35,000 user accounts compromised, locked in attempted credential-stuffing attack
  

Plus: 30-year anniversary of wiki software commemorated.

• Op-ed: How crawlers impact the operations of the Wikimedia projects
  

Our content is free, our infrastructure is not!

• Opinion: Crawlers, hogs and gorillas
  

What is to be done?

• Debriefing: Giraffer's RfA debriefing
  

Advice to aspirants: "Read RfA debriefs", including this one.

• Obituary: RHaworth, TomCat4680 and PawełMM
  

Rest in peace.

• Traffic report: Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, off to report we go...
  

Snow White sinking, Adolescence soaring, spacefarers stranded, this list has it all!

• News from Diff: Strengthening Wikipedia’s neutral point of view
  

The Wikimedia Foundation's announcement from Diff.

• Comix: Thirteen
  

Gadzooks!

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:22, 9 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Happy First Edit Day!

Happy First Edit Day!

Happy First Edit Day, NoSeptember, from the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Have a great day! RPE ✍️ 📚 03:36, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 1 May 2025

• News and notes: India cut off from Wiki money; WMF annual plan and Wikimedia programs seek comment
  

As always, Wikimedia community governance relies on user participation; plus, more updates from the Wikimedia world

• In the media: Feds aiming for WMF's nonprofit status
  

Scrapers, an Indian lawsuit, and a crash-or-not-crash?

• Recent research: How readers use Wikipedia health content; Scholars generally happy with how their papers are cited on Wikipedia
  

And other new research findings.

• Arbitration report: Sysop Tinucherian removed and admonished by the ArbCom
  

And don't bite those newbies!

• Discussion report: Latest news from Centralized discussions
  

And don't bite those newbies!

• Traffic report: Of Wolf and Man
  

Television dramas, televised sports, film, the Pope, and ... bioengineering at the top of the list?

• Disinformation report: At WikiCredCon, Wikipedia editors and Internet Archive discuss threats to trust in media
  

Community volunteers network among themselves and use technology to counter attacks on information sharing.

• News from the WMF: Product & Tech Progress on the Annual Plan
  

A look at some product and tech highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation's Annual Plan (July–December 2024).

• Humour: Crisis erupts as furious admins, functionaries complain about crappy t-shirts
  

Hey! At least it is something!

• Comix: By territory
  

Zounds!

• In focus: Using AI on the Russian Wikipedia: opportunities or challenges?
  

Would a billion articles be a good idea?

• Community view: A deep dive into Wikimedia
  

There's a lot more to this than you think.

• Debriefing: Barkeep49's RfB debriefing
  

I wonder about having crats, but decided to become one anyway.

• Gallery: Meet the winners of Wiki Loves Monuments 2024
  

Just beautiful photos!

• Obituary: JarrahTree, JohnClarknew and Yashthepunisher
  

Rest in Paradise.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:18, 1 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – May 2025

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2025).

Administrator changes

Rusalkii

NaomiAmethyst (overlooked last month)

• Master Jay
• Orderinchaos
• Roger Davies
• Tinucherian

Interface administrator changes

Galobtter

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, administrator elections were permanently authorized on a five-month schedule. The next election will be scheduled soon; see Wikipedia talk:Administrator elections for more information. This is an alternate process to the RfA process and does not replace the latter.
• An RfC was closed with consensus to allow editors to opt-out of seeing "sticky decorative elements". Such elements should now be wrapped in {{sticky decoration wrapper}}. Editors who wish to opt out can follow the instructions at WP:STICKYDECO.
• An RfC has resulted in a broad prohibition on the use of AI-generated images in articles. A few common-sense exceptions are recognized.

Miscellaneous

• A New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in May 2025 to reduce the backlog of articles in the new pages feed. Sign up here to participate!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:02, 6 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 14 May 2025

• News and notes: WMF to kick off new-CEO quest as Iskander preps to move on — Supreme Court nixes gag of Wiki page for other India court row on ANI — code-heads give fix-up date for Charts in lieu of long-dead Graph gizmo
  

And comment is requested on a privacy whitepaper.

• In the media: Wikimedia Foundation sues over UK government decision that might require identity verification of editors worldwide
  

And other courtroom drama.

• Disinformation report: What does Jay-Z know about Wikipedia?
  

And how he knows it: all about lawyer letters and editing logs.

• In focus: On the hunt for sources: Swedish AfD discussions
  

Why the language barrier is not the only impediment to navigating sources from another culture.

• Technology report: WMF introduces unique but privacy-preserving browser cookie
  

And QR codes for every page!

• Debriefing: Goldsztajn's RfA debriefing
  

When an editor is ready to become staff at a public library (not a brother in a fraternity).

• Obituary: Max Lum (User:ICOHBuzz)
  

Rest in peace.

• Community view: A Deep Dive Into Wikimedia (part 2)
  

The technology behind it, and the other stuff.

• Comix: Collection
  

Gadzooks!

• From the archives: Humor from the Archives
  

And more.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:58, 14 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – June 2025

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2025).

Administrator changes

• DDima
• Gimmetrow
• Huon
• Johan Elisson
• Spangineer
• The Land

Interface administrator changes

0xDeadbeef

CheckUser changes

L235

Oversight changes

L235

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC is open to determine whether the English Wikipedia community should adopt a position on AI development by the WMF and its affiliates.

Technical news

• A new feature called Multiblocks will be deployed on English Wikipedia on the week of June 2. See the relevant announcement on the administrators' noticeboard.
• History merges performed using the mergehistory special page are now logged at both the source and destination, rather than just the source as previously, after this RFC and the resolution of T118132.

Arbitration

• An arbitration case named Indian military history has been opened. Evidence submissions for this case close on 8 June.

Miscellaneous

• Voting for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) election is open until 17 June 2025. Read the voting page on Meta-Wiki and cast your vote here!
• An Articles for Creation backlog drive is happening in June 2025, with over 1,600 drafts awaiting review from the past two months. In addition to AfC participants, all administrators and new page patrollers can help review using the Yet Another AFC Helper Script, which can be enabled in the Gadgets settings. Sign up here to participate!
• The Unreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in June 2025 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with {{Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles. Sign up to participate!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:17, 6 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 24 June 2025

• News and notes: Happy 7 millionth!
  

Admins arrested in Belarus.

• In the media: Playing professor pong with prosecutorial discretion
  

Pardon our alliteration!

• Disinformation report: Pardon me, Mr. President, have you seen my socks?
  

A get-out-of-jail card!

• Recent research: Wikipedia's political bias; "Ethical" LLMs accede to copyright owners' demands but ignore those of Wikipedians
  

And other new research publications.

• Traffic report: All Sinners, a future, all Saints, a past
  

Holy men and not-as-holy movies.

• News from Diff: Call for candidates is now open: Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
  

Get your self-nomination in by July 2nd!

• Opinion: Russian Wiki-fork flails, failing readers and editors
  

After two years RuWiki fails to thrive.

• Debriefing: EggRoll97's RfA² debriefing
  

With some sweet-and-sour sauce!

• Community view: A Deep Dive Into Wikimedia (part 3)
  

Every thing you need to know about the Wikimedia Foundation?

• Comix: Hamburgers
  

Egad!

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:28, 24 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – July 2025

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2025).

Administrator changes

NuclearWarfare

Interface administrator changes

L235

Guideline and policy news

• Following a talk page discussion, speedy deletion criterion G13 has been amended to remove "Userspace with no content except the article wizard placeholder text."
• WP:Manual of Style/Superscripts and subscripts was upgraded to a guideline following a RfC discussion.

Miscellaneous

• The 2025 Developing Countries WikiContest will run from 1 July to 30 September. Sign up now!
• Administrator elections will take place this month. Administrator elections are an alternative to RFA that is a gentler process for candidates due to secret voting and multiple people running together. The call for candidates is July 9–15, the discussion phase is July 18–22, and the voting phase is July 23–29. Get ready to submit your candidacy, or (with their consent) to nominate a talented candidate!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:49, 7 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 18 July 2025

• News and notes: Is no WikiNews good WikiNews? — Election season returns!
  

Endowment tax form, Wikimania, elections, U4C, fundraising and a duck!

• In the media: How bad (or good) is Wikipedia?
  

And how do we know?

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Medicine reaches milestone of zero unreferenced articles
  

Five-year journey comes to healthy fruition.

• In focus: Wikimania 2025: Connecting Wikimedians across the world for 20 years
  

Wikimedians from around the world will gather in person and online at the twentieth annual meeting of Wikimania.

• Recent research: Knowledge manipulation on Russia's Wikipedia fork; Marxist critique of Wikidata license; call to analyze power relations of Wikipedia
  

As well as "hermeneutic excursions" and other scientific research findings.

• News from the WMF: Form 990 released for the Wikimedia Foundation’s fiscal year 2023-2024
  

The report covers the Foundation's operations from July 2023 - June 2024

• Discussion report: Six thousand noticeboard discussions in 2025 electrically winnowed down to a hundred
  

A step towards objective and comprehensive coverage of a project nearly too big to follow.

• Comix: Divorce
  

Drawn this century!

• Opinion: Women are somewhat under-represented on the English-language Wikipedia, and other observations from analysis
  

How data from the Wikipedia "necessary articles" lists can shed new light on the gender gap

• Community view: A Deep Dive Into Wikimedia (part 4): The Future Of Wikimedia and Conclusion
  

Annual plans, external trends, infrastructure, equity, safety, and effectiveness. What does it all mean?

• Obituary: Pvmoutside, Atomicjohn, Rdmoore6, Jaknouse, Morven, Martin of Sheffield, MarnetteD, Herewhy, BabelStone
  

Rest in peace.

• Traffic report: God only knows
  

Wouldn't it be nice without billionaires, scandals, deaths, and wars?

• Humour: New forum created for people who don't care about Wikipedia
  

If you are too blasé for Mr. Blasé and don't give a FAC.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:50, 18 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators' newsletter – August 2025

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2025).

Administrator changes

• CoconutOctopus
• Curbon7
• Hinnk
• Jlwoodwa
• Kj cheetham
• KylieTastic
• Ser!
• Smasongarrison
• UndercoverClassicist

• Bbb23
• Beeblebrox
• David Gerard
• Oleg Alexandrov
• Satori Son

CheckUser changes

• Alison
• Bradv
• Joe Roe
• RickinBaltimore
• ST47

Oversight changes

• Bradv
• RickinBaltimore

Guideline and policy news

• Following a request for comment, a new speedy deletion criterion, G15, has been enacted. It applies to pages generated by a large language model (LLM) without human review.
• Following a request for comment, there is a new policy outlining the granting of permissions to view the IP addresses of temporary accounts. Temporary account deployment on the English Wikipedia is currently scheduled for September 2025, and editors can request access to the permission ahead of time. Admins are encouraged to keep an eye on the request page; there will likely be a flood of editors requesting the permission when they realize they can no longer see IP addresses.

Technical news

• Administrators can now restrict the "Add a Link" feature to newcomers. The "Add a Link" Structured Task helps new account holders get started with editing. Administrators can configure this setting in the Community Configuration page.

Arbitration

• The arbitration case Indian military history has been closed.
  • South Asia (WP:CT/SA) is designated a contentious topic. The topic area is specifically defined as All pages related to the region of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal), broadly construed, including but not limited to history, politics, ethnicity, and social groups.
  • The contentious topic designations for Sri Lanka (SL) and India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan (IPA) are folded into this new contentious topic.
  • The community-authorized general sanctions regarding South Asian social groups (GS/CASTE) are rescinded and folded into this new contentious topic.
• The arbitration case Article titles and capitalisation 2 has been opened. Evidence submissions in this case closed on 31 July.
• The arbitration case Transgender healthcare and people has been opened. Evidence submissions in this case will close on 11 August.

Miscellaneous

• Wikimania 2025 is happening in Nairobi, Kenya, and online from August 6 to August 9. This year marks 20 years of Wikimania. Interested users can join the online event. Registration for the virtual event is free and will remain open throughout Wikimania. You can register here now.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:56, 7 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 9 August 2025

• News and notes: Court order snips out part of Wikipedia article, editors debate whether to frame shreds or pulp them
  

Plus a mysterious CheckUser incident, and the news with Wikinews.

• Discussion report: News from ANI, AN, RSN, BLPN, ELN, FTN, and NPOVN
  

A review of June, July and August.

• Disinformation report: The article in the most languages
  

Who is this guy?

• Community view: News from the Villages Pump
  

Threads since June.

• In the media: Disgrace, dive bars, deceased despots, and diverse dispatches
  

And slop.

• Crossword: Accidental typography
  

It's not a conlang, it's a crossword puzzle.

• Comix: best-laid schemes o' wikis an' men
  

gang aft agley, an' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, for promis'd joy!

• Traffic report: I'm not the antichrist or the Superman
  

Everybody's Somebody's Fool.

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:24, 9 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]