User talk:StefenTower
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Archive of news items over 5 years old
Speedy deletion nomination of Category:1847 disestablishments in Indiana
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A tag has been placed on Category:1847 disestablishments in Indiana indicating that it is currently empty, and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion. If it remains empty for seven days or more, it may be deleted under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion.
If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and removing the speedy deletion tag. Liz Read! Talk! 19:48, 14 November 2025 (UTC)
- I created this by mistake as I wasn't paying close enough attention to the establishment/disestablishment years in 5th Indiana Volunteers. Please delete. Stefen ๐ower's got the power!!1! Gab โข Gruntwerk 19:54, 14 November 2025 (UTC)
This week's article for improvement (week 47, 2025)
[edit] Hello, StefenTower. The article for improvement of the week is:
Please be bold and help improve it! Previous selections: Crop โข Performance Get involved with the AFI project: Nominate an article โข Review nominations Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 17 November 2025 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject AFI โข |
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Tech News: 2025-47
[edit]Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- The Reader Experience team is experimenting with reading lists on mobile web, allowing logged-in readers with no edits to save private lists of articles for later. The experiment is running on Arabic, Chinese, French, Indonesian, and Vietnamese Wikipedias since the week of 10 November, and will begin on English Wikipedia the week of 17 November.
- Users who canโt receive their email verification code during login can now get help by submitting a form on a new special page. This update is part of the Account Security initiative. If your account has an email address, please make sure you still have access to it. When logging in from a new device or location without 2FA, you may be asked to enter a 6-digit code sent by email to finish logging in. Learn more.
- One new wiki has been created: a Wikisource in Minangkabau (
s:min:) [1] 
View all 23 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- As part of the Parser Unification project, the Content Transform Team rolled out Parsoid as the default parser to many low-traffic Wikipedias and is preparing the next step to high traffic ones. This message is an invitation for you to opt-in to Parsoid, as described in the Extension:ParserMigration documentation, and identify any issues you might encounter with your own workflow using bots, gadgets, or user scripts. Please, let us know through the "Report Visual Bug" link in the Tools sidebar or create a phab ticket and tag the Content Transform Team in Phabricator.
- Unsupported Tools: Several issues with Video2Commons have been fixed, including filename-related upload failures, black-video imports, and retry handling. AV1 support has also been added. Ongoing work focuses on backend stability, ffmpeg errors, subtitle imports, metadata handling, and playlist uploads. To track specific tasks, check the Phabricator board.
- Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Meetings and events
- Save the date for the next Wikimedia Hackathon happening in Milan, Italy from May 1โ3, 2026. Registration will open in January 2026. Scholarship applications are currently open, and will close on November 28, 2025. If you have any questions, please email hackathon@wikimedia.org.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot โข Contribute โข Translate โข Get help โข Give feedback โข Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 17:24, 17 November 2025 (UTC)
ArbCom 2025 Elections voter message
[edit]
Hello! Voting in the 2025 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 1 December 2025. 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 2025 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) 00:18, 18 November 2025 (UTC)
Books & Bytes โ Issue 71
[edit]
Issue 71, SeptemberโOctober 2025
- Spotlight: 1Lib1Ref 2025 in Nigeria
- Frankfurt Book Fair
- Tech tip: Wikipedia Library access template
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team โ 15:21, 18 November 2025 (UTC)
(This message was sent to User:StefenTower and is being posted here due to a redirect.)
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #227 is out: Second round of voting for naming the wiki with language-independent content; Sharing function calls
[edit]There is a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we announce the start of the second phase of the naming contest for Abstract Wikipedia, we share the results of the MacArthur Foundation's 100&Change contest, we share the recording of the last NLG SIG meeting, and we take a look at the latest software developments.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive!
Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 10:11, 21 November 2025 (UTC)
This week's article for improvement (week 48, 2025)
[edit] Hello, StefenTower. The article for improvement of the week is:
Please be bold and help improve it! Previous selections: Kidnapping โข Crop Get involved with the AFI project: Nominate an article โข Review nominations Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 24 November 2025 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject AFI โข |
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Tech News: 2025-48
[edit]Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- Last week, the Wikimedia Search Team recreated the "DWIM" (Do What I Mean) gadget functionality server-side, for Russian and Hebrew Wikipedias. This feature adds cross-keyboard suggestions to the standard search-box suggestions. For example, searching for cxfcnmt on Russian Wikipedia will now add suggestions for ััะฐัััะต ("happiness") that the user probably intended. They plan to enable this feature for other Russian and Hebrew wikis this week. [2]
- Later this week, users of the "Improved Syntax Highlighting" beta feature will have syntax highlighting available in DiscussionTools. This requires that the "Enable editing tools in source mode" preference be set. [3]
- Campaign events extension โ the set of tools for coordinating events and other on-wiki collaborations has now been deployed to all Wikimedia wikis. A new feature known as Collaborative contribution to help organizers and participants see the impact of activities has also been added. Join the upcoming learning session to see the new feature in action and share your feedback.
- View all 24 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the bug which stopped CodeReviewBot from working, has now been fixed. [4]
Updates for technical contributors
- Users of Wikimedia API can join a usability study to help validate the new design of Wikimedia REST API sandboxes. Interested participants should fill the recruitment survey. [5]
- The MediaWiki Interfaces team is deprecating XSLT stylesheets within the Action API. Support for
format=xml&xlst={stylesheet}will be removed from Wikimedia projects by the end of November, 2025. In addition, it will soon be disabled by default in MediaWiki release versions: v1.43 (LTS), v1.44, and v1.45. Support for XSLT stylesheets will be fully removed from MediaWiki v1.46 (expected to release between April and May 2026). [6] - The WDQS legacy endpoint (query-legacy-full.wikidata.org) will be decommissioned at the end of December 2025, and finally closed down on 7th January 2026. After this date, users should expect requests to query.wikidata.org that require the full graph to fail or return invalid results if they are not rewritten to use SPARQL federation. The team encourages users to ensure that tools and workflows use the supported WDQS endpoints (https://query.wikidata.org/ - Main graph or https://query-scholarly.wikidata.org/ - Scholarly graph). For support with migrating use cases, please review the Data Access and Request a Query pages for details and assistance on alternative access methods.
- Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot โข Contribute โข Translate โข Get help โข Give feedback โข Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 15:54, 24 November 2025 (UTC)
Garret Lewis
[edit]Hey, Stefen! Maybe you missed it, but the assertion about the public assessment of Lewis' character is supported by the citation just prior to that sentence. Newspapers are public statements. The writer said he could talk long about how trustworthy Lewis was. I don't mean to start an edit war with you by removing the citation. I'm saying this here on your talk page because it's too long for an edit summary. Please let me know if you disagree and one of us can revert my edit. Oona Wikiwalker (talk) 22:23, 26 November 2025 (UTC)
- If a citation you already have backs it up, edit the article to show that. It's as simple as that. Stefen ๐ower's got the power!!1! Gab โข Gruntwerk 22:36, 26 November 2025 (UTC)
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #228 is out: Vote on the new wiki name! Finishing each otherโs sentences
[edit]There is a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we update you on our naming contest for Abstract Wikipedia, we discuss our progress on sentence creation with functions, and we take a look at the latest software developments.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive!
Also, we remind you that if you have questions or ideas to discuss, the next Volunteers' Corner will be held on December 1, at 18:30 UTC (link to the meeting).
Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 11:38, 27 November 2025 (UTC)
Happy Birthday!
[edit] | Happy birthday! Hi StefenTower! On behalf of the Birthday Committee, I'd like to wish you a very happy birthday! Enjoy this special day! DaniloDaysOfOurLives (talk) 10:25, 29 November 2025 (UTC) |  |
Crazy day
[edit]Hi. After my last reply at Wikipedia talk:Database reports I started wondering why I just didn't do what I always used to do all the time before we had the daily updates like here for example. I believe that it is what you suggested as the correct action if needed, right? Why I didn't do exactly that, I don't know, but it really has been a very bizarre day, dealing with the foot of snow, among a few other crazy things, I probably shouldn't have bothered editing today.
I appreciate all you do and thanks for the input. --DB1729talk 01:15, 30 November 2025 (UTC)
- Yes, that is the correct action but again, only if really really necessary. The link to regenerate the report usually works, and is pretty much guaranteed to return a clean result, so that is the preferred action. And the most preferred thing of all is letting the report update itself. :)
- Re: snow, yuck, I hate it, and I'm sure we'll get our share in Louisville soon enough. But it's a cost in living in a place with seasons. Happy holidays! Stefen ๐ower's got the power!!1! Gab โข Gruntwerk 01:50, 30 November 2025 (UTC)
This week's article for improvement (week 49, 2025)
[edit] Hello, StefenTower. The article for improvement of the week is:
Please be bold and help improve it! Previous selections: Emergency management โข Kidnapping Get involved with the AFI project: Nominate an article โข Review nominations Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 1 December 2025 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject AFI โข |
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The Signpost: 1 December 2025
[edit]- News and notes: Election cycles come and go, and Wikimedia Foundation achieves record revenue in 2024โ2025!
Admin and ArbCom elections upcoming, BoT elects two new members, task force advises to close Wikinews and keep Wikispore, and other news from the Wikimedia world.
- In the media: Wales walk-off, antisemitism, supernatural powers, feminism turmoil, saints, and sex
Plus mammoth mummy sex-change operation completed!
- Recent research: At least 80 million inconsistent facts on Wikipedia โ can AI help find them?
And other recent publications about contradictions and retractions.
- Disinformation report: Epstein email exchanges planned strategy, edits and reported progress
At work on Wikipedia whitewashing. How much should they be paid?
- Traffic report: It's a family affair
Even in these times there is something to be thankful for!
- Book review: The Seven Rules of Trust
Jimmy Wales and Dan Gardner write a book inspired by Wikipedia. What's in it?
- From the archives: "I have been asked by Jeffrey Epstein ..."
The twists and turns of Epsteinโs portrayal on Wikipedia.
- Humour: An interview with Wikipe-tan
A conversation about being the mascot of Wikipedia.
- Opinion: AI finds errors in 90% of Wikipedia's best articles
Using ChatGPT to fact-check a month's worth of Today's featured articles.
- Serendipity: Highlights from the itWikiCon 2025
A recap of the latest convention of the Italian Wiki-community, held in Catania from 7โ9 November.
- Comix: Madness
It could happen to anyone.
Tech News: 2025-49
[edit]Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- The Wikipedia Year in Review 2025 will be available on December 2 for users of iOS and Android Wikipedia apps, featuring new personalized insights, updated reading highlights, and refreshed designs. Learn more on the review's project page.
- The Growth team is working on improving the text and presentation of the Verification Email sent to new users to make them more welcoming, useful and informative. Some new text have been drafted for A/B testing and you can help by translating them. See Phabricator.
- Add a link will now be deployed at Japanese, Urdu and Chinese Wikipedias on December 2. Add a link is based on a prediction model that suggests links to be added to articles. While this feature has already been available on most Wikipedias, the prediction model could not support certain languages. A new model has now been developed to handle these languages, and it will be gradually rolled out to other Wikipedias over time. If you would like to know more, please contact Trizek (WMF).
- View all 34 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the issue where search boxes on some Commons pages showed no results due to switch from SpecialSearch to MediaSearch, has now been fixed. [7]
- Two new wikis have been created:
Updates for technical contributors
- Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
In depth
- The Wikimedia Foundation is in the early stages of exploring approaches to Article guidance. The initiative aims to identify interventions that could help new editors easily understand and apply existing Wikipedia practices and policies when creating an article. The project is in the exploration and early experimental design phase. All community members are encouraged to learn more about the project, and share their thoughts on the talk page.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot โข Contribute โข Translate โข Get help โข Give feedback โข Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 18:56, 1 December 2025 (UTC)
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #229 is out: And the name is Abstract Wikipedia
[edit]There is a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we share the final results of the naming contest for Abstract Wikipedia, we share two demos about new Wikifunctions features, we talk about Wikidata components in Wikifunctions, and we take a look at the latest software developments.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive!
Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 11:02, 4 December 2025 (UTC)
This week's article for improvement (week 50, 2025)
[edit] Hello, StefenTower. The article for improvement of the week is:
Please be bold and help improve it! Previous selections: Computer algebra system โข Emergency management Get involved with the AFI project: Nominate an article โข Review nominations Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 8 December 2025 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject AFI โข |
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Tech News: 2025-50
[edit]Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Weekly highlight
- Anybody who wishes to secure their user account can now use two-factor authentication (2FA). This is available to all registered users of all Wikimedia projects. This is part of the Account Security initiative. Later, 2FA will be required for all users who can take security- or privacy-sensitive actions.
Updates for editors
- Following last week's deployments, the Add a link feature, which allows editors to add suggested links during editing, will be available to an additional 33 Wikipedias starting on 9 December. This expansion is possible thanks to the new prediction model that now supports all languages, including those that were previously not covered. While the feature has been available on most Wikipedias for some time, this rollout brings us closer to using the improved model everywhere. If you have any questions or would like more details please contact Trizek (WMF).
- Last week, the Search Platform team added transliterated as-you-type search suggestions to Georgian wikis. If there are only a few regular search suggestions, then queries in Latin or Cyrillic script are now rewritten into Georgian script to look for more matches. For example, searching for either bedniereba or ะฑะตะดะฝะธะตัะตะฑะฐ will now suggest the existing article about แแแแแแแ แแแ ("happiness"). You can recommend other languages where transliterated suggestions would be useful on Phabricator for future development.
- Later this week, a controlled experiment will begin for editors on the 100 largest Wikipedias who are editing a section in the mobile web visual editor. 50% of these editors will notice a new "Edit full page" button that will enable them to expand their editing session to the whole page. This feature is intended to make it easier for people on mobile web to edit any article section, regardless of which section-edit icon they tapped to begin. The experiment will last ~4 weeks. You can find more details about the project.
- Later this week, the Reader Growth team will launch a mobile web experiment to expand all article sections by default (currently they are collapsed by default) and pin the section header the user is currently reading to the top of the page. The experiment will affect 10% of users on Arabic, Chinese, French, Indonesian, and Vietnamese Wikipedias. [10]
- The Wikipedia Year in Review 2025, a feature in the Wikipedia mobile apps (iOS and Android) that provides users with a personalised summary of their engagement with Wikipedia over the year, is now available on the iOS and Android apps. This edition includes expanded personalised insights, improved reading highlights, new donor messaging, and updated designs. Open the app to view your Year in Review and explore your reading journey from 2025.
- A recent software bug caused edits made with VisualEditor to make unintended changes to wikitext, including removing whitespace and replacing spaces with underscores in wikilinks inside citations. This was partially fixed last week, and further fixes are in progress. Editors who used VisualEditor between November 28 and December 2 should review their edits for unexpected modifications. [11]
- View all 23 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the incorrect handling of URLs copied from the address bar of Microsoft Edge users, has been resolved. [12]
Updates for technical contributors
- Starting this week, users of the "Improved Syntax Highlighting" beta feature will have CodeMirror as the editor for Lua, JavaScript, CSS, JSON and Vue content models, instead of CodeEditor. With this, the linters will be upgraded. This is part of a larger effort to eventually replace CodeEditor and provide a consistent code editing experience. [13]
- Developers are encouraged to take the 2025 Developer Satisfaction Survey, which remains open until 5 January 2026. If you build software for the Wikimedia ecosystem and would like to share your experiences or feedback, your participation is greatly appreciated. [14]
- There is no new MediaWiki version this week.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot โข Contribute โข Translate โข Get help โข Give feedback โข Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 17:43, 8 December 2025 (UTC)
CS1 error on Philip Bilden
[edit]
Hello, I'm Qwerfjkl (bot). I have automatically detected that this edit performed by you, on the page Philip Bilden, may have introduced referencing errors. They are as follows:
- A bare URL and missing title error. References show this error when they do not have a title. Please edit the article to add the appropriate title parameter to the reference. (Fix | Ask for help)
Please check this page and fix the errors highlighted. If you think this is a false positive, you can report it to my operator. Thanks, Qwerfjkl (bot) (talk) 04:26, 11 December 2025 (UTC)
- This is now resolved as far as I can take it. Stefen ๐ower Huddle โข Handiwerk 05:18, 11 December 2025 (UTC)
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #230 is out: How to write better error messages
[edit]There is a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we share an essay on how to write better error messages, on improving which we focused in the last months.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive!
Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 12:01, 12 December 2025 (UTC)