User talk:robertsky

The Signpost: 24 August 2026

• News and notes: Union process progresses, unanswered questions about Littler Mendelson remain
  And Raju Narisetti leaves WMF board after nine years.

• In the media: Wikipedia editors save Sam Altman's life
  Can AI do that? Meanwhile, Ruwiki gives porn the shaft, and has Grokipedia ghosted?

• Recent research: Women in blue? Wikipedia's gender gap reverses in some areas
  And other new research findings.

• Discussion report: Again and Again
  The community comes to consensus.

• Traffic report: Look out, here comes the Spider-Man!
  Plus The Odyssey and varied topics caught in his web.

• Humour: Her tastes, her Wikimania, her upcoming tour... Baby Globe reveals everything
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• Opinion: Are we embarrassed yet?
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• Special report: Paris Syndrome: Labor Strife, AI Anxiety, and a Leadership Test at Wikimania 2026
  Notes from a delightful Wikimania and the ugly week that followed.

• Comix: WP:FAOWN
  "Explaining civilly" probably should go both ways...

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Tech News: 2026-35

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 Special:CreateAccount page has been simplified as part of ongoing work to modernize the account creation experience. The panel showing project statistics no longer appears next to the form on desktop and mobile web. Multiple account creation experiments show that a simpler form helps newcomers complete registration.
• In order to improve page performance, images now load when they are viewed. This means images lower down an article will not load if a reader never scrolls to that part of the page, which may affect some image-related metrics.

• View all 42 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, an issue where image thumbnails in Abstract Wikipedia could fail to display after the corresponding file was moved on Wikimedia Commons, has now been fixed. Thumbnails will now update correctly when files are moved.

Updates for technical contributors

• User Info card is a feature that helps patrollers see information about user accounts. So far, it has been available only in places such as page history, logs and recent changes. Now, it's possible to place it in the page content as well, using the {{#uic:}} parser function. It can be particularly useful in templates like {{Userlinks}} (or their specialized variants), as it will make it easier to see the context about a user on various noticeboard pages. The card will be displayed only to users who have it enabled in their preferences.
• Due to user security and privacy risks, we have disabled access to Special:MyPage URLs when specifically using action=raw. If you are impacted by this, consider whether you can use an alternative approach. Special:MyPage URLs can still be accessed and used without action=raw. Specified user page URLs (e.g. User:Myusername) can still be used with action=raw.
• Due to an update, the thumbnailing software has been improved. This includes upgrading librsvg to 2.60 and ImageMagick to 7, as well as resolving a number of long-standing thumbnailing bugs like rendering errors.

• 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 20:43, 24 August 2026 (UTC)

New pages patrol September 2026 Backlog drive

September 2026 Backlog Drive | New pages patrol
On 1 September 2026, a one-month backlog drive for new pages patrol will begin at a particularly important time for NPP. The backlog has now passed 30,000 unreviewed articles, a level that has been described in current NPP discussions as exceptionally high and potentially difficult to overcome through normal reviewing alone. Backlog drives are one of the few measures that have historically produced a noticeable reduction in the backlog, so the participation of as many active patrollers as possible will matter this month. If you can review during September, please make articles your priority. Every article that is reviewed is a meaningful reduction in the backlog. With the queue at its current size, even a relatively small increase in the number of articles each patroller reviews can add up to a substantial difference over the course of the month. This is a hybrid drive, so redirect reviewing is still included. Redirects can be a useful way for newer patrollers to get comfortable with NPP and can help people build up to reviewing articles. However, the main goal of this drive is to tackle the article backlog, and experienced patrollers are particularly encouraged to spend as much of their available reviewing time on articles as they can. Barnstars will be awarded based on the number of articles and redirects patrolled. Each article review will earn 1 point, while each redirect review will earn 0.2 points. Streak awards will be given out based on consistently hitting point thresholds for each week of the drive. Barnstars will also be granted for re-reviewing articles previously reviewed by other patrollers during the drive. If you have been thinking about doing more NPP, this is an especially good month to jump in. Whether you can review a few pages or hundreds, every review helps. And if you are already an active patroller, please consider whether you can put in some additional time during September to help bring the backlog back under control. Interested in taking part? Sign up here.
You're receiving this message because you are a new page patroller. To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:49, 24 August 2026 (UTC)

Question from Sonate 55 (13:01, 26 August 2026)

Hi Robertsky,

thank you very much for your kind offer and for being willing to help. I appreciate it.

At this point, however, I do not think editor training would address the main problem with my draft. I am interested in publishing this one article only, and the difficulty is not primarily technical or stylistic. It is that the sources I have found do not meet Wikipedia’s requirements for independent secondary coverage.

The basic facts about Kelley’s career are documented in primary or institutional sources, while the biographical details I found are mainly contained in interviews. I also have archival material about his career with the Dutch National Ballet, but it is not publicly accessible. The independent newspaper and magazine articles I have found concern particular performances rather than Kelley’s career as a whole.

I therefore do not intend to continue working on the draft at present. I would prefer either that the draft remain inactive until I decide whether new suitable sources can be found, or that it be deleted if that is the normal procedure.

Thank you again for your kind offer and for your understanding.

Best wishes, Sonate 55 --Sonate 55 (talk) 13:01, 26 August 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Sonate 55, this is a common problem even experienced editors sometimes may encounter! It is pretty much unfortunate. :( The draft will remain as it is until six months from the last significant edit. Till then, it will be deleted. You may revisit the draft anytime if you have found new sources that can be used, or someone else may do so serendipitously as well. Do note that if it was deleted due to inactivity, it can always be undeleted at WP:REFUND if you wish to return to it. – robertsky (talk) 14:52, 26 August 2026 (UTC)

(talk page watcher) @Sonate 55: As noted above, it may be left alone; but if you really want to get rid of it, you can request speedy deletion, under criterion U1: User request. This is quite easy to do: at the top of User:Sonate 55/sandbox, add {{db-user}} on a line of its own, and save. An administrator will delete it soon after. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 17:10, 26 August 2026 (UTC)

Admin newsletter

Is it possible to add User:Polygnotus/Scripts/Editwars to the technical news section? Polygnotus (talk) 15:28, 27 August 2026 (UTC)

@Polygnotus yes. looks useful for admins (and other editors) to catch on edit wars at a glance. the newsletter archives do have userscript entries. – robertsky (talk) 01:41, 29 August 2026 (UTC)

Question from MelodianEmpire (12:37, 28 August 2026)

Note: MelodianEmpire's mentor Randomdude121 is away.

Hello, my name is Melody. How do I cite Wikipedia? 😊 --MelodianEmpire (talk) 12:37, 28 August 2026 (UTC)