User talk:Stormsnsnow
Add topicLatest comment: 1 day ago by MediaWiki message delivery in topic The Signpost: 24 August 2026
I have sent you a note about a page you started
[edit]Hi Stormsnsnow. Thank you for your work on Red Hot Hornets. Another editor, MPGuy2824, has reviewed it as part of new pages patrol and left the following comment:
not mentioned in target page
To reply, leave a comment here and begin it with {{Re|MPGuy2824}}. (Message delivered via the Page Curation tool, on behalf of the reviewer.)
-MPGuy2824 (talk) 11:38, 9 June 2026 (UTC)
- MPGuy2824. just marked it as WP:RFD. Bryce M (talk) 11:44, 9 June 2026 (UTC)
- If you think it should be deleted, then you can just mark it with a G7 tag. -MPGuy2824 (talk) 11:49, 9 June 2026 (UTC)
- @MPGuy2824: Done. Bryce M (talk) 11:52, 9 June 2026 (UTC)
- If you think it should be deleted, then you can just mark it with a G7 tag. -MPGuy2824 (talk) 11:49, 9 June 2026 (UTC)
The Signpost: 21 June 2026
[edit]- From the editors: Ways for beginners to support The Signpost community journalism
Pointing the way to your contribution to The Signpost!
- News and notes: Community Tech development team disbanded
And English Wikipedia reaches a milestone in number of highly active editors.
- Disinformation report: PR for the people?
Or, "PR using PR for PR"?
- Recent research: Proposed tagging system for AI involvement; successful and unsuccessful AI tools for contributors
And other new research publications.
- In the media: Who won a 14th century battle and who won the 2026 Iran war?
Media take issue with portrayals of recent and medieval history on Wikipedia. Plus a team supporting Wikipedians gets dissolved, and a few other things.
- Community view: Putting the Wish into the Wishlist
A history of the Wikimedia community's request process to Foundation developers.
- In focus: A global standard for Neutral Point of View
Wikipedians are commenting on a proposed global standard for neutral point of view.
- On the bright side: Flowers, blue helmets, reefs, pride, and Juneteenth
Nice things around the world.
- Op-ed: Breathe, Don’t Panic, there is a different story about Wikimedia + AI futures
We can build a strategy about AI that doesn't just center on readers; there are still plenty of humans to write the encyclopedia and work on diverse global knowledge.
- Opinion: Wikimedia Foundation staff develop union and Wikimedia user community reacts
Why should editors support the Wiki Workers United union drive? Lessons the Wikimedia movement can learn from other labor struggles.
- Technology report: Community Tech team is disbanded, controversy erupts
WMF disbands Community Tech, sparking community backlash over the future of the Wishlist and concerns about unionization.
- Traffic report: 'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
Horror movies and Michael Jackson dominate theaters in the lead-up to the World Cup.
- WikiConference report: Report of Volunteer Supporters Network Annual Meeting 2026
Outreach staff of Wikimedia chapters host a global discussion.
- Comix: Take your turn
In a maze of twisty little edits, all alike.
- Humour: Group of banned T-shirt makers comes out of hiding to sell new Wikipedia-themed merchandise
It ain't WikiProject United Nations, but you will find some PUNs.
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 11
[edit]
Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation since our last issue on June 5. Please help translate.
Highlights
- Community Wishlist: Weigh in on proposals and open questions on how the wishlist will operate in the future.
- Simplifying account creation: The Foundation is working on improving the account creation process to reduce potential friction for newcomers to create an account. Improvements include making "Create Account" icon more prominent on mobile, simplifying the registration form, and introducing real-time username validation.
- New U4C members elected: The Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) has new members and has two remaining vacancies in Middle East & North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Wikimania conference program: The Wikimania 2026 program is now live! Take a moment to review the program, and, if you are logged in, you can mark your "must see” sessions with a star to start building your personal schedule. Register for a virtual ticket here, if you haven't signed up yet.
- Neutral Point of View: A proposal for a baseline NPOV standard for Wikipedias that do not have one was published, with a community discussion open until July 15, 2026.
Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Product Safety and Integrity · Readers · Research · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- App Explore feed: The redesigned App Explore feed, now called "Home", has been released to all Android users. The update introduces a refreshed feed experience along with the first set of new content modules, including Did You Know, Places of Interest, Random Article, and a new end-of-feed experience. Additional content and improvements are planned in future releases.
- Wikipedia games: The Which came first? daily trivia game is now available in the beta version of the Wikipedia iOS app in English, German, French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Turkish. The game uses historical events from Wikipedia’s “On This Day” content and challenges readers to guess which of two events happened first.
- Reusing references: Sub-referencing, a new MediaWiki feature that allows editors to reuse references with different details, has been rolled out to Group 1 wikis and French Wikipedia following a successful pilot phase.
- Article guidance: The Article guidance feature is being tested with some editors creating new articles on the Simple English, French, and Turkish Wikipedias. The experiment will soon begin on the Arabic and Bangla Wikipedias as well. The outlines guide less experienced editors in creating high-quality articles. A quick guide to markups used in outlines can be found on this page. Example outlines that can be adapted and instructions for how to adapt them are on this section of the project page.
- Mobile Page Previews: The Page Previews experiment on mobile web has concluded with the decision not to roll out the feature. The results showed no statistically significant impact on reader retention – the primary success metric. Page Previews, which are already available on desktop and in the apps, display a thumbnail, lead paragraph, and link to the full article when readers tap a blue link.
- Wikifunctions: You can now add images to Abstract Wikipedia and the loading and display of test results when viewing Functions has been improved.
- Wikidata: The Foundation is migrating the Wikidata Query Service (WDQS) away from the Blazegraph backend since it no longer scales efficiently with Wikidata’s growth. The migration will take place in several phases. Here is the timeline.
- Growth features: Growth features are now available at Wikidata! Wikidata administrators are still configuring the features through Community Configuration, but this update enables access to Mentorship (if configured), Impact, the Help Panel, and a simplified Newcomer Homepage (without Suggested Edits).
- Mentors' management: The Growth team will soon provide a system to automatically suspend or remove inactive mentors from the list of mentors. Communities can already start configuring the process in the Community Configuration.
- Collaborative Contributions: If you need help setting up the Collaborative Contributions and the Goal setting features, check out these video guides. These features allow you to view which edits are made during an event and allows the group to track progress against a goal with a public progress bar. Learn more.
- Latest experiments: An upcoming experiment is testing whether we can serve readers better when a footnote click in read mode shows the full bibliographic information rather than flying them to the reference list. See all live, upcoming, and completed experiments in Product & Technology.
- Tech News: The latest highlights from Tech News week 24 and 25 include how the user interface icon library is being updated. Most of the ~300 icons have been slightly refined and ~30 new icons have been added. See also the 62 community submitted tasks that were resolved over the last two weeks.
Annual Goals Progress on Volunteer Support
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog · WikiLearn News · The Wikipedia Library · list of movement events
- Digital Safety: Join a conversation about Using AI Safely. It'll explore risks & concerns of using AI tools in personal and organisational contexts and practical strategies to reduce those risks. It will take place at 03:30 UTC & 14:30 UTC on June 26. This session is not about using AI to edit Wikipedia. It's focused entirely on safe personal and organisational use.
- Don't Blink: Read the latest developments from around the world about protecting the Wikimedia model, its people and its values. Highlights include exploring the implications that new child safety regulations have on privacy online.
- Grantmaking strategy & Affiliate model: Members of the Global Resources Distribution Committee (GRDC) and the Affiliations Committee (AffCom) met to advance two key movement initiatives: the development of a new Grantmaking strategy and a refreshed Affiliate Model. They produced initial proposals and advanced work on both initiatives ahead of broader conversations planned for Wikimania 2026.
Annual Goals Progress on Effectiveness
See also: Progress on the annual plan
- Enterprise: SimPPL Uses Wikimedia Enterprise to Map Online Conversations and Fact-Check Social Media.
Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: 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!
Administrators' newsletter – July 2026
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2026).
Administrator changes
CheckUser changes
Oversight changes
Guideline and policy news
- A request for comment asks whether the criteria for autoconfirmed and extended confirmed should be modified.
- A request for comment proposes an addendum for the Real name section of the Username policy.
Technical news
- The special page Special:RangeCalculator has been created for any users to use to find an IP range. (phab:T268429)
- The "indefinitely" button in Special:Block for temporary accounts can be replaced with a preferred block duration stated on MediaWiki:ipb-indefinite-expiry-temporary-account. (phab:T427125)
Arbitration
- Following a series of motions, changes to the contentious topics procedure to restructure awareness have been implemented.
- The arbitration case Michael Jackson has been closed.
Miscellaneous
- The 2026 Developing Countries WikiContest will run from 1 July to 30 September. Sign up now!
- 10 candidates have been appointed to the U4C.
- Thanks! Bryce M (talk) 16:05, 2 July 2026 (UTC)
Speedy deletion contested: Cumberland, New Kent County, Virginia
[edit]Hello Stormsnsnow. I am just letting you know that I contested the speedy deletion of Cumberland, New Kent County, Virginia, a page you tagged for speedy deletion, because of the following concern: A7 does not apply to towns and cities. Thank you. BangJan1999 18:00, 3 July 2026 (UTC)
- @BangJan1999 Oh okay, thanks 18:55, 3 July 2026 (UTC) Bryce M (talk) 18:55, 3 July 2026 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 12
[edit]
Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation since our last issue on June 19. Please help translate.
This edition uses the new annual plan goals for this fiscal year (July 2026–June 2027).
Highlights
- Wikipedia 25: Wikipedia's 25th birthday was celebrated with various projects designed to grow awareness and support for Wikipedia and the people who make it possible. This includes the virtual birthday event on January 15, which garnered 10,000 live viewers and 15,000 reactions. Find more details on all related projects and results in the program report.
- Sustainable use of Wikimedia infrastructure: A valid user-agent string will now be required for automated dumps downloads from the dumps.wikimedia.org website. Automated requests that provide a generic or empty user-agent will be blocked. This extends enforcement of the long standing user-agent policy. Access to dumps through Wikimedia Cloud Services will not change.
- Increasing account creation: The experiment providing direct access to “Create account” and “Log in” actions on mobile increased account creation by about 20% without negatively affecting edit quality. The feature will now be rolled out to all wikis on mobile web.
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
- Add A Link: The Foundation deployed Add A Link as a default-on suggestion within Suggestion Mode. It is now launched on all wikis to all editors who have opted in to the Suggestion Beta Feature.
- Reusing references: Sub-referencing, the new MediaWiki feature that allows editors to reuse references with different details, was deployed to most small and medium-sized Wikipedia language versions.
- Wikifunctions: Check out the 71 new functions with implementations to get a taste of what functions have been created.
- Range calculator: The special page Special:RangeCalculator has been created. It allows users to find an IP range without needing to rely on external tools. Until now, this tool was only available to CheckUsers.
- Captcha verification: Abuse filters that are set to “require CAPTCHA verification” now also affect users with the
skipcaptcharight, which includes most autoconfirmed users. Bots are exempted. This change only affects edits that trigger an abuse filter. - Latest experiments: An upcoming experiment is testing two variations of a "thank you" badge shown to donors after a recent donation to deepen the relationship between donors and the Wikimedia movement. See all live, upcoming, and completed experiments in Product & Technology.
- Account security on private wikis: Two-factor authentication will become mandatory for user accounts on private wikis. This will protect private information from being exposed by an account with a compromised password.
- Tech News: The latest highlights from Tech News week 26 and 27 include users will now get a notification when they are blocked or unblocked from editing, or if this block changes. See also the 65 community submitted tasks that were resolved over the last two weeks.
- Team Challenges: The core organizing team for Wikimania is introducing Team Challenges, a different approach to Wikimania Hackathon. This year, Wikimedians and professionals from other fields will join forces to undertake one of the 2026 technical challenges.
Annual Goals Progress on Enable
See also: Research newsletter · WikiLearn News · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Wikimedia Hackathon: A look at the 2026 edition of Wikimedia Hackathon which brought together 216 participants from 29 countries building, collaborating, and shaping the future together.
- Wikimedia Hubs: The Hub Fund will pause funding for new pilots in fiscal year 2026–2027 to align with the work on the Ecosystem of Movement Organizations and the Global Resource Distribution Committee. Existing pilots in transition will be offered an additional year of funding.
Annual Goals Progress on Protect
See also: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Open Knowledge And Digital Rights: Wikimedians shared their reflections on how Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum reinforced the role of our movement within broader digital rights conversations.
Annual Goals Progress on Reach
See also: Wikimedia Apps · Readers
- Journalism Award: Wikimedia Foundation announced three journalists from Africa as recipients of the Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards, run in partnership with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). The awards celebrate the essential role journalists play in creating well-researched articles that volunteer editors can use as source materials to develop content on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. In total, 320 submissions were received from 40 African countries.
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 · Receive the bulletin by email · 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!
Stop using XFDcloser
[edit]You have nowhere near the experience that is required to be performing WP:NAC. You closed a 2 day old discussion that is required to run at least 7 days. Zackmann (Talk to me/What I been doing) 02:15, 10 July 2026 (UTC)
- Oh ok, sorry about that @Zackmann08 I will keep that in mind next time. Thanks Bryce M (talk) 11:40, 10 July 2026 (UTC)
July 2026
[edit]
Hello, I'm UtherSRG. I noticed that you added or changed content in an article, Canada goose, but you didn't provide a reliable source. On Wikipedia, it's important that article content be verifiable. If you'd like to resubmit your change with a citation, your edit is archived in the page history. If you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Please fix the reference; it was ill-formed. - In solidarity, UtherSRG (talk) 16:15, 11 July 2026 (UTC)
- Hello UtherSRG, Thank you for the notice. I found the article on WRAL and thought it would be reliable. Sorry about that. Thanks Bryce M (talk) 16:16, 11 July 2026 (UTC)
- WRAL may be fine, but look at how you formed the reference to see the issue. - In solidarity, UtherSRG (talk) 16:17, 11 July 2026 (UTC)
- UtherSRG, I fixed the problem, the author was null on the parent site. I changed it to WRAL and it now should be live. Thanks Bryce M (talk) 16:23, 11 July 2026 (UTC)
- WRAL may be fine, but look at how you formed the reference to see the issue. - In solidarity, UtherSRG (talk) 16:17, 11 July 2026 (UTC)
The Signpost: 13 July 2026
[edit]- News and notes: An exclusive club
Wikipedia Co-Founder Larry Sanger gets a community ban for canvassing.
- In the media: Battle for a soul – who won?
Commissars, winners and losers, blocks or bans, a Wiki red card, social engineering on wikis, and Swift action!
- Opinion: We need to innovate with Wikimedia decision-making
Rules we can actually read, trust and change!
- Recent research: LLMs and NPOV, 20 years of user blocks, Esperanto and Volapük Wikipedias
And other research findings.
- News from Diff: How to host Wikicurious in your own community
The Wikicurious team shares their approach to Wiki-event organizing.
- Community view: CUNY Newmark Wikimedian-in-Residence Quarterly Brief – April to June 2026
Quarterly update on the activities of the City University of New York's Wikimedian-in-Residence, Richard Knipel.
- Special report: Wikipedia escapes Category 1 designation under the UK Online Safety Act – for now
A possible future recategorization by the UK Government remains an existential threat to Wikipedia.
- On the bright side: Fatherhood, weather, and diplomacy
Father's Day, Canada Day, and the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence.
- Op-ed: A Layup Easy Proposal for Wikimedia at 25: Spend 25% of Donations on the Community
If strategy priority 1.1 is supporting the community, can we not increase the support to the community? Increasing grantmaking to 25% of the budget would be a move toward equality in the movement.
- Traffic report: The grass was greener, the light was brighter
We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of World Cup.
- Comix: schnozzed
on lollerskates
CS1 error on Erwin, North Carolina
[edit]
Hello, I'm Qwerfjkl (bot). I have automatically detected that this edit performed by you, on the page Erwin, North Carolina, may have introduced referencing errors. They are as follows:
- A generic name error. References show this error when author or editor name parameters use placeholder names, or the name of the newspaper or organisation, instead of the source's actual author or editor name. If no human author is given, the fields should be removed. (Fix | Ask for help). Below are the references causing this error:
- News, Ally Kadlubar, WRAL (2026-07-13). "Around 1,000 without power from driver crashing into transmission tower near Erwin". WRAL.com. Retrieved 2026-07-16.
{{cite web}}:|last=has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- News, Ally Kadlubar, WRAL (2026-07-13). "Around 1,000 without power from driver crashing into transmission tower near Erwin". WRAL.com. Retrieved 2026-07-16.
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) 21:43, 16 July 2026 (UTC)
- Hello bot, I have checked this and cannot fix the problem. It is not a generic name. Ally Kadlubar is the one who wrote the article.
- Thanks Bryce M (talk) 21:45, 16 July 2026 (UTC)
CS1 error on List of major power outages
[edit] Hello, I'm Qwerfjkl (bot). I have automatically detected that this edit performed by you, on the page List of major power outages, may have introduced referencing errors. They are as follows:
- A generic name error. References show this error when author or editor name parameters use placeholder names, or the name of the newspaper or organisation, instead of the source's actual author or editor name. If no human author is given, the fields should be removed. (Fix | Ask for help). Below are the references causing this error:
- News, Ally Kadlubar, WRAL (2026-07-13). "Around 1,000 without power from driver crashing into transmission tower near Erwin". WRAL.com. Retrieved 2026-07-16.
{{cite web}}:|last=has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- News, Ally Kadlubar, WRAL (2026-07-13). "Around 1,000 without power from driver crashing into transmission tower near Erwin". WRAL.com. Retrieved 2026-07-16.
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) 21:50, 16 July 2026 (UTC)
- Hello bot, I have checked this and cannot fix the problem. It is not a generic name. Ally Kadlubar is the one who wrote the article. Bryce M (talk) 21:51, 16 July 2026 (UTC)
You need to stop
[edit]Stop nominating for deletion articles that are obviously--glaringly--notable. I urge you to build you competence by reading WP:BEFORE. Thank you. Magnolia677 (talk) 12:55, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
- Ok, thank you so much. I will keep that in mind next time. Bryce M (talk) 12:56, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 13
[edit]
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
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- "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!
The Signpost: 2 August 2026
[edit]- In the media: Union drive, most prolific editor make headlines
AI's impact on Wikipedia, World Cup editing, and encyclopedia's place in public life.
- News and notes: Foundation rejects voluntary recognition of union, proposed board eligibility rules sharply restrict candidates
Further: harassment allegations at Wikimania, and new RfC for Abstract Wikipedia.
- WikiConference: "Kurier, Signpost, wikipress: You can be a Wikimedia journalist" - Wikimania presentation by User:Noé Recap
A recap of Noé Gasparini's Wikimania 2026 presentation on the variety of wikipress outlets
- In focus: Is Larry Sanger the co-founder of Wikipedia?
A look over the years.
- Arbitration report: Think, and not just about content
ArbCom continues business.
- News from Diff: Meet the Wikimedians of the Year 2026!
Wikimedians of the Year 2026 announced at Wikimania 2026 - Paris
- On the bright side: The beautiful game
2026 Men's FIFA World Cup, Wikimania music, and wikipress.
- Traffic report: Odyssey and Oyarzabal
To take you in the sun to (Ithaca), to show you the World Cup, it's the time of the season for editing!
- Comix: Well-spotted
You dasherdly—dash–dash−dash-dash!
AIV report
[edit]Please ensure that edits are vandalism before reporting them. Yannis2183 wasn’t vandalizing. Vandalism is editing (or other behavior) deliberately intended to obstruct or defeat the project's purpose, which is to create a free encyclopedia. Other stuff isn’t vandalism. — rsjaffe 🗣️ 16:57, 4 August 2026 (UTC)
- Rsjaffe Oh ok, thank you for informing me. I thought that blanking content was considered vandalism. Bryce M (talk) 16:58, 4 August 2026 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 14
[edit]
Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation since our last issue on July 18. Please help translate.
Special Wikimania issue
This is a special Wikimania issue of the Bulletin. We'll be back to our regular format in the next issue
- Wikimania Paris: Paris hosted Wikimania 2026 as Wikipedia celebrates 25 years of free knowledge. Catch up on missed sessions of Wikimania 2026 by checking session pages in the program.
- Meet the Wikimedians of the Year 2026: The beloved Wikimedian of The Year awards shine the light on exceptional individuals, and through them, on the whole Wikimedia community. Learn about all of this year's winners.
- Daily highlights from Wikimania:
- Public policy advocacy: Overview of Wikimania 2026 sessions about public policy advocacy. While not all sessions are recorded, you can watch some by clicking the session.
- Users with extended rights pre-conference: 190 users with extended rights from all around the world gathered at a Wikimania pre-conference, to exchange experiences, learn from each other and connect.
- Media coverage: The event was mentioned in many media outlets as part of wider coverage about the Wikimedia projects including in Le Monde, El Nacional and Radio France.
Annual Goals Progress on Engage
See also: Growth · Product Safety and Integrity · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · The Wikipedia Library · list of movement events · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia
- Improvement to Reading Lists: Community feedback around the placement of watchstar and watchlist buttons for the Reading Lists beta feature has been incorporated. 93% of participating users reported that it was useful. This feature allows saving articles for later reading – a wishlist item to bring the functionality to web.
- Creating custom edit suggestions: With the TextMatch feature, volunteers can now create custom local suggestions within the VisualEditor for improving Wikipedia articles. You can find examples from other communities for inspiration. Share your feedback.
- Dark mode for Content Translation: Content Translation now supports dark mode, fulfilling a Community Wishlist request. This brings the tool in line with the accessibility features available in the Vector 2022 and Minerva skins, helping reduce visual fatigue for users translating content.
- Mobile page preview: Based on the conclusion of the experiment, mobile page previews feature will not be rolled out. The experiment showed flat retention and negative indicator metrics, suggesting that mobile web readers preferred navigating directly to linked articles rather than using page previews.
- Scaling of Explore Feed to iOS: The Explore Feed Refresh initiative was tested with new and casual Wikipedia app readers. The refreshed feed helps readers discover new and relevant content. After a 10.5% increase in engagement with the feed, Home Feed redesign will be scaled to iOS by applying the learnings from the Android release.
- Improving Account Creation process: After running several Account Creation Experiments to improve registration completion rates, a new version of the username field on Create Account has been rolled out. Read more.
- Latest experiments: An ongoing experiment is testing to better guide Temporary Account users toward full account creation. See all live, upcoming, and completed experiments in Product & Technology.
- Tech News: The latest highlights from Tech News week 30 and 31 include that now wikis can restrict editing in the “User” namespace to only the page owner and certain user groups. See also the 50 community submitted tasks that were resolved over the last two weeks.
- New bot detection system for all wikis: After a successful trial, which showed evidence of both deterring bots and being easier to use, hCaptcha (our new bot detection system) has been rolled out to all wikis, for account creation, and for most newcomer edits.
Annual Goals Progress on Protect
See also: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Online age verification: Around the world, governments are adopting different approaches to online age verification. Learn more about it and how it is shaping our experiences online in a new three-part blog series: "What is it, a timeline of age-based restrictions, and why it matters", "What means what, how it's done, and balancing child rights and safety", and "Age-based restrictions, draft bills to watch, global complexity, and engaging with lawsuits".
Board and Board committee updates
See also: Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Affiliation Committees: Celebrating 20 Years of the Wikimedia Affiliations Committee.
Other updates
- Enterprise: How Wikimedia Enterprise protects Wikipedia in the AI era.
- Unionization: Wikimedia Foundation Statement on US unionization request.
Other Movement-curated newsletters & news
Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. If you have feedback or suggestions about the bulletin, let us know at foundationbulletin@wikimedia.org. For questions about the Wikimedia Foundation's work, contact us!
Nomination of 408 Garfield Ave (Nunn, Colorado) for deletion
[edit]
The article is being discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/408 Garfield Ave (Nunn, Colorado) until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.
Users may still edit the article, including to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the AfD notice from the article until the discussion is closed.Netherzone (talk) 15:40, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
- Hey, I thought that was my job to do AFDs! Oh well. Thanks for notifying about this. Bryce M (talk) 15:41, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
- What do you mean "it was "my" job to do AfDs"? It seems that you may not understand the guidelines and policies for deletions. Netherzone (talk) 15:59, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
- @Netherzone I was joking about doing AFDs usually. Per upstream, I usually do AFDs on weekends on non notable articles, whereas I do Redirects on weekdays. Sorry about the mishap. Bryce M (talk) 16:08, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
- Stop nominating for deletion articles that are obviously--glaringly--notable. I urge you to build you competence by reading WP:BEFORE. Thank you. Magnolia677 (talk) 12:55, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
- That is why i no longer do AFDs anymore. Bryce M (talk) 16:09, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
- What do you mean "it was "my" job to do AfDs"? It seems that you may not understand the guidelines and policies for deletions. Netherzone (talk) 15:59, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
- @Netherzone just upgraded the AFD to a CSD. Please see the new CSD. Thanks Bryce M (talk) 15:44, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
- @Stormsnsnow, I don't mean to offend you, but you do not seem to have enough experience here to be nominating articles for deletion and especially not enough experience to close discussions/debates. It does not seem that you understand how notability works on the encyclopedia nor an understanding of the criteria for various subjects. What's the rush? BTW, it took me a few years before I fully understood the complexities of deeply analyzing sources and the range of notability criteria. Please slow down. Thanks in advance. Netherzone (talk) 20:46, 7 August 2026 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – August 2026
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2026).
Administrator changes
CheckUser changes
Guideline and policy news
- Following an RfC, the 30-day requirement for extended-confirmed status now begins after an account's first edit instead of its registration (T431060).
Technical news
- Inactive editors can now be removed as mentors at Special:CommunityConfiguration/Mentorship automatically.
- The Suggested Edits' Revise Tone feature is now enabled. It encourages editors to identify and revise non-neutral language in articles.
Miscellaneous
- The Unreferenced articles August 2026 backlog drive is underway. Help to add references to 47,000 articles.
- The Articles for creation August 2026 backlog drive is under way. Help to review 4,500+ drafts.
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 15
[edit]
Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation since our last issue on August 1. Please help translate.
Highlights
- Improving Account Creation process: As part of Account Creation Experiments an improved account creation form has been released. The form now provides live username validation, a clearer username policy popover, and a reveal password button. We also removed redundant elements and jarring warning messages, improved the form's information hierarchy, and aligned the design with Codex design system guidelines.
- Create charts from your own data: The new ChartWizard makes the Chart extension more beginner-friendly by allowing editors to create charts, such as bar and pie charts, without needing to use JSON. The ChartWizard is now available on Wikimedia Commons. Feedback on the new tool is welcome on the wish talk page.
Annual Goals Progress on Engage
See also: Growth · Product Safety and Integrity · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · The Wikipedia Library · list of movement events · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia
- Worklist Feature Setup Workshop: Are you organizing or planning a Wikimedia editing event soon? Join one of these workshops (Aug 18 at 16:00 UTC and Aug 19 at 11:00 UTC) to set up the new worklist feature for your event. With this feature, organizers can list the specific articles their event will focus on, directly on the event page.
- Reading Lists to launch as full feature: The Reading Lists, a Community Wishlist item, will be launched in September as a full feature. Volunteer translator help is needed for string translations into a number of languages before the launch.
- Improving Commons' section headings: The table of contents on Wikimedia Commons file pages was improved to make it easier to understand a file page’s structure, navigate to specific sections, and share links to individual sections.
- From Abstract Wikipedia: An apple is a fruit and new experimental type: anonymous functions.
- Latest experiments: An upcoming experiment would test methods for email confirmation enforcement for new accounts to determine which approach is the most effective at driving email confirmation. See all live, upcoming, and completed experiments in Product & Technology.
- Tech News: The latest highlights from Tech News week 32 and 33 include that Category pages will soon support sorting entries by the time they are added to a category to make it easier to find recently or long-standing categorized pages. See also the 43 community submitted tasks that were resolved over the last two weeks.
Annual Goals Progress on Protect
See also: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Don't blink: Representing Wikimedia at the United Nations’ Open Source Week and other latest developments from around the world about protecting the Wikimedia model, its people and its values.
- Online Identity Verification: Anonymity is Important for Democracy and It’s Also at Risk.
Board and Board committee updates
See also: Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees: Reflections on Wikimania 2026.
Other updates
- Leadership: Wikimedia Foundation will welcome Rena Kokalari as new Chief People Officer from 1 September.
Other Movement-curated newsletters & news
Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters
Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate
For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. If you have feedback or suggestions about the bulletin, let us know at foundationbulletin@wikimedia.org. For questions about the Wikimedia Foundation's work, contact us!
The Signpost: 24 August 2026
[edit]- 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
A short (parody) interview with Baby Globe via the French wikipress outlet, Regards sur l’Actualité du mouvement Wikimédia (RAW).
- On the bright side: The great outdoors
Blue Angels, Indigenous Peoples' Day, and the Perseids meteor shower.
- Opinion: Are we embarrassed yet?
One editor wants to find out more about a Department of Justice investigation of Wikipedia and its editors.
- 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...