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Talk:The Black Vault

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Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: withdrawn by nominator, closed by Launchballer talk 12:29, 4 September 2025 (UTC)

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  • Source: For twenty-four years, Greenewald, now thirty-nine, has been the proprietor of the Black Vault, an archive that holds more than two million pages, all obtained by foia request.

1: https://www.cjr.org/special_report/black-vault-foia-john-greenewald.php

2: https://web.archive.org/web/20200509051630/https://www.cjr.org/special_report/black-vault-foia-john-greenewald.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Black_Vault&diff=1309021767&oldid=1307109235

Created by Very Polite Person (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 8 past nominations.
— Very Polite Person (talk/contribs) 18:52, 1 September 2025 (UTC).
  • Why don't you combine this with Greenewald's hook for a multi-article hook? Roast (talk) 18:57, 1 September 2025 (UTC)
  • I have no idea how to do this... — Very Polite Person (talk/contribs) 18:58, 1 September 2025 (UTC)
    • Very Polite Person, just withdraw this one or make a note that you'd like to withdraw it and someone can do it for you, then edit Greenwald's nomination to add a hook that covers both articles. Don't worry too hard about doing it exactly right, if you mess something up someone can fix the formatting. ♠PMC♠ (talk) 03:01, 4 September 2025 (UTC)

The Black Vault Logo has an incorrect copyright status

The logo, in the article, is in the public domain and not copyrighted (in most countries), due to it being AI generated. Also, it should be moved to Commons, because of this. ~2025-37127-97 (talk) 05:34, 29 November 2025 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 13:27, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

GA review

Passed. —LastJabberwocky (Rrarr) 14:08, 11 September 2026 (UTC)

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

This review is transcluded from Talk:The Black Vault/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Very Polite Person (talk · contribs) 03:05, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

Reviewer: LastJabberwocky (talk · contribs) 12:12, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

Hi, happy to pick up your review! —LastJabberwocky (Rrarr) 12:12, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for your work, i have no further suggestion. Promoting! —LastJabberwocky (Rrarr) 14:05, 11 September 2026 (UTC)

Prose

Sorry for jumbled format, couldn't figure out a more comprehensive way to propose restructuring. Can make the changes myself and then discus it. —LastJabberwocky (Rrarr) 12:12, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

All good, it's generally ad hoc on each GA nomination. I broke it out into a few sections and will take a look. — Very Polite Person (talk/contribs) 15:53, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

Item 1

  • Greenewald created the Black Vault in 1996 when he was fifteen years old. The Washington Post identified his project as a "massive civilian repository of government documents" in 2019. Over 5,000 FOIA requests have been filed under the Black Vault project. The Black Vault's scope of coverage extends from Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) programs like MKUltra, the 2012 Benghazi attack in Libya to UFOs. All Federal government of the United States content on the site was obtained via the FOIA. The Columbia Journalism Review in 2020 noted that the site had been in operation for twenty-four years under Greenewald's control. The site's original name was "John's World". The site became the "Black Vault" one year later. The Independent described The Black Vault as "a US government transparency site."

---> Greenewald created the Black Vault in 1996 when he was fifteen years old. The site's original name was "John's World" and became the "Black Vault" one year later. The Black Vault's scope of coverage extends from Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) programs like MKUltra to the 2012 Benghazi attack in Libya and UFOs. All Federal government of the United States content on the site was obtained via the FOIA. The Washington Post identified his project as a "massive civilian repository of government documents" and The Independent described it as "a US government transparency site". —LastJabberwocky (Rrarr) 12:12, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Black_Vault&diff=1374221104&oldid=1374220121 <-- what do you think? — Very Polite Person (talk/contribs) 16:34, 10 September 2026 (UTC)
 Done

Item 2

Item 3

  • Due to technical limitations early in the project related to web hosting and the internet, Greenewald was forced to hand-type retrieved declassified documents into early versions of the Black Vault's web pages, rather than digitally scanning and uploading them.
> Early in the project, Greenewald had to hand-type retrieved declassified documents into early versions of the Black Vault's web pages due to technical limitations related to web hosting and the internet, rather than digitally scanning and uploading them. —LastJabberwocky (Rrarr) 12:12, 10 September 2026 (UTC)
What do you think? https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Black_Vault&diff=1374229430&oldid=1374228872 — Very Polite Person (talk/contribs) 17:39, 10 September 2026 (UTC)
 Done

Item 4

  • Vice reported Greenewald stated his Black Vault works do not receive a journalism or public-interest waiver for his U.S. government FOIA requests, and has to pay money for them. The Black Vault in the past has relied on GoFundMe and crowdfunding programs to help support his research due to the costs.

---> Greenewald, as reported by Vice, stated that his FOIA requests did not receive a journalism or public-interest waivers, and he had to rely on GoFundMe and other crowdfunding programs to help support his research due to the reproduction costs. —LastJabberwocky (Rrarr) 12:12, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

And this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Black_Vault&diff=1374229947&oldid=1374229430
What do you think? — Very Polite Person (talk/contribs) 17:44, 10 September 2026 (UTC)
 Done

Item 5

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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