User talk:Stormsnsnow
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Administrators' newsletter – July 2026
News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2026).

- 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.
- 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)
- 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.
- The 2026 Developing Countries WikiContest will run from 1 July to 30 September. Sign up now!
- 10 candidates have been appointed to the U4C.
Speedy deletion contested: Cumberland, New Kent County, Virginia
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

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!
MediaWiki message delivery 23:54, 7 July 2026 (UTC)
Stop using XFDcloser
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
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)
The Signpost: 13 July 2026
- 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
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)
CS1 error on List of major power outages
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)
You need to stop
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)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 13


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" 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)
The Signpost: 2 August 2026
- 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
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)
- @Rsjaffe This user continues to give vandalism warnings to editors for edits that are not vandalism despite your very clear advice here, which they explicitly acknowledged. See ―"GraveDragon-X" (hihi) 18:59, 27 August 2026 (UTC)
- GraveDragon-X, I accidentally gave you a warning as it was sent to the wrong user. Sorry about that! Bryce M (talk) 19:00, 27 August 2026 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 14


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!
MediaWiki message delivery 22:24, 4 August 2026 (UTC)
Nomination of 408 Garfield Ave (Nunn, Colorado) for deletion
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
News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2026).

- Following an RfC, the 30-day requirement for extended-confirmed status now begins after an account's first edit instead of its registration (T431060).
- 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.
- 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

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!
MediaWiki message delivery 19:23, 18 August 2026 (UTC)
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
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...
"Dolly Parton Airport" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect Dolly Parton Airport has 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 August 29 § Dolly Parton Airport until a consensus is reached. - In solidarity, UtherSRG (talk) 16:59, 29 August 2026 (UTC)
- Oh okay, thank you for noticing this. The news did say that the airport was being considered being renamed albeit I thought it was going to be renamed. Sorry about that! Bryce M (talk) 17:00, 29 August 2026 (UTC)
- @UtherSRG Bryce M (talk) 17:00, 29 August 2026 (UTC)
- You should strongly consider not making any edits unless you have a reliable source at hand that you can cite in your edits. Anything else is just disruptive and could lead to you getting blocked. I gave you a level 1 warning previously. Consider this a level 2 warning. - In solidarity, UtherSRG (talk) 17:04, 29 August 2026 (UTC)
- @UtherSRG Sorry about that, I'll keep that in mind next time. I have highly functioning Autism and ADHD and can sometimes be bull headed and obstinate. Thanks Bryce M (talk) 17:05, 29 August 2026 (UTC)
- I do as well. That is no excuse. If you can not control your behavior, you should consider a different hobby. - In solidarity, UtherSRG (talk) 17:07, 29 August 2026 (UTC)
- @UtherSRG Sorry about that, I'll keep that in mind next time. I have highly functioning Autism and ADHD and can sometimes be bull headed and obstinate. Thanks Bryce M (talk) 17:05, 29 August 2026 (UTC)
Canada goose
I suggest you read the second paragraph of WP:RM#Closing a requested move and withdraw your proposed move. - In solidarity, UtherSRG (talk) 18:46, 29 August 2026 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 16


Highlights
- Simplifying account creation: The Special:CreateAccount page has been simplified as part of ongoing work to modernize the account creation experience. Multiple account creation experiments show that a simpler form helps newcomers complete registration.
- Movement Ecosystem strategy: Deadline to provide feedback on the first version of the proposal are extended until Sep 30 to allow more time for community feedback and discussion.
- New format for the Community Wishlist: You can read the proposed ideas on Meta. This new process plans to improve how wishes are triaged, voted on, and prioritized in a way that is transparent and balanced across project families and language editions. Please let us know what you think will work well or if there are ways to make this proposal stronger. This consultation is open for two weeks.
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
- Improving page performance: In order to improve page performance, images now load when they are viewed. This means images that are lower down within an article will not load if a reader never scrolls to that part of the page, which may affect some image-related metrics.
- Android Reading list updates: Some of the recent Android releases include updates to the Saved feature. This first round of changes on the Android app include redesigning the "Saved" tab to include an "All articles" view, and remove the user-facing default "Saved" reading list.
- Reading list on desktop: Reading lists has been released on Chinese, Bengali, Czech, and Vietnamese Wikipedias. The feature is now available for logged-in users on those wikis.
- Event Registration tool: The Worklist feature for the Event Registration tool is now live on all Wikimedia wikis. With Worklist, event organizers can add the articles their event will focus on directly to the event page. The Worklist also powers Event Pathways which notifies other editors of the upcoming or ongoing event when they edit an article featured in the event’s Worklist.
- Call for Projects and Mentors for Outreachy: Wikimedia is participating in Round 33 of the Outreachy program that runs from December 2026 through March 2027. The deadline to submit projects on Phabricator is Sept 4 at 4pm UTC and the project list will be finalized by Sep 11.
- Latest experiments: A current experiment is testing to introduce a new content type in Apps home. See all live, upcoming, and completed experiments in Product & Technology.
- Tech News: The latest highlights from Tech News week 34 and 35 include that a new Wikipedia in Bole has been created. See also the 58 community submitted tasks that were resolved over the last two weeks.
- UwER Conference: In December, the Wikimedia Portugal and Wikimedia Foundation will be hosting a first-of-its-kind convening for users with extended rights. Applications to attend opened August 13 and will close on September 4.
Annual Goals Progress on Enable
See also: Research newsletter · WikiLearn News · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Wikimedia Endowment: Updates from the July 2026 Wikimedia Endowment Board Meeting.
Annual Goals Progress on Protect
See also: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Don't Blink: The latest developments from around the world about protecting the Wikimedia model, its people and its values.
- Legal footer update: The Foundation had updated the Legal and Safety Contact Information on 300+ content wikis. The project adds a link to a Foundation-managed central page where people can find contact information to report illegal issues and serve official legal notices. This helps to resolve gaps if community-managed contact pages are missing or incomplete.
Annual Goals Progress on Reach
See also: Wikimedia Apps · Readers
- Collaboration: UNESCO and Wikimedia Movement deepen their partnership at Wikimania 2026.
- Digitization: Bringing Balinese Manuscripts to Wikimania 2026.
- Language related projects: Read some key highlights from the latest edition of the Language and internationalization newsletter.
Board and Board committee updates
See also: Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- AffCom: The Affiliations Committee is extending the pause on new affiliate recognition until the affiliate recognition and funding model is further clarified.
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 20:59, 1 September 2026 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – September 2026
News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2026).

- Speedy deletion criteria G15 has been renamed from "LLM-generated pages without human review" to "Unambiguously LLM-generated pages" and has an additional sign of detection added to it following a RfC.
- The September 2026 New Pages Patrol backlog drive is ongoing. Help tackle the 30,000+ article backlog!
- This week's article for improvement will be added to the Main Page to try converting readers into editors following a RfC.
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 17


Highlights
- Data center switch: All wikis will be read-only for a few minutes on September 23 at 14:00 UTC as part of a scheduled switchover to allow for essential maintenance and improvements. A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes in advance.
- Baseline NPOV Policy: The public conversation regarding the proposed baseline NPOV policy for Wikipedias that do not yet have one has been concluded. Read the summary report and the updated baseline NPOV policy text and enforcement guidance here.
- Save the date. Wikimania 2027 will be taking place in Santiago, Chile, and online from August 18 to 21, with the theme "The Internet we want". See the Wikimania 2026 coverage highlights and a brief update on what's ahead.
- Chart extension is now beginner-friendly: Creating graphs and charts previously required manual JSON editing. In response to a Community wish to make the Charts extension more user-friendly, a new Visual mode for adding values has been introduced.
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

- Introducing TextMatch: Communities are shaping Suggestion Mode with TextMatch to create custom suggestions that are tailored to their own policies and writing conventions. Share your feedback.
- Visual editor becoming default: Design work on the user experience for visual editing for newcomers is underway. This follows visual editor becoming default on English Wikipedia following a community discussion.
- Community Wishlist 2027 consultation: The consultation on the proposed new Wishlist process is closing this week. This year's cycle plans for wish submissions in late October/early November, triage completed by late November, and voting in early to mid January. Share feedback in any language on the talk page.
- Improved Add a Link feature: Add a Link has been upgraded for English Wikipedia users with improved detection of links that have different capitalization. This will help reduce ambiguous suggestions caused by differences in capitalization in article titles, including articles about cultural goods.
- Wikipedia Android app: Latest release includes updates to the Saved feature, bringing the app’s saving experience closer to iOS and Web. The update redesigns the Saved tab with an “All articles” view, removes the default “Saved” reading list, renames reading lists to “Collections,” and modernizes the article-saving experience.
- Domain change for thumbnails: The domain of URLs for thumbnails is changing from
upload.wikimedia.orgtothumb.wikimedia.org. The old URLs will continue to work but MediaWiki will advertise the new domain instead. Original files, videos, and transcodes will still be served fromupload.wikimedia.org. - Reading lists rollout continues on desktop: Following the initial deployment to Bengali, Chinese, Czech, and Vietnamese Wikipedias, reading lists went live on Arabic, French, and Indonesian Wikipedias and will go live on English Wikipedia on Sep 14, with all remaining wikis following on Sep 28.
- New features of Pageviews Analysis: Several new features have been added to the Pageviews Analysis tool which allows users to compare pageviews across multiple pages. They include WikiNav which provides insights into how readers of Wikipedia explore the content, editing stats in Siteviews, the ability to lookup articles belonging to a WikiProject, and support for dark mode.
- Article guidance: As part of an A/B experiment, Article guidance is now available in Turkish and Simple English.
- Latest experiments: A current experiment for logged-out mobile readers on Bengali, Czech, English, Farsi, and Polish Wikipedias is testing whether simplifying the Minerva navigation bar improves reader retention. See all live, upcoming, and completed experiments in Product & Technology.
- Wikifunctions status updates: Thanks to all contributors, Wikifunctions has now reached 5,000 functions.
- Latest highlights from Tech News: Weeks 36 and 37 of Tech News include the Article guidance feature is now enabled by default for editors with less than 100 edits on Simple English and Turkish Wikipedia.
Annual Goals Progress on Enable
See also: Research newsletter · WikiLearn News · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Affiliates and grant funding: Have your say on proposals establishing (1) a new model and set of expectations for movement affiliates; (2) new, connected requirements to determine eligibility for receiving Community Fund grants from the Wikimedia Foundation; and (3) updated criteria for affiliate recognition processes.
- Community Fund reflections: Read the reflections on the fiscal year 2025–2026 of the Rapid Fund and General Support Fund, covering $17.73 million across 427 grants in 90 countries, with 56.2% distributed outside North America and Northern & Western Europe.
Annual Goals Progress on Reach
See also: Wikimedia Apps · Readers
- World of Wikipedia launches: The World of Wikipedia game has been released. It is an online collectible card game where players sort fact from fiction across Wikipedia articles to build their card library. The game is the latest experiment in reaching younger audiences through familiar formats, following Wikispeedia on Roblox and Which Came First? on the Wikipedia app.
Other updates
See also: Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Celebrate Women 2026: Read the impact of Celebrate Women 2026 as the campaign concluded with 112 events, 238,222 unreverted content edits and 2,499,773,577 bytes added.
- US staff union vote: On Sep 3, eligible Wikimedia Foundation staff in the United States voted in favor of union representation in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election.
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 01:53, 16 September 2026 (UTC)
The Signpost: 16 September 2026
- News and notes: The Balance of Power
Wikimedia employees unionize, officer departs, The Signpost gains sister on Wiktionary
- In the media: Shocking photos may be changed on Wikipedia
The image gallery anyone can edit.
- Disinformation report: Have UN Secretary-General candidates manipulated Wikipedia?
Speaking diplomatically, not all of them.
- Recent research: Google's AI overviews may have reduced search engine referrals to English Wikipedia by 5%
And other research findings.
- WikiConference report: The backwater symbiosis – reflections from Wiki Conference India 2026
The fourth iteration of Wiki Conference India.
- Traffic report: Heaven let your light shine down
The recently deceased dominate while still leaving room for some entertainment.
- Serendipity: Wikipedia Family Mosh Pit
A poem by Mollystarkdean.
- Obituary: Passing of Gobonobo, community leader advocating for women and minorities
Promoter of cultural knowledge and organizer of global cooperation.
- On the bright side: Fantasy video games, hopeful science fiction, and the change of seasons
The Legend of Zelda, Star Trek, and Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.
- Comix: The Adventure of the Unknown Corpse
An elementary case for fiction's greatest detective.