Wikipedia talk:Meetup/Portland

Hello all,

I'm Janna Layton, administrative specialist for the Product Department. Our CPTO, Selena Deckelmann, will be hosting another gathering for staff and community members this Thursday, 3-6pm. It will again be at Rose City Book Pub in Portland. If you're interested, please let me know below or at jlayton [at] wikimedia [dot] org. Thanks! JLayton (WMF) (talk) 19:49, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

Ooligan inquired about Western Oregon meetups at Wikipedia talk:Meetup/Seattle § Will there be a meeting in Oregon in the future?. I thought it would be best to bring the discussion here.

I believe that last social in Portland was Wikipedia:Meetup/Portland/Social/June 2023 & the last meetup Wikipedia:Meetup/Portland/Jewish Women Artists 2024. Might it be time to schedule another? It seems the best place for social meetups has been the Rose City Book Pub. Peaceray (talk) 20:02, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

@Peaceray and Ooligan: together with a few other people, I'll be in Portland later this month for a meeting of the Product and Technology Advisory Council. Our meeting starts on the 24th of January, but I'm arriving early, and I'd be happy to meet some local wikipedians - would anyone be interested in a meetup on the 22nd or 23rd? I'm around both days, but the 23rd is probably the best day as there will be more people from the PTAC meeting around that might also join. - Laurentius (talk) 16:43, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

@JLayton (WMF), Another Believer, and Llywrch: would one of you be able to respond to Laurentius?

During that time, I will be volunteering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, connecting with WikiPortraits there, & preparing for Utah Wikipedia Day at Sundance. Peaceray (talk) 22:20, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

@Laurentius I'd be down for an evening meetup on the 23rd, and I know a couple others who might be too. CaptainEek ^{Edits Ho Cap'n!}⚓ 00:59, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

@CaptainEek great! The plan at the moment is to meet at the Rose City Book Pub, something like 5.30 pm. - Laurentius (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 12:55, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

I've created a meetup page: Wikipedia:Meetup/Portland/Social/January 2025. (also pinging User:Ooligan and User:CaptainEek) - Laurentius (talk) 17:41, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for your good work @Laurentius.

Fyi, I have made a request to the Product and Technology Advisory Council (PTAC) to post meeting related information here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Product_and_Technology_Advisory_Council . Best regards, -- Ooligan (talk) 20:57, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Might road trip down. Hope to see you there. - Jmabel | Talk 00:45, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Moved from Event talk:Wikipedia 25 in Portland, Oregon § Postportem?

Anyone interested in discussing their thoughts about how the event went? Such as scheduling future Wikimeetups? -- llywrch (talk) 19:09, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

For sure! I had a lovely afternoon getting to meet all of you, and I was glad to hear interest for potentially making these meetups a recurring activity in Portland, which was one of my goals in organizing this event. While this one was more of a social gathering, I'm open to ideas about making future meetups more structured and picking a different venue that's easier to work in. I can start looking into reservable spaces in a Multnomah County Library location, for example. As for when, how about a weekend sometime in February? —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 19:29, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

Also pinging Ooligan. —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 17:31, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

Same here, and sounds good, @TechnoSquirrel69 -- sometime mid/late Feb or later should work for me. Jrtuenge (talk) 00:35, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

Alright, taking a look at this page from the library's website, it seems there's a decent variety of rooms around the city. I'd have a preference towards locations that are more accessible by public transportation. However, they can only be reserved seven days ahead of time, and have a two-hour-per-day limit. Being unable to schedule meetups more than a week out might make it difficult for people traveling from outside Portland (there were a few at the pub on Sunday) to plan. If we're fine with those conditions, I'm happy to go ahead with planning one of these, but I'm open to ideas about other venues if they might be more suitable. Thoughts? —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 23:33, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

Okay, absent any objections to the venue, I've gone ahead and made a reservation at the Library's Northwest location for 2:00 PM on Saturday, February 28 (the earliest weekend I can make time to organize things...). I'll send out invites and whatnot sometime tomorrow. Peaceray, since you mentioned it at the last meetup, would you like to add to my precarious stack of hats so I can set up the event page? :) —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 05:58, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

Will do when I can get to my computer rather than my phone. Peaceray (talk) 06:32, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

What should I call the event? Two possibilities:

• February 2026 meetup in Portland, Oregon
• PDX February 2026 meetup

I will start the page but can always rename it. Peaceray (talk) 16:30, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

Here is a first draft: Event:February 2026 meetup in Portland, Oregon. As mentioned, this can be renamed. I will take care of enabling registration later today as I need to be attending something at 9am.

Let me know what changes, if desired, that I need to make. Peaceray (talk) 16:53, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

@Peaceray: Thank you for taking care of that! I'll write up the mass message and have it ready to send out once you've enabled registration. The one thing that needs adding is the room number, which is room 1H. Can I make that change myself, or will that prevent you from enabling registration if I'm not an event coordinator? —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 01:58, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

@TechnoSquirrel69: I have enabled registration & made you an event coordinator, which also meant I was able to add you as an organizer. You should now be able to edit in the Event namespace.

One can find more information about creating & modifying Events at:

• mediawikiwiki:Help:Extension:CampaignEvents/Registration
• meta:Event Center/Registration

Peaceray (talk) 05:28, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

Also see Wikipedia:Event coordinator. Peaceray (talk) 05:29, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

Thanks again! I'll make sure to read through those pages. Getting those invites out now. —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 05:31, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

It was great to see everyone at our second meetup this year! As promised, here are some rough notes I took for general reference, now with some handy links as well.

• Annie Rauwerda is hosting a Depths of Wikipedia show on March 20.
  • Experienced Wikimedians can contact Annie through her website for potential backstage passes.
• NW Archivists is holding its annual conference in Tacoma, Washington, from June 24 to 26.
  • Pomemel is proposing to hold an edit-a-thon angled at librarians and archivists.
• Discussing other Multnomah County Library locations that may work for future meetups
  • Central Library is more accessible by public transit, but rooms may be either too small or too large.
  • The new Gresham Library, once constructed, will be on the MAX Blue Line.
  • There is interest in future meetups being hybrid in-person and online; still inquiring about which rooms have conference call capabilities.
  • I have provisionally reserved a room in Central (seats 50) for Saturday, March 28.
• Discord server for event attendees
  • There is a need for a private, off-wiki channel of communication for attendees.
  • I've set up a server and will invite attendees of the February 2026 meetup. Invites will be given to future attendees, and I'm happy to provide access upon request.
• Potential collaboration/integration with the Cascadia Wikimedians
  • There is interest in forming a group that supports editors across the Pacific Northwest.
  • Opportunities for event planning and grants (from the Wikimedia Foundation or not) may be expanded with formal organizational backing.
  • Set up stronger lines of communication with Seattle; potentially over the existing Cascadia mailing list or over Discord.
  • Will probably need a meeting with Seattle folks to discuss the finer points and effects for Portland.
  • Interest in renewing the 501(c)(3) organization status.
• Proposed event at Lone Fir Cemetery
  • Would be a Wikimedia Commons–oriented event focusing on documenting gravestones.
  • Potential collaboration with Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery.
  • Potential subject for a rapid grant from the WMF.
  • More details requested, including...
    • Estimated number of freely-licensed images needed
    • Assessment of impact on the Wikimedia projects (How many Wikipedia articles would this improve? Can this contribute to a set of Wikidata items?)
    • Any other information that would be required to propose the event or draft a grant proposal
• Proposed events at University of Oregon Libraries
  • Library faculty already have a WikiProject and a Wikidata working group.
  • I am in contact with faculty who have expressed interest in collaborating with the volunteer community to host outreach events.
  • I'll have more details at next month's meetup, but I would appreciate organizational help from anyone who's interested!
• Interest in GLAM collaborations in Portland
  • Potential host institutions include...
    • Portland Art Museum
    • Oregon Historical Society
    • Portland State University
    • Multnomah County Archives
    • Portland City Archives (last two have microfilm collections that could be digitized for Commons or Wikisource)
  • In Oregon more generally, we have a contact at Oregon State University.
• Photos added to the Northwest Library article of the new location

Let me know if you have any questions, and see you at the next one! —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 23:28, 1 March 2026 (UTC)

Noting that for the March meetup I decided to prioritize the hybrid meeting capability and reserve a room at the Northwest location again, as Central does not have that available. I'm happy to keep discussing that if this location doesn't work for everyone! —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 01:51, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

Thank you very much for the link to the Depths of Wikipedia show. I went to it this evening and had a blast. She even had Paul Linnman on stage to discuss the Exploding Whale incident. I wish I would have posted about it on reddit as there were plenty of seats available (did you know that Portland reddit uses explosion and whale icons for up/down votes?). Also thanks for doing the notes and organizing. As I mentioned, I won't be here on the 28th but might try to join virtually. Jason McHuff (talk) 07:10, 21 March 2026 (UTC)