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Vote now in the 2025 U4C Election
[edit]- Copied from Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) § Vote now in the 2025 U4C Election because this page is listed on Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)/Subscribe.
Please help translate to other languages.
Eligible voters are asked to participate in the 2025 Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee election. More information–including an eligibility check, voting process information, candidate information, and a link to the vote–are available on Meta at the 2025 Election information page. The vote closes on 17 June 2025 at 12:00 UTC.
Please vote if your account is eligible. Results will be available by 1 July 2025. -- In cooperation with the U4C, Keegan (WMF) (talk) 23:00, 13 June 2025 (UTC)Featured article review for J. K. Rowling
[edit]User:Adam Cuerden has nominated J. K. Rowling for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets the featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" in regards to the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:30, 14 June 2025 (UTC)
Arbcom notice
[edit]You are involved in a recently filed request for arbitration. Please review the request at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case#Transgender health care misinformation on Wikipedia and, if you wish to do so, enter your statement and any other material you wish to submit to the Arbitration Committee. As threaded discussion is not permitted on most arbitration pages, please ensure that you make all comments in your own section only. Additionally, the guide to arbitration and the Arbitration Committee's procedures may be of use.
Thanks, Raladic (talk) 00:17, 15 June 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees 2025 - Call for Candidates
[edit]- Copied from Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) § Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees 2025 - Call for Candidates because this page is listed on Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)/Subscribe.
Hello all,
The call for candidates for the 2025 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees selection is now open from June 17, 2025 – July 2, 2025 at 11:59 UTC [1]. The Board of Trustees oversees the Wikimedia Foundation's work, and each Trustee serves a three-year term [2]. This is a volunteer position.
This year, the Wikimedia community will vote in late August through September 2025 to fill two (2) seats on the Foundation Board. Could you – or someone you know – be a good fit to join the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees? [3]
Learn more about what it takes to stand for these leadership positions and how to submit your candidacy on this Meta-wiki page or encourage someone else to run in this year's election.
Best regards,
Abhishek Suryawanshi
Chair of the Elections Committee
On behalf of the Elections Committee and Governance Committee
[2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal:Bylaws#(B)_Term.
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:43, 17 June 2025 (UTC)
Growth News #34
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A quarterly update from the Growth team on our work to improve the new editor experience.
Mentoring new editors
[edit]In February, Mentorship was successfully rolled out to 100% of newcomers on English Wikipedia. Following this milestone, we collaborated with Spanish Wikipedia to expand Mentorship coverage to 70% of new accounts, with plans to reach 85% soon unless concerns are raised by mentors. (T394867)
“Add a Link” Task – Iteration and Experimentation
[edit]Our efforts to improve and scale the “Add a Link” structured task continued across multiple fronts:
- Community Feedback & Model Improvements: We’ve responded to community concerns with targeted changes:
- Restricting access to newer accounts (T393688)
- Some links types were removed to align with recommendations written in the English Wikipedia Manual of Style (T390683)
- Allowing communities to limit “Add a Link” to newcomers (T393771)
- The model used to suggest the links was improved to ease its training (T388258)
- English Wikipedia rollout and A/B test: We increased the rollout to 20% of newcomers, with analysis underway. Preliminary data suggests this feature makes new account holders more likely to complete an unreverted edit. (T386029, T382603)
- Surfacing Structured Tasks: An experiment where we show “add a link” suggestions to newly registered users while they are reading an article is running on pilot wikis (French, Persian, Indonesian, Portuguese, Egyptian Arabic). Initial results are under analysis. (T386029)
Newcomer Engagement Features
[edit]- “Get Started” notification: Engineering is in progress for a new notification (Echo/email) to encourage editing among newcomers with zero edits. Early research shows this type of nudge is effective. (T392256)
- Confirmation email: We are exploring ways to simplify and improve the initial account confirmation email newly registered users receive. (T215665)
Community Configuration Enhancements
[edit]Communities can now manage which namespaces are eligible for Event Registration via Community Configuration. (T385341)
Annual Planning
[edit]The Wikimedia Foundation’s 2025–2026 Annual Plan is taking shape. The Growth and Editing teams will focus on the Contributor Experiences (WE1) objective, with a focus on increasing constructive edits by editors with fewer than 100 cumulative contributions.
Get Involved
[edit]We value your insights and ideas! If you would like to participate in a discussion, share feedback, or pilot new features, please reach out on the relevant Phabricator tasks or at our talk page, in any language.
Growth team's newsletter prepared by the Growth team and posted by bot • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
18:51, 17 June 2025 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 11
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Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure
See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org
- Tech News: The Chart extension is now available on all Wikimedia wikis. Editors can use this new extension to create interactive data visualizations like bar, line, area, and pie charts. The Trust and Safety Product team is finalizing work needed to roll out temporary accounts on large Wikipedias. More updates from Tech News week 23 and 24.
- New Engagement Experiments: We're testing out WikiRun, a fun game that lets you race through Wikipedia by clicking from one article to another, aiming to reach a target page in as few steps and in as little time as possible! It's an experiment to explore new ways of engaging readers. Give it a try and let us know what you think on the talk page!
Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also: list of movement events · WikiLearn News
- WikiCelebrate: How one librarian brought Wikipedia into the classroom and beyond: this month we celebrate Loretta.
- Wikimedia Research Showcase: The next showcase will center around the theme of "Ensuring Content Integrity on Wikipedia" and will take place on June 18 at 16:30 UTC.
- Resource Support: Resource Support pilot project is now open to requests. This is a pilot project which aims to support Wikipedia content editors in obtaining resources that they need to improve content on Wikipedia.
Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity
See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog
- Global Advocacy: Read important highlights on public policy advocacy from Wikimedia Foundation's Global Advocacy team.
- Global Advocacy: The Global Advocacy team will be representing the Wikimedia Foundation at several events in June and July – including hosting an edit-a-thon during UN Open Source week and running a booth at the Internet Governance Forum.
Board and Board committee updates
See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter
- Board Election: The call for candidates for the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees 2025 Selection will be opened on June 17.
- Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand: Welcoming Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand as the Latest Wikimedia Chapter.
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 · The Wikipedia Library · 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. Let askcac
wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!
MediaWiki message delivery 19:39, 17 June 2025 (UTC)
June music
[edit] | |
| story · music · places |
|---|
Stravinsky pictured on his birthday + Vienna pics - but too many who died -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:51, 17 June 2025 (UTC)
While you are of course invited to check out my recommendations any day, today offers unusually a great writer of novels, music with light and a place with exquisite food. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:12, 28 June 2025 (UTC)
Attack
[edit]Hi there! I just wanted to point out that where you reverted that G10 request stating it was not an attack page, I think that you might not have noticed a directed personal attack under "Known Enemies", which is likely what Magnolia677 meant by "attack page". -- D'n'B-📞 -- 18:08, 23 June 2025 (UTC)
- @DandelionAndBurdock I did indeed see that section. I had not noticed the user listed there (compared to things like "Citation Needed"). That obviously should be removed and I have done so now. However, G10 requires that it be an attack page not an attack line and so I stand by my decline of that speedy deletion. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 18:39, 23 June 2025 (UTC)
The Signpost: 24 June 2025
[edit]- News and notes: Happy 7 millionth!
- In the media: Playing professor pong with prosecutorial discretion
- Disinformation report: Pardon me, Mr. President, have you seen my socks?
- Recent research: Wikipedia's political bias; "Ethical" LLMs accede to copyright owners' demands but ignore those of Wikipedians
- Traffic report: All Sinners, a future, all Saints, a past
- Debriefing: EggRoll97's RfA2 debriefing
- Community view: A Deep Dive Into Wikimedia (part 3)
- Comix: Hamburgers
Sister Projects Task Force reviews Wikispore and Wikinews
[edit]- Copied from Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) § Sister Projects Task Force reviews Wikispore and Wikinews because this page is listed on Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)/Subscribe.
Dear Wikimedia Community,
The Community Affairs Committee (CAC) of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees assigned the Sister Projects Task Force (SPTF) to update and implement a procedure for assessing the lifecycle of Sister Projects – wiki projects supported by Wikimedia Foundation (WMF).
A vision of relevant, accessible, and impactful free knowledge has always guided the Wikimedia Movement. As the ecosystem of Wikimedia projects continues to evolve, it is crucial that we periodically review existing projects to ensure they still align with our goals and community capacity.
Despite their noble intent, some projects may no longer effectively serve their original purpose. Reviewing such projects is not about giving up – it's about responsible stewardship of shared resources. Volunteer time, staff support, infrastructure, and community attention are finite, and the non-technical costs tend to grow significantly as our ecosystem has entered a different age of the internet than the one we were founded in. Supporting inactive projects or projects that didn't meet our ambitions can unintentionally divert these resources from areas with more potential impact.
Moreover, maintaining projects that no longer reflect the quality and reliability of the Wikimedia name stands for, involves a reputational risk. An abandoned or less reliable project affects trust in the Wikimedia movement.
Lastly, failing to sunset or reimagine projects that are no longer working can make it much harder to start new ones. When the community feels bound to every past decision – no matter how outdated – we risk stagnation. A healthy ecosystem must allow for evolution, adaptation, and, when necessary, letting go. If we create the expectation that every project must exist indefinitely, we limit our ability to experiment and innovate.
Because of this, SPTF reviewed two requests concerning the lifecycle of the Sister Projects to work through and demonstrate the review process. We chose Wikispore as a case study for a possible new Sister Project opening and Wikinews as a case study for a review of an existing project. Preliminary findings were discussed with the CAC, and a community consultation on both proposals was recommended.
Wikispore
[edit]The application to consider Wikispore was submitted in 2019. SPTF decided to review this request in more depth because rather than being concentrated on a specific topic, as most of the proposals for the new Sister Projects are, Wikispore has the potential to nurture multiple start-up Sister Projects.
After careful consideration, the SPTF has decided not to recommend Wikispore as a Wikimedia Sister Project. Considering the current activity level, the current arrangement allows better flexibility and experimentation while WMF provides core infrastructural support.
We acknowledge the initiative's potential and seek community input on what would constitute a sufficient level of activity and engagement to reconsider its status in the future.
As part of the process, we shared the decision with the Wikispore community and invited one of its leaders, Pharos, to an SPTF meeting.
Currently, we especially invite feedback on measurable criteria indicating the project's readiness, such as contributor numbers, content volume, and sustained community support. This would clarify the criteria sufficient for opening a new Sister Project, including possible future Wikispore re-application. However, the numbers will always be a guide because any number can be gamed.
Wikinews
[edit]We chose to review Wikinews among existing Sister Projects because it is the one for which we have observed the highest level of concern in multiple ways.
Since the SPTF was convened in 2023, its members have asked for the community's opinions during conferences and community calls about Sister Projects that did not fulfil their promise in the Wikimedia movement.[1][2][3] Wikinews was the leading candidate for an evaluation because people from multiple language communities proposed it. Additionally, by most measures, it is the least active Sister Project, with the greatest drop in activity over the years.
While the Language Committee routinely opens and closes language versions of the Sister Projects in small languages, there has never been a valid proposal to close Wikipedia in major languages or any project in English. This is not true for Wikinews, where there was a proposal to close English Wikinews, which gained some traction but did not result in any action[4][5], see section 5 as well as a draft proposal to close all languages of Wikinews[6].
Initial metrics compiled by WMF staff also support the community's concerns about Wikinews.
Based on this report, SPTF recommends a community reevaluation of Wikinews. We conclude that its current structure and activity levels are the lowest among the existing sister projects. SPTF also recommends pausing the opening of new language editions while the consultation runs.
SPTF brings this analysis to a discussion and welcomes discussions of alternative outcomes, including potential restructuring efforts or integration with other Wikimedia initiatives.
Options mentioned so far (which might be applied to just low-activity languages or all languages) include but are not limited to:
- Restructure how Wikinews works and is linked to other current events efforts on the projects,
- Merge the content of Wikinews into the relevant language Wikipedias, possibly in a new namespace,
- Merge content into compatibly licensed external projects,
- Archive Wikinews projects.
Your insights and perspectives are invaluable in shaping the future of these projects. We encourage all interested community members to share their thoughts on the relevant discussion pages or through other designated feedback channels.
Feedback and next steps
[edit]We'd be grateful if you want to take part in a conversation on the future of these projects and the review process. We are setting up two different project pages: Public consultation about Wikispore and Public consultation about Wikinews. Please participate between 27 June 2025 and 27 July 2025, after which we will summarize the discussion to move forward. You can write in your own language.
I will also host a community conversation 16th July Wednesday 11.00 UTC and 17th July Thursday 17.00 UTC (call links to follow shortly) and will be around at Wikimania for more discussions.
-- Victoria on behalf of the Sister Project Task Force, 20:56, 27 June 2025 (UTC)