Archives

Archive 1: 28 May 2006 – 1 Sept 2006 Archive 2: 1 Sept 2006 – 10 Oct 2006 Archive 3: 16 Oct 2006 – 31 Jan 2007 Archive 4: 1 Feb 2007 – 15 Mar 2007 Archive 5: 16 Mar 2007 – 30 Apr 2007 Archive 6: May 2007 Archive 7: June 2007 Archive 8: July 2007 Archive 9: August 2007 Archive 10: September 2007 Archive 11: October 2007 Archive 12: November 2007 Archive 13: December 2007 Archive 14: January 2008 Archive 15: WB Jan 2008 - Sept 2009 Archive 16: Oct 2009 - Aug 2010 Archive 17: Sep 2010 - Mar 2011 Archive 18: Mar 2011 - Jul 2011 Archive 19: Aug 2011 - Dec 2011 Archive 20: 2012 Archive 21: 2013 Archive 22: 2014 Archive 23: 2015 Archive 24: 2016 Archive 25: 2017 Archive 26: 2018 Archive 27: 2019 Archive 28: 2020 Archive 29: 2021 Archive 30: 2022

Happy New Year!

After Midnight,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyableNew Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia. Seethis for background context.
—Moops^⋠T⋡17:11, 3 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

   Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year fireworks}} to user talk pages.

—Moops^⋠T⋡17:11, 3 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi After Midnight! I am trying to publish a Wikipedia page for Raj Bhathal and was wondering if I had a draft already written if you could help me publish it in two days or less. Please let me know. Thank youRevitateIntern1 (talk)20:45, 11 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2022).

Administrator changes

• ComplexRational
• Extraordinary Writ

Stephen

• Andrew Yong
• Dbenbenn
• DESiegel
• GlassCobra
• Joe Decker
• Nancy
• Pathoschild
• StuffOfInterest
• William Pietri
• Wwwwolf
• Xdamr

Interface administrator changes

Nihiltres

CheckUser changes

Moneytrees

• Ivanvector
• SilkTork

Oversighter changes

• GeneralNotability
• Moneytrees

• Guerillero
• SilkTork

Guideline and policy news

• Speedy deletion criterionA5 (transwikied articles) has been repealed following anunopposed proposal.

Arbitration

• Following the2022 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee:Barkeep49,CaptainEek,GeneralNotability,Guerillero,L235,Moneytrees,Primefac,SilkTork.
• The2021-22 Discretionary Sanctions Review hasconcluded with many changes to thediscretionary sanctions procedure including a change of the name to "contentious topics". The changes are being implemented over the coming month.
• The arbitration caseStephen has been closed.

Miscellaneous

• Voting for theSound Logo has closed and the winner is expected to be announced February to April 2023.
• Tech tip: You can view information about IP addresses in a centralised location usingbullseye which won the Newcomer award in the recentCoolest Tool Awards.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2023).

Administrator changes Gimmetrow Bjelleklang Bob the Wikipedian Leithp WhisperToMe 100 inactive admins

CheckUser changes BDD Bradv Donald Albury Maxim MusikAnimal Oversighter changes BDD Bradv Donald Albury Maxim

Guideline and policy news

• Followingan RfC, theadministrator policy now requires that prior written consent be gained from theArbitration Committee to mark a block as only appealable to the committee.
• Followinga community discussion, consensus has been found to impose theextended-confirmed restriction over the topic areas ofArmenia and Azerbaijan andKurds and Kurdistan.

Technical news

• The Vector 2022 skin has become the default for desktop users of the English Wikipedia.

Arbitration

• The arbitration caseArmenia-Azerbaijan 3 has been opened and the proposed decision is expected 24 February 2023.
• In December, thecontentious topics procedure was adopted which replaces theformer discretionary sanctions system. The contentious topics procedure is now in effect following an initialimplementation period. There isa detailed summary of the changes andadministrator instructions for the new procedure. The arbitration clerk team are taking suggestions, concerns, and unresolved questions about this new system attheir noticeboard.

Miscellaneous

• Voting in the2023 Steward elections will begin on 05 February 2023, 21:00 (UTC) and end on 26 February 2023, 21:00 (UTC). Theconfirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automaticallycheck your eligibility to vote.
• Voting in the2023 Community Wishlist Survey will begin on 10 February 2023 and end on 24 February 2023. You can submit, discuss and revise proposals until 6 February 2023.
• Tech tip:Syntax highlighting is available in both the 2011 and 2017 Wikitext editors. It can help make editing paragraphs with many references or complicated templates easier.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2023).

Administrator changes The Wordsmith Fuhghettaboutit Spinningspark (deceased)

CheckUser changes Callanecc Oversighter changes Callanecc

Guideline and policy news

• Following arequest for comment,F10 (useless non-media files) has been deprecated.
• Following arequest for comment, the Portal CSD criteria (P1 (portal subject to CSD as an article) andP2 (underpopulated portal)) have been deprecated.
• Arequest for comment is open to discuss making theclosing instructions for therequested moves process a guideline.

Technical news

• The results of the2023 Community Wishlist Survey have beenposted.

Arbitration

• Remedy 11 ("Request for Comment") of theConduct in deletion-related editing case hasbeen rescinded.
• The proposed decision for theArmenia-Azerbaijan 3 case is expected 7 March 2023.
• A case related to theHolocaust in Poland is expected to be opened soon.

Miscellaneous

• The 2023 appointees for theOmbuds commission areAGK,Ameisenigel,Bennylin,Daniuu,Emufarmers,Faendalimas,JJMC89,MdsShakil,Minorax andRenvoy as regular members andZabe as advisory members.
• Following the2023 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards:Mykola7,Superpes15, andXaosflux.
• TheTerms of Use update cycle has started, whichincludes a[p]roposal for better addressing undisclosed paid editing. Feedback is being accepted until 24 April 2023.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2023).

Administrator changes Aoidh KillerChihuahua

CheckUser changes Ferret

Guideline and policy news

• Acommunity RfC is open to discuss whether reports primarily involvinggender-related disputes or controversies should be referred to theArbitration enforcement noticeboard.

Technical news

• Some olderweb browsers will not be able to useJavaScript on Wikimedia wikis starting this week. This mainly affects users ofInternet Explorer 11. (T178356)
• Therollback of Vector 2022 RfC has found no consensus to rollback to Vector legacy, but has found rough consensus to disable "limited width" mode by default.
• A link to the user'sSpecial:CentralAuth page will now appear in the subtitle links shown onSpecial:Contributions. This was voted #17 in theCommunity Wishlist Survey 2023.

Arbitration

• TheArmenia-Azerbaijan 3 case has been closed.
• A case aboutWorld War II and the history of Jews in Poland has been opened, with the first evidence phase closing 6 April 2023.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2023).

Administrator changes Spicy Ale jrb Dbachmann DGG (deceased) Jimbo Wales

CheckUser changes Jimbo Wales Oversighter changes Jimbo Wales

Guideline and policy news

• Arequest for comment about removing administrative privileges in specified situations is open for feedback.

Technical news

• Progress has started on thePage Triage improvement project. This is to address the concerns raised by the community in their2022 WMF letter that requested improvements be made to the tool.

Arbitration

• The proposed decision in theWorld War II and the history of Jews in Poland case is expected 11 May 2023.

Miscellaneous

• The Wikimedia Foundation annual plan 2023-2024 draft is open for comment and input through May 19. The final plan will be published in July 2023.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2023).

Administrator changes Ingenuity Ddstretch Prodego Resolute

CheckUser changes Courcelles

Guideline and policy news

• Followingan RfC, editors indefinitely site-banned bycommunity consensus will now have all rights, including sysop, removed.
• As a part of the Wikimedia Foundation'sIP Masking project, anew policy has been created that governs the access to temporary account IP addresses. Anassociated FAQ has been created and individual communities can increase the requirements to view temporary account IP addresses.

Technical news

• Bot operators and tool maintainers should schedule time in the coming months to test and update their tools for the effects ofIP masking. IP masking will not be deployed to any content wiki untilat least October 2023 and is unlikely to be deployed to the English Wikipedia until some time in 2024.

Arbitration

• The arbitration caseWorld War II and the history of Jews in Poland has been closed. The topic area of Polish history during World War II (1933-1945) and the history of Jews in Poland is subject to a "reliable source consensus-required" contentious topic restriction.

Miscellaneous

• Followinga community referendum, thearbitration policy has been modified to remove the ability for users to appeal remedies toJimbo Wales.

Category:Monarchs of the Hebrew Bible has been nominated for renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with thecategorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments atthe category's entry on thecategories for discussion page. Thank you.Nederlandse Leeuw (talk)10:26, 13 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Category:Television stations in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania has been nominated for renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with thecategorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments atthe category's entry on thecategories for discussion page. Thank you.Mvcg66b3r (talk)19:17, 25 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hey @After Midnight, thanks for patrolling edits and reverting vandalism! I wonder if you are interested in our ongoing study for recent change patrollers. The study aims to evaluate AI models that power recent change filters, Huggle, SWViewer, and many other anti-vandal tools. Your feedback can be really helpful!If you're interested, please check out ourrecruitment page for more information. Thank you for your consideration!P.S. I noticed your edits about Pittsburgh Pirates. Let's go bucs!Tzusheng (talk)01:50, 29 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2023).

Administrator changes

Novem Linguae

• Deckiller
• Electionworld
• MBisanz
• Penwhale
• Raul654
• Roadrunner
• Viridae
• Yannismarou

Bureaucrat changes

MBisanz

Guideline and policy news

• Contributions to the English Wikipedia are now released under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) license instead ofCC BY-SA 3.0. Contributions are still also released under theGFDL license.

Technical news

• Discussion is open regarding a proposedglobal policy regarding third-party resources. Third-party resources are computer resources that reside outside of Wikimedia production websites.

Arbitration

• Two arbitration cases are currently open. Proposed decisions are expected 5 July 2023 for theScottywong case and 9 July 2023 for theAlisonW case.

Hi After Midnight, hope you're doing well! I recently came acrossLauren Caitlin UptonLauren Caitlin Upton, which you fully protected back in 2007 (with the commentthis should also be protected during the AFD), along with themain article while an AFD was underway. Another administratorunprotected the main article after it was kept, but the redirect has remained under full protection for 16 years. Do you think we could try lifting that as I'm not sure it's needed anymore? Thanks,DanCherek (talk)23:07, 2 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

DoneAfter Midnight⁰⁰⁰¹23:30, 2 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Category:Hebrew Bible nations has been nominated for renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with thecategorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments atthe category's entry on thecategories for discussion page. Thank you.Nederlandse Leeuw (talk)12:12, 21 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2023).

Administrator changes

Firefangledfeathers

• AlisonW
• Amberrock
• Closedmouth
• Scottywong

Interface administrator changes

Novem Linguae

Technical news

• The tag filter onSpecial:NewPages and revision history pages can now be inverted. This allows hiding edits made by automated tools. (T334338)
• Special:BlockedExternalDomains is a new tool that allows easier blocking of plain domains (and their subdomains). This is more easily searchable and is faster for the software to use than the existingMediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. It does not support regex (for complex cases), URL path-matching, or theMediaWiki:Spam-whitelist. (T337431)

Arbitration

• The arbitration cases namedScottywong andAlisonW closed 10 July and 16 July respectively.
• TheSmallCat dispute arbitration case is in the workshop phase.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2023).

Administrator changes Pppery Theleekycauldron Dwheeler G.A.S Royalbroil Ssd

CheckUser changes Bradv Oversighter changes Bradv

Guideline and policy news

• Followingan RfC,TFAs will be automatically semi-protected the day before it is on the main page and through the day after.
• A discussion atWP:VPP about revision deletion and oversight fordead names found that[s]ysops can choose to use revdel if, in their view, it's the right tool for this situation, and they need not default to oversight. But oversight could well be right where there's a particularly high risk to the person. Use your judgment.

Technical news

• Special:Contributions now shows the user's local edit count and the account's creation date. (T324166)

Arbitration

• TheSmallCat dispute case has closed. As part of the final decision, editors participating inXfD have been reminded to be careful about forminglocal consensus which may or may not reflect the broader community consensus. Regular closers ofXfD forums were also encouraged tonote when broader community discussion, or changes to policies and guidelines, would be helpful.

Miscellaneous

• Tech tip: The "Browse history interactively" banner shown at the top ofSpecial:Diff can be used to easily look through a history, assemble composite diffs, or find out what archive something wound up in.

A category or categories you have created have been nominated for possible deletion, merging, or renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with thecategorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments atWikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2023 October 1 § Category:WikiProject X members on thecategories for discussion page. Thank you.Qwerfjkltalk09:31, 2 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2023).

Administrator changes

0xDeadbeef

Tamzin

Dennis Brown

Interface administrator changes

Pppery

• Ragesoss
• TheresNoTime

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

• The WMF is working on making it possible for administrators toedit MediaWiki configuration directly. This is similar to previous work on Special:EditGrowthConfig. Atechnical RfC is running until November 08, where you can provide feedback.
• There isa proposed plan for re-enabling the Graph Extension. Feedback on this proposalis requested.

Arbitration

• Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate themselves from 12 November 2023 until 21 November 2023 to standin the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections.
• Xaosflux,RoySmith andCyberpower678 have been appointed to theElectoral Commission for the2023 Arbitration Committee Elections.BusterD is the reserve commissioner.
• Followinga motion, the contentious topic designation ofPrem Rawat has been struck. Actions previously taken using this contentious topic designation are still in force.
• Followingseveral motions, multiple topic areas are no longer designated as a contentious topic. These contentious topic designations were from theEditor conduct in e-cigs articles,Liancourt Rocks,Longevity,Medicine,September 11 conspiracy theories, andShakespeare authorship question cases.
• Followinga motion, remedies 3.1 (All related articles under 1RR whenever the dispute over naming is concerned), 6 (Stalemate resolution) and 30 (Administrative supervision) of theMacedonia 2 case have been rescinded.
• Followinga motion, remedy 6 (One-revert rule) of theThe Troubles case has been amended.
• An arbitration case namedIndustrial agriculture has been opened. Evidence submissions in this case close 8 November.

Miscellaneous

• TheArticles for Creation backlog drive is happening in November 2023, with 700+ drafts pending reviews for in the last 4 months or so. In addition to the AfC participants, all administrators and New Page Patrollers can conduct reviews using the helper script, Yet Another AFC Helper Script, which can be enabled inthe Gadgets settings.Sign up here to participate!

Hello! Voting in the2023 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 11 December 2023. Alleligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

TheArbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting theWikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to imposesite bans,topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. Thearbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2023 election, please reviewthe candidates and submit your choices on thevoting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add{{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page.MediaWiki message delivery (talk)00:29, 28 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2023).

Administrator changes

• Ganesha811
• JPxG

• Ajpolino
• Lourdes
• Mairi
• RockMFR
• Somno
• WilyD

Beeblebrox →Just Step Sideways

CheckUser changes

• Beeblebrox
• Opabinia regalis

Oversight changes

• Beeblebrox
• Opabinia regalis

Guideline and policy news

• Following atalk page discussion, theAdministrators' accountability policy has been updated to note that while it is considered best practice for administrators to havenotifications (pings) enabled, this is not mandatory. Administrators who do not use notifications are now strongly encouraged to indicate this on their user page.

Arbitration

• Followinga motion, theExtended Confirmed Restriction has been amended, removing the allowance for non-extended-confirmed editors to post constructive comments on the "Talk:" namespace. Now, non-extended-confirmed editors may use the "Talk:" namespace solely to make edit requests related to articles within the topic area, provided that their actions are not disruptive.
• The Arbitration Committee hasannounced a call for Checkusers and Oversighters, stating that it will currently be accepting applications for CheckUser and/or Oversight permissions at any point in the year.
• Eligible users are invited tovote on candidates for theArbitration Committee until23:59 December 11, 2023 (UTC). Candidate statements can be seenhere.

An editor has asked fora deletion review ofCategory:Furry Wikipedians. Because you closed the deletion discussion for this page, speedily deleted it, or otherwise were interested in the page, you might want to participate in the deletion review.Frigyes06 (talk)23:17, 11 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2023).

Administrator changes

Clovermoss

Dennis Brown

• Julia W
• Marasmusine
• PBS

CheckUser changes

• Aoidh
• HJ Mitchell
• Sdrqaz
• Spicy
• ToBeFree
• Vanamonde93
• Z1720

Maxim

• Enterprisey
• Izno
• SilkTork

Oversighter changes

• Aoidh
• Firefly
• Sdrqaz
• ToBeFree
• Z1720

Maxim

• Enterprisey
• Izno
• SilkTork

Arbitration

• Following the2023 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee:Aoidh,Cabayi,Firefly,HJ Mitchell,Maxim,Sdrqaz,ToBeFree,Z1720.
• Following amotion, the Arbitration Committee rescinded the restrictions on the page name move discussions for the two Ireland pages that wereenacted in June 2009.
• The arbitration caseIndustrial agriculture has been closed.

Miscellaneous

• TheNew Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in January 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles in thenew pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 13,000 unreviewed articles awaiting review.Sign up here to participate!

An editor has asked fora deletion review ofCategory:Queer Wikipedians. Because you closed the deletion discussion for this page, speedily deleted it, or otherwise were interested in the page, you might want to participate in the deletion review.The Midnite Wolf (talk)06:17, 6 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2024).

Administrator changes

• Red-tailed hawk
• Robertsky

• Ameliorate!
• Ancheta Wis
• Anthony Bradbury (deceased)
• Cobi
• Ev
• Moondyne
• Worm That Turned

Bureaucrat changes

Worm That Turned

CheckUser changes

Wugapodes

Interface administrator changes

• Enterprisey
• Izno

Guideline and policy news

• AnRfC about increasing the inactivity requirement for Interface administrators is open for feedback.

Technical news

• Pages that use the JSON contentmodel will now use tabs instead of spaces for auto-indentation. This will significantly reduce the page size. (T326065)

Arbitration

• Following amotion, the Arbitration Committee adopted a new enforcement restriction on January 4, 2024, wherein the Committee may apply the 'Reliable source consensus-required restriction' to specified topic areas.
• Community feedback isrequested for a draft to replace the "Information for administrators processing requests" section atWP:AE.

Miscellaneous

• Voting in the2024 Steward elections will begin on 06 February 2024, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 27 February 2024, 14:00 (UTC). Theconfirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automaticallycheck your eligibility to vote.
• A vote toratify the charter for theUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is open till 2 February 2024, 23:59:59 (UTC) viaSecure Poll. All eligible voters within the Wikimedia community have the opportunity to either support or oppose the adoption of the U4C Charter and share their reasons. The details of the voting process and voter eligibility can be foundhere.
• Community Tech has made some preliminary decisions about the future of theCommunity Wishlist Survey. In summary, they aim to develop a new, continuous intake system for community technical requests that improves prioritization, resource allocation, and communication regarding wishes.Read more
• TheUnreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in February 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with{{Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles.Sign up to participate!

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2024).

Administrator changes Sdkb The Night Watch East718 Isabelle Belato Mzajac Staecker Stan Shebs Sugarfish Tamzin

Bureaucrat changes SilkTork

Guideline and policy news

• Phase I of the 2024RfA review is now open for participation. Editors are invited to review, comment on, and propose improvements to therequests for adminship process.
• Followingan RfC, the inactivity requirement for the removal of theinterface administrator right increased from 6 months to 12 months.

Technical news

• The mobile site history pages now use the same HTML as the desktop history pages. (T353388)

Miscellaneous

• The 2024 appointees for theOmbuds commission areだ＊ぜ,AGK,Ameisenigel,Bennylin,Daniuu,Doǵu,Emufarmers,Faendalimas,MdsShakil,Minorax,Nehaoua,Renvoy andRoySmith as members, withVermont serving as steward-observer.
• Following the2024 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards:Ajraddatz,Albertoleoncio,EPIC,JJMC89,Johannnes89,Melos andYahya.

I am utterly appalled that anyone holding admin rights at Wikipedia should in any way consider this edit of yours to be in any way appropriate.[1] Given the self-evident violation of multiple Wikipedia policies involved, I would have to suggest that it would be in your own best interest, as well as that of Wikipedia, if you were to resign as an admin immediately. Should you fail to do so within a reasonable period, I shall be raising the matter at ArbCom.AndyTheGrump (talk)12:58, 5 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(watching) I endorse this view. It demonstrates a lack of understanding of some of our most fundamental policies and guidelines—neutrality, alsoa pillar,sourcing requirements and most importantly how not to slurliving people in the encyclopaedia's words. Nothing personal, but it suggests that you either no longer care enough to uphold these principles, or you'ver simply forgotten then. As an admin you are expected to remain up-to-date with policy and demonstrate good judgment; that edit indicates neither, I'm afraid.
———Serial13:31, 5 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This is youronly warning; if you violate Wikipedia'sbiographies of living persons policy by insertingunsourced orpoorly sourceddefamatory content into an article or any other Wikipedia page again, as you did atMike Collins (politician), you may beblocked from editing without further notice.The Wordsmith^{Talk to me}20:47, 5 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2024).

Administrator changes

• Kbdank71
• Kosack
• NrDg
• TLSuda

Guideline and policy news

• AnRfC is open to convert all current and futurecommunity discretionary sanctions to (community designated)contentious topics procedure.

Technical news

• The Toolforge Grid Engine services have been shut down after the final migration process from Grid Engine to Kubernetes. (T313405)

Arbitration

• Anarbitration case has been opened to look into "the intersection of managing conflict of interest editing with the harassment (outing) policy".

Miscellaneous

• Editors are invited tosign up forThe Core Contest, an initiative running from April 15 to May 31, which aims to improvevital and other core articles on Wikipedia.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2024).

Administrator changes

Nyttend

• JohnOwens
• Killiondude
• MelanieN
• Nihonjoe

Bureaucrat changes

Nihonjoe

CheckUser changes

Joe Roe

Oversight changes

GeneralNotability

Guideline and policy news

• Phase I of the2024 requests for adminship review has concluded. Several proposals have passed outright and will proceed to implementation, includingcreating a discussion-only period (3b) andadministrator elections (13) on a trial basis. Other successful proposals, such ascreating a reminder of civility norms (2), will undergo further refinement in Phase II. Proposals passed on a trial basis will be discussed in Phase II, after their trials conclude. Further details on specific proposals can be found in thefull report.

Technical news

• Partial action blocks are now in effect on the English Wikipedia. This means that administrators have the ability to restrict users from certain actions, including uploading files, moving pages and files, creating new pages, and sending thanks.T280531

Arbitration

• The arbitration caseConflict of interest management has been closed.

Miscellaneous

• This may be a good time to reach out to potential nominees to ask if they would consider an RfA.
• ANew Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in May 2024 to reduce the number of unreviewed articles in thenew pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 15,000 articles awaiting review.Sign up here to participate!
• Voting for theUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) election is open until 9 May 2024. Read thevoting page on Meta-Wiki andcast your vote here!

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2024).

Administrator changes

Graham Beards

• Deskana
• Mets501
• Staxringold

Bureaucrat changes

• Deskana
• Warofdreams

Oversight changes

Dreamy Jazz

Guideline and policy news

• Phase II of the2024 RfA review has commenced to improve and refine the proposals passed inPhase I.

Technical news

• TheNuke feature, which enables administrators to mass delete pages, will now correctly delete pages which were moved to another title.T43351

Arbitration

• The arbitration caseVenezuelan politics has been closed.
• The Committee isseeking volunteers for various roles, including access to theconflict of interest VRT queue.

Miscellaneous

• WikiProject Reliability'sunsourced statements drive is happening in June 2024 to replace{{citation needed}} tags with references!Sign up here to participate!

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2024).

Administrator changes

• Elli
• HouseBlaster
• Pickersgill-Cunliffe

• Brianga
• De728631
• Georgewilliamherbert
• Hyacinth (deceased)
• ProveIt
• The Night Watch

Technical news

• Local administrators can now add new links to the bottom of the site Tools menu without using JavaScript.Documentation is available on MediaWiki. (T6086)

Miscellaneous

• TheCommunity Wishlist is re-opening on 15 July 2024.Read more

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2024).

Administrator changes

Isabelle Belato

• Ian.thomson
• Modussiccandi

Interface administrator changes

Izno

CheckUser changes

Barkeep49

Technical news

• Global blocks may now target accounts as well as IP's. Administrators maylocally unblock when appropriate.
• Users wishing to permanently leave may now request "vanishing" viaSpecial:GlobalVanishRequest. Processed requests will result in the user being renamed, their recovery email being removed, and their account being globally locked.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committeeappointed the following administrators to theconflict of interest volunteer response team:Bilby,Extraordinary Writ

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2024).

Administrator changes

Pppery

Interface administrator changes

Pppery

Oversighter changes

Wugapodes

CheckUser changes

• Courcelles
• GeneralNotability

Guideline and policy news

• Following anRfC, there is a newcriterion for speedy deletion:C4, whichapplies to unused maintenance categories, such as empty dated maintenance categories for dates in the past.
• Arequest for comment is open to discuss whetherNotability (species) should be adopted as asubject-specific notability guideline.

Arbitration

• Following amotion,remedies 5.1 and 5.2 ofWorld War II and the history of Jews in Poland (the topic and interaction bans onMy very best wishes, respectively) were repealed.
• Remedy 3C of theGerman war effort case ("Cinderella157 German history topic ban") wassuspended for a period of six months.
• The arbitration caseHistorical Elections is currently open. Proposed decision is expected by 3 September 2024 for this case.

Miscellaneous

• Editors can now enter intogood article review circles, an alternative for informalquid pro quo arrangements, to have aGAN reviewed in return for reviewing a different editor's nomination.
• ANew Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in September 2024 to reduce the number of unreviewed articles and redirects in thenew pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 13,900 articles and 26,200 redirects awaiting review.Sign up here to participate!

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2024).

Administrator changes

• Asilvering
• Significa liberdade

• Good Olfactory
• Hesperian
• I JethroBT
• TommyBoy
• Woody

CheckUser changes

• Barkeep49
• Izno

• Doug Weller
• Spicy

Guideline and policy news

• Administrator elections are a proposed new process for selecting administrators, offering an alternative torequests for adminship (RfA). The first trial election will take place in October 2024, withcandidate sign-up from October 8 to 14, adiscussion phase from October 22 to 24, andSecurePoll voting from October 25 to 31. For questions or to help out, please visit the talk page atWikipedia talk:Administrator elections.
• Followinga discussion, the speedy deletion reason "File pages without a corresponding file" has been moved from criterionG8 toF2. This does not change what can be speedily deleted.
• Arequest for comment is open to discuss whether there is a consensus to have anadministrator recall process.

Arbitration

• The arbitration caseHistorical elections has been closed.
• An arbitration case regardingBacklash to diversity and inclusion has been opened.
• Editors are invited tonominate themselves to serve on the 2024 Arbitration Committee Electoral Commission until23:59 October 8, 2024 (UTC).

Miscellaneous

• If you are interested in stopping spammers, please putMediaWiki talk:Spam-whitelist andMediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist on your watchlist, and help out when you can.

Hello,

The Wikimedia Foundation is conducting a survey of Wikipedians to better understand what draws administrators to contribute to Wikipedia, and what affects administrator retention. We will use this research to improve experiences for Wikipedians, and address common problems and needs. We have identified you as a good candidate for this research, and would greatly appreciate your participation in thisanonymous survey.

You do not have to be an Administrator to participate.

The survey should take around 10-15 minutes to complete. You may read more about the study on itsMeta page and view itsprivacy statement .

Please find our contact on the project Meta page if you have any questions or concerns.

Kind Regards,

WMF Research Team

BGerdemann (WMF) (talk)19:22, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2024).

Administrator changes

• Crisco 1492

• Babajobu
• Daniel
• Elf
• Jayron32
• Thue
• Wugapodes

CheckUser changes

Maxim

Oversighter changes

Maxim

Guideline and policy news

• Following adiscussion, thediscussion-only period proposal that went for a trial to refine therequests for adminship (RfA) process has been discontinued.
• Following arequest for comment,Administrator recall is adopted as a policy.

Technical news

• Mass deletions done with theNuke tool now have the 'Nuke' tag. This change will make reviewing and analyzing deletions performed with the tool easier.T366068

Arbitration

• RoySmith,Barkeep49 andCyberpower678 have been appointed to theElectoral Commission for the2024 Arbitration Committee Elections.ThadeusOfNazereth andDr vulpes are reserve commissioners.
• Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate from 3 November 2024 until 12 November 2024 to stand in the2024 Arbitration Committee elections.
• The Arbitration Committee isseeking volunteers for roles such as clerks, access to the COI queue, checkuser, and oversight.

Miscellaneous

• Anunreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in November 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with{{Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles.Sign up to participate!

Hello,

I recently invited you to take a survey about administration on Wikipedia. If you haven’t yet had a chance, there is still time to participate– we’d truly appreciate your feedback. The survey is anonymous and should take about 10-15 minutes to complete. You may read more about the study on itsMeta page and view itsprivacy statement.

Take the surveyhere.

Kind Regards,

WMF Research Team

BGerdemann (WMF) (talk)00:18, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hello! Voting in the2024 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 2 December 2024. Alleligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

TheArbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting theWikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to imposesite bans,topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. Thearbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2024 election, please reviewthe candidates and submit your choices on thevoting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add{{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page.MediaWiki message delivery (talk)00:13, 19 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2024).

Administrator changes

• Ahecht
• DoubleGrazing
• Dr vulpes
• FOARP
• Peaceray
• Queen of Hearts
• Rsjaffe
• SD0001
• SilverLocust
• Sohom Datta
• ThadeusOfNazereth
• Voorts

• Ajpolino
• Fathoms Below
• Pppery
• Tamzin
• Worm That Turned

• Aervanath
• Christopher Sundita
• Dank
• Dennis Brown
• Dragons flight
• Fastily
• Graham87
• JaGa
• Kbh3rd
• Marine 69-71
• Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington
• Yamamoto Ichiro

Interface administrator changes

• SD0001
• Sohom Datta

Pppery

CheckUser changes

• Spicy
• TheresNoTime

Guideline and policy news

• Followingan RFC, thepolicy on restoration of adminship has been updated. All former administrators may now only regain the tools following a request at theWikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard within 5 years of their most recent admin action. Previously this applied only to administrators deysopped for inactivity.
• Following arequest for comment, a new speedy deletion criterion,T5, has been enacted. This applies to template subpages that are no longer used.

Technical news

• Technical volunteers can now register for the2025 Wikimedia Hackathon, which will take place in Istanbul, Turkey.Application for travel and accommodation scholarships is open from November 12 to December 10, 2024.

Arbitration

• The arbitration caseYasuke (formerly titledBacklash to diversity and inclusion) has been closed.
• An arbitration case titledPalestine-Israel articles 5 has been opened. Evidence submissions in this case will close on 14 December.

A category or categories you have created have been nominated for possible deletion, merging, or renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with thecategorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments atWikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2024 December 13 § Publicity photographs on thecategories for discussion page. Thank you.BlasterOfHouses (HouseBlaster's alt •talk • he/they)20:34, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2024).

Administrator changes

Sennecaster

• Daniel
• Hog Farm

• BozMo
• Ferret
• John M Wolfson
• MaxSem
• Panyd
• Tide rolls
• Titoxd

CheckUser changes

• Daniel
• Elli
• Liz
• ScottishFinnishRadish
• Theleekycauldron

Worm That Turned

Ferret

Oversight changes

• Daniel
• Elli
• Liz
• ScottishFinnishRadish
• Theleekycauldron

Worm That Turned

Guideline and policy news

• Followingan RFC,Wikipedia:Notability (species) was adopted as asubject-specific notability guideline.
• Arequest for comment is open to discuss whether admins should be advised to warn users rather than issue no-warning blocks to those who have posted promotional content outside of article space.

Technical news

• The Nuke feature also nowprovides links to the userpage of the user whose pages were deleted, and to the pages which were not selected for deletion, after page deletions are queued. This enables easier follow-up admin-actions.

Arbitration

• Following the2024 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been elected to the Arbitration Committee:CaptainEek,Daniel,Elli,KrakatoaKatie,Liz,Primefac,ScottishFinnishRadish,Theleekycauldron,Worm That Turned.

Miscellaneous

• ANew Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in January 2025 to reduce the number of unreviewed articles and redirects in thenew pages feed.Sign up here to participate!

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2025).

Administrator changes

• Arcticocean
• Wugapodes

Euryalus

CheckUser changes

• Firefly
• L235

Oversighter changes

• Firefly
• Guerillero
• L235
• Moneytrees

Technical news

• Administrators can nownuke pages created by a user or IP address from the last 90 days, up from the initial 30 days.T380846
• A 'Recreated' tag will now be added to pages that were created with the same title as a page which was previously deleted and it can be used as a filter inSpecial:RecentChanges andSpecial:NewPages.T56145

Arbitration

• The arbitration casePalestine-Israel articles 5 has been closed.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2025).

Administrator changes

• Jarry1250
• Lethe

CheckUser changes

• AmandaNP
• Drmies

Oversighter changes

AmandaNP

Guideline and policy news

• Arequest for comment is open to discuss whether AI-generated images (meaning those wholly created by generative AI, not human-created images modified with AI tools) should be banned from use in articles.
• A series of22 mini-RFCs that double-checked consensus on some aspects and improved certain parts of theadministrator elections process has been closed (see thesummary of the changes).
• Arequest for comment is open to gain consensus on whether futureadministrator elections should be held.

Technical news

• A new filter has been added to theSpecial:Nuke tool, which allows administrators to filter for pages in a range of page sizes (in bytes). This allows, for example, deleting pages only of a certain size or below.T378488
• Non-administrators can now check which pages are able to be deleted using theSpecial:Nuke tool.T376378

Miscellaneous

• The 2025 appointees for theOmbuds commission areだ＊ぜ,Arcticocean,Ameisenigel,Emufarmers,Faendalimas,Galahad,Nehaoua,Renvoy,Revi C.,RoySmith,Teles andZafer as members, withVermont serving as steward-observer.
• Following the2025 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards:1234qwer1234qwer4,AramilFeraxa,Daniuu,KonstantinaG07,MdsShakil andXXBlackburnXx.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2025).

Administrator changes

• Giraffer
• Goldsztajn

Dennis Brown

• Cyclonebiskit
• Nohat
• Someguy1221

Bureaucrat changes

Barkeep49

CheckUser changes

0xDeadbeef

Oversighter changes

GB fan

Moneytrees

Miscellaneous

• Sign up forThe Core Contest, a competition running from 15 April to 31 May to improvevital articles.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2025).

Administrator changes

Rusalkii

NaomiAmethyst(overlooked last month)

• Master Jay
• Orderinchaos
• Roger Davies
• Tinucherian

Interface administrator changes

Galobtter

Guideline and policy news

• Followingan RfC,administrator elections were permanently authorized on a five-month schedule. The next election will be scheduled soon; seeWikipedia talk:Administrator elections for more information. This is an alternate process to theRfA process and does not replace the latter.
• An RfC was closed with consensus to allow editors to opt-out of seeing "sticky decorative elements". Such elements should now be wrapped in{{sticky decoration wrapper}}. Editors who wish to opt out can follow the instructions atWP:STICKYDECO.
• An RfC has resulted ina broad prohibition on the use of AI-generated images in articles. A few common-sense exceptions are recognized.

Miscellaneous

• ANew Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in May 2025 to reduce the backlog of articles in thenew pages feed.Sign up here to participate!

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2025).

Administrator changes

• DDima
• Gimmetrow
• Huon
• Johan Elisson
• Spangineer
• The Land

Interface administrator changes

0xDeadbeef

CheckUser changes

L235

Oversight changes

L235

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC is open to determine whether the English Wikipedia community should adopt a position on AI development by theWMF and its affiliates.

Technical news

• A new feature calledMultiblocks will be deployed on English Wikipedia on the week of June 2. Seethe relevant announcement on the administrators' noticeboard.
• History merges performed using themergehistory special page are now logged at both the source and destination, rather than just the source as previously, afterthis RFC and the resolution ofT118132.

Arbitration

• An arbitration case namedIndian military history has been opened. Evidence submissions for this case close on 8 June.

Miscellaneous

• Voting for theUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) election is open until 17 June 2025. Read thevoting page on Meta-Wiki andcast your vote here!
• AnArticles for Creation backlog drive is happening in June 2025, with over 1,600 drafts awaiting review from the past two months. In addition to AfC participants, all administrators and new page patrollers can help review using the Yet Another AFC Helper Script, which can be enabled in theGadgets settings.Sign up here to participate!
• TheUnreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in June 2025 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with{{Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles.Sign up to participate!

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2025).

Administrator changes

NuclearWarfare

Interface administrator changes

L235

Guideline and policy news

• Following atalk page discussion, speedy deletioncriterion G13 has beenamended to remove "Userspace with no content except thearticle wizard placeholder text."
• WP:Manual of Style/Superscripts and subscripts was upgraded to a guideline followinga RfC discussion.

Miscellaneous

• The 2025Developing Countries WikiContest will run from 1 July to 30 September.Sign up now!
• Administrator elections will take place this month. Administrator elections are an alternative toRFA that is a gentler process for candidates due to secret voting and multiple people running together. The call for candidates is July 9–15, the discussion phase is July 18–22, and the voting phase is July 23–29. Get ready to submit your candidacy, or (with their consent) to nominate a talented candidate!

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2025).

Administrator changes

• CoconutOctopus
• Curbon7
• Hinnk
• Jlwoodwa
• Kj cheetham
• KylieTastic
• Ser!
• Smasongarrison
• UndercoverClassicist

• Bbb23
• Beeblebrox
• David Gerard
• Oleg Alexandrov
• Satori Son

CheckUser changes

• Alison
• Bradv
• Joe Roe
• RickinBaltimore
• ST47

Oversight changes

• Bradv
• RickinBaltimore

Guideline and policy news

• Followinga request for comment, a new speedy deletion criterion,G15, has been enacted. It applies to pages generated by alarge language model (LLM) without human review.
• Followinga request for comment, there isa new policy outlining the granting of permissions to view the IP addresses oftemporary accounts. Temporary account deployment on the English Wikipedia is currently scheduled for September 2025, and editors canrequest access to the permission ahead of time. Admins are encouraged to keep an eye on the request page; there will likely be a flood of editors requesting the permission when they realize they can no longer see IP addresses.

Technical news

• Administrators can now restrict the "Add a Link" feature to newcomers. The"Add a Link" Structured Taskhelps new account holders get started with editing. Administrators can configure this setting in theCommunity Configuration page.

Arbitration

• The arbitration caseIndian military history has been closed.
  • South Asia (WP:CT/SA) is designated acontentious topic. The topic area is specifically defined asAll pages related to the region ofSouth Asia (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal), broadly construed, including but not limited to history, politics, ethnicity, and social groups.
  • The contentious topic designations forSri Lanka (SL) andIndia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan (IPA) are folded into this new contentious topic.
  • The community-authorized general sanctions regardingSouth Asian social groups (GS/CASTE) are rescinded and folded into this new contentious topic.
• The arbitration caseArticle titles and capitalisation 2 has been opened. Evidence submissions in this case closed on 31 July.
• The arbitration caseTransgender healthcare and people has been opened. Evidence submissions in this case will close on 11 August.

Miscellaneous

• Wikimania 2025 is happening inNairobi,Kenya, and online from August 6 to August 9. This year marks 20 years ofWikimania. Interested users can join the online event. Registration for the virtual event is free and will remain open throughout Wikimania. You canregister here now.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2025).

Administrator changes

Euryalus

• Admrboltz
• FloNight
• Floquenbeam
• Ganeshk
• JesseW
• Night Gyr
• Nixdorf

Interface administrator changes

Ragesoss

CheckUser changes

AmandaNP

SQL

Oversight changes

AmandaNP

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC is open on whether use ofemojis with no encyclopedic value in mainspace and draftspace (e.g., at the start of paragraphs or in place of bullet points) should be added as a criterion underG15.

Technical news

• Administrators can now access theSpecial:BlockedExternalDomains page from theSpecial:CommunityConfiguration list page. This makes it easier to find.T393240

Arbitration

• The arbitration caseArticle titles and capitalisation 2 has been closed.
• An RfC is in progress to amend the structure, rules, and procedures of the Arbitration Committee election and resolve any issues not covered by existing rules.

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2025).

Administrator changes

• Billinghurst
• Crisco 1492
• DarkFalls
• Spike Wilbury
• Valereee
• Ergo Sum

CheckUser changes

Vanamonde93

Arbitration

• Aftera motion, arbitration enforcement page protections no longer need to be logged in the AELOG. A bot now automatically posts protections atWP:AELOG/P. To facilitate this bot, protection summaries must include a link to the relevant CT page (e.g.[[WP:CT/BLP]]), and you will receive talk page reminders if you forget to specify the contentious topic but otherwise indicate it is an AE action.