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Are you a newcomer to Wikipedia? Here are some resources that you may find helpful:

• There'sthis video that explains some of the basics of how Wikipedia works. It's aimed more towards readers than editors, but it can give a decent foundation of some things to be aware of before you start editing.This video by an experienced Wikipedian provides more substantial advice. There is alsothis series.
• The Wikipedia Adventure. This is a very basic (and somewhat eccentric) editing tutorial.
• Do you have a conflict-of-interest? Readthis guide. It's also important to be aware ofan ongoing scam.
• Category:All stub articles which is organized alphabetically and by topic. All these articles could be expanded!
• This is a tutorial for what to know if you wanted to create an article. Our guideline on what isnotable for inclusion on the site is a crucial part of this process.
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch – advice on phrasing to avoid when editing
• This page is a glossary of different terms used on Wikipedia that can help you understand what people are talking about if you come across an unfamiliar acronym.
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory – this is a list of wikiprojects. Some are way more active than others but it's a decent way to try and find groups of articles that match your interests. I'm particularly fond ofWikipedia:WikiProject Canada and the associated challenge forimproving articles.
• This is the perennial sources list, which can be helpful if you're not sure if something is areliable source. If it's not on this list and you have concerns, trythis noticeboard.
• If you are in a disagreement with another editor, you can tryasking for a third opinion. There are also other processes fordispute resolution.

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

Administrator changes

• Epicgenius
• Left guide
• LEvalyn
• MPGuy2824
• The4lines
• Yue

Fathoms Below

• BaronLarf
• Firefly
• kelapstick
• Opabinia regalis
• Pbsouthwood
• Sethant
• UtherSRG
• Whouk

CheckUser changes

• Giraffer
• HouseBlaster
• SilverLocust

• Liz
• Worm That Turned
• Z1720

Oversight changes

• Asilvering
• Giraffer
• Girth Summit
• Guerillero
• HouseBlaster
• Izno
• SilverLocust

• Liz
• Worm That Turned
• Z1720

Guideline and policy news

• Allgeneral sanctions imposed by the community may now be enforced at theArbitration Enforcement noticeboard (WP:AE) as a result of arecent RfC.
• Due to the result of arecent RFC, theadministrator recall process is amended to extend the deadline for a re-request for adminship to 30 days or the nextadministrator election, whichever is later.
• Changes to theAccess to Temporary Account IP Addresses Policy's disclosure rules include broadening the consecutive-blocks exception to cover all admin actions and removing the requirement to revision-delete permissible disclosures once they become unnecessary (instead requiring only their removal). SeeWP:TAIVDISCLOSE for more information.

Arbitration

• Following the2025 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been elected to the Arbitration Committee:Aoidh,Asilvering,Girth Summit,Guerillero,HJ Mitchell,HouseBlaster,Izno,Sdrqaz,SilverLocust.
• The arbitration casePbsouthwood has been suspended.

Reading through it now. ImmediateOrson Scott Card vibes. Thein medias res is slightly jarring. A lot of science fiction uses prologue-like devices to help the reader gradually enter the world you've created, although I realize that prologues can be controversial with some writers. You may be very interested in the wayIan Banks uses them in theCulture series. My take is he does this because he assumes that most readers aren't going to slog through ten books composed of thousands of pages. But it's a cool way to setup the narrative in less than ten pages. I think if you gave me a prologue-like invitation to the story, that would make me feel more comfortable as a reader. Otherwise, I feel like I just walked into a party as an uninvited guest.Viriditas (talk)02:29, 11 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Viriditas: Would you say it broke your immersion completely or just that it wasn't your personal preference? I find that most people perceive writing as weaker if it requires exposition. I think you're the first person I've met that actually prefers it the other way around. It might also be a matter of generational differences?In medias res seems to be quite common for YA fiction these days, whereas you see prologues more with "traditional" sci-fi. Personally I've always liked stories that slowly weave the worldbuilding into the narrative.Dracula is a really good example of this. My characters are confused about what is going on as well, so it's more like you're secretly along for the ride instead of an uninvited guest. Although maybe that reframing doesn't do it for you. I understand if that's the case. My email is always open if you ever want to have extended conversations about fiction. :)Clovermoss🍀(talk)03:48, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

You're right about the YA fiction approach; I definitely picked that up from what you sent me and it comes through loud and clear.Viriditas (talk)03:56, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

When facing difficulty in writing a story, Isaac Asimov once received the advice to start later in the narrative. It became something he would often do whenever he got blocked, knowing he could rework the earlier portions of the narrative into the story later on. As I recall, he had two key pieces of advice for writers: know where the story is going, and start later. (He was thankful for those like John Campbell and Frederik Pohl, who had the talent of being able to offer suggestions to improve the writing of others, which he was aware he mostly lacked.)isaacl (talk)03:59, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Speaking of Asimov,Seth Andrews recently recorded a version of "The Last Question".[1] If you know his voice, but haven't heard him read it, then you're in for a ride.Viriditas (talk)04:03, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

The problem is that I've known most of the plot for years but have faced difficulty actually writing it all.Writer's block sucks although I think I'm slowly fighting my way out of it. I sent Viriditas some notes about my worldbuilding and what I hope to accomplish eventually. I hope they at least enjoyed the premise. I get very excited about the details and hope to do them justice.Clovermoss🍀(talk)04:04, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Use the index card, post-it note whiteboard system all of the television writers use. There's even software you can download that does it.Viriditas (talk)04:06, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Without saying too much, the keystone is the flower. Spend a week just writing about the flower. The entire story will come together from that one central point. It will work, just try it.Viriditas (talk)05:01, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Clover! You've been asking intelligent questions onWT:MED for a while, and I was wondering if you'd be interested in joining theVital Signs 2026 campaign. We're trying to update all top-importance medical articles to B-class or above, and can use a few more hands. Editing these big articles is easier than you think: the bigger the topic, the more established clinical guidelines and easy-to-read review papers exist.—Femke 🐦 (talk)12:23, 11 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Femke: Hmmm. I've been avoiding time-intensive volunteer work lately in an effort to focus more on real-life projects such as my writing and moving to a new city. I felt a bit bad saying no to the backlog drive for NPP as I normally participate whenever they're going on. I have been trying to get better at learning how to address issues in medical content on Wikipedia because there's more nuance to the sourcing requirements but I'm not sure I'm quite at the level where I feel like I could take on a whole article by myself. But this appears to be a year-long project? If you'd be willing to work on an article with me, I could see myself taking on that challenge. A little help makes a world of difference sometimes. I try not to be reckless when doing new things.Clovermoss🍀(talk)03:56, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Absolutely willing to help :). With medical articles, to some extent there's less nuance in the source selections. A lot of grey area sources are simply not allowed and strongly discouraged, meaning that you end of with mostly really good sources that are not too difficult to use. When you've got the head space, let me know what article you might want to take up.—Femke 🐦 (talk)08:18, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Clover, I saw that you are active and I was hoping an admin could take a look at this:Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#~2026-23354-3. Thanks,Marincyclist (talk)04:09, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Marincyclist: I've blocked the TA in question.Clovermoss🍀(talk)04:24, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Clovermoss Thank you for your help!Marincyclist (talk)04:27, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation since our last issue on December 5. Please helptranslate.

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Highlights

• Wikipedia turns 25: Time to start the party!Join the virtual celebration featuring musical performances, games, and more on January 15 at 16:00 UTC. and The party will be live interpreted into Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Join the celebration

Annual Goals Progress onInfrastructure
See also newsletters:Wikimedia Apps ·Growth ·Product Safety and Integrity ·Readers ·Research ·Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia ·Tech News ·Language and Internationalization ·other newsletters on MediaWiki.org

• Annual planning:Key questions for the Wikimedia movement to shape the Wikimedia Foundation’s 2026-2027 annual goals.Join the discussion on-wiki.
• Hackathon:
  • Apply to join the Northwestern Europe 2026 Hackathon from March 13-14 in Arnhem, the Netherlands. Application will close mid-January 2026 or earlier based on event capacity.
  • General Registration for the2026 Wikimedia Hackathon is now open! The hackathon will take place in Milan, Italy from May 1 - 3, 2026. Event detailscan be found here and registration will remain open until March 30th or until event capacity is reached.
• Semantic search: Wikimedia Foundation is working onmaking it easier to find the information readers want.
• Tech News: Latest updates from Tech News week50,week 51, andweek 52 include that now edit filterscan be set to automatically suppress their details which will help oversighters to prevent doxxing.
• Wikifunctions:The first Wikifunctions Volunteers' Corner of the next year will take place on February 9.
• Blazegraph Migration: To support the migration away from Blazegraph as the backend of Wikidata Query Service (WDQS), we are hosting regular callsstarting on January 27. Wikidata users and tool maintainers areare invited to join, ask questions, and share migration-related concerns.

Annual Goals Progress onVolunteer Support
See also blogs:Global Advocacy blog ·Global Advocacy Newsletter ·Policy blog ·WikiLearn News ·list of movement events ·The Wikipedia Library

• Upcoming Conferences: Announcing thesix Wikimedia conferences funded for 2026 in the first round.
• Wikimania 2026:A glimpse on what the team is currently working on to prepare for Wikimania 2026 in Paris.
• Public Policy:Explore the resources available for public policy advocacy work, including explainers that describe key policy positions, guides on how to build a campaign or write a policy brief, and examples of open letters submitted to governments.
• Don't Blink:The latest developments from around the world about protecting the Wikimedia model, its people and its values.
• Public-Interest content: The Project Gayatri content expansion program brought7,656 new articles on Indonesian Wikipedia.
• Wikimedia Research Showcase:The research showcase will return on January 22 at 17:30 UTC with the theme "Celebrating 25 Years of Wikipedia and the Research Behind It".
• Wikimedia Research Report: The Wikimedia Foundation has published its13th bi-annual Research Report, highlighting the work completed during the first six months of this fiscal year.

Annual Goals Progress onEffectiveness
See also:Past issues of the bulletin for progress on the annual plan

• Wikimedia Enterprise:Read the full annual wrap-up of 2025 of Wikimedia Enterprise and how the year marked a fundamental shift in open knowledge.

Board and Board committee updates
SeeWikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard ·Affiliations Committee Newsletter

• Board of Trustees: Wikimedia Foundationwelcomes two new Board Trustees Bobby Shabangu and Michał Buczyński.
• Affcom News: Read theyear-end issue of AffCom News (July-December 2025), the newsletter that distributes relevant news and events about the work of Wikimedia'sAffiliations Committee.

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 ·Wikidata ·Central and Eastern Europe ·other newsletters ·Milestones ·

Subscribe or unsubscribe ·Help translate

For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see theproject page on Meta-Wiki. Let foundationbulletinwikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!

MediaWiki message delivery00:30, 14 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Hello! On 28 February, theToronto WikiClub, in partnership withAfroCROWD,WikiCari, andEat More Scarborough, is hostingWikiDiaspora: Exploring Canadian-Caribbean Cuisine. Registration closes 12 February. Details are available on the meetup page. We hope to see you there!

You're receiving this message because you wanted to be notified about Wikipedia meetups in Toronto. You can remove yourself fromthis list if you're no longer interested in Toronto-area messages.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk)23:35, 21 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

On23 January 2026,Did you know was updated with a fact from the articleBernice Tongate, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was... thatBernice Tongate was the model for one of the most well-known recruiting posters(pictured) for the American military during World War I? The nomination discussion and review may be seen atTemplate:Did you know nominations/Bernice Tongate. You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page(here's how,Bernice Tongate), and the hook may be added tothe statistics page after its run on the Main Page has completed. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free tonominate it.

		Hook update
		Your hook reached 30,836 views (1,284.8 per hour), making it one of themost viewed hooks of January 2026 – nice work!

GalliumBot (talk •contribs) (he/it)03:28, 24 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk)00:02, 23 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Regardingthis comment: each request made to a web server is handled by the server independently from the other, even if they are all from the same browser with the same user at the same computer. So to check if a given user is authorized to make a given request, the request has to be authenticated, and then the corresponding permissions/authorization controls for that user can be checked. For technical reasons, the built-in HTTP authentication methods don't scale well in practice, so authentication is typically handled by having a login page, and then in response to the user logging in correctly, the web server sends back a cookie with a session identifier. All subsequent requests from that user (on the same browser and computer) will send back the cookie with the request, and the server can use the session identifier to check that it corresponds to a valid, authenticated session that started when the user logged in. The session ID has to be sufficient random that an attacker can't just guess a valid session ID, and to that end, it's best practice for sessions to time out in order to limit the period during which an attacker can guess the associated ID. (The requests sent through the network are encrypted when using the HTTPS protocol, so attackers can't just intercept the request somewhere in the network and read the cookie.)

Non-logged in users now also get a cookie with a session ID of sorts. It links subsequent requests to the initial request. But as there is no registered account associated with it, there's no account-specific data associated with it. Users can clear their cookies, use a different browser, or use a different computer, and they'll get a new cookie with a new identifier (and a different temporary account). So the implementation of temporary accounts doesn't use any mechanism that would help with identifying sock farms. There are limits placed on how many temporary accounts can be created from a given IP address within a specific period of time. SecurePoll already allows scrutineers to sort votes by IP address. Given how network gateways can make many users appear to come from a single IP address, I'm not sure it would be a good idea for SecurePoll to implement IP-based throttles.isaacl (talk)03:41, 23 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Clovermoss:

This month, February 2026,WikiProject Women in Green is participating in theFebruary 2026 GAN Backlog Drive, in which we're aiming to review as many outstanding Good Article (GA) nominations about women and women's works as possible. If you want to help out, you can check out theproject talk page for a list of nominations in need of review (including some WiG originals). If you haven't reviewed a GA nomination before, be sure to check out thereviewing instructions andguidelines and feel free to ask for amentor to check your work.

We are also working together with a wikithon hosted on 5 February by Wikimedia UK, which will focus on writing and improving articles about women involved in sustainable development. If you want to join the event, feel free tosign up at the eventbrite page; or if you would be interested in providing a 20-minute assessment and/or a full GA review of the submitted articles in the weeks following, put your name down on theproject talk page for updates as the event progresses.

We hope to see you there!

MediaWiki message delivery (talk)15:05, 3 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation since our last issue on Jan 10. Please helptranslate.

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Highlights
Let's Talk continues

• Annual planning: TheAnnual Plan is the Wikimedia Foundation’s description of what we hope to achieve in the coming year. This is a time of urgency and focus for the Wikimedia projects and weinvite you to shape this plan together with us.
• Year 2 of PTAC: As it reached its first year, Product & Technology Advisory Council (PTAC) shareda retrospective and proposed future improvements.

Annual Goals Progress onInfrastructure
See also newsletters:Wikimedia Apps ·Growth ·Product Safety and Integrity ·Readers ·Research ·Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia ·Tech News ·Language and Internationalization ·other newsletters on MediaWiki.org

• Account security: All users with registered accounts can now use passkeys fortwo-factor authentication (2FA), providing a simple andsecure way to log in.
• Wikifunctions:An overview of the quarterly plan (January–March) and how it connects to the broader goals for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions.
• Tech News: Latest updates from Tech News week03,04 and05 include unregistered contributors on blocked IPs can now interact on-wiki toappeal a block by creating a temporary account.
• Collaborative contributions: Wikimedia Foundation is hostinga learning session to sharenew releases around collaborative contributions and discuss future project ideas.
• Structured task: TheRevise Tone Structured Task is now live in A/B testing on pilot wikis: English, Arabic, Portuguese, and French Wikipedia. It helps new editors improve promotional language in existing articles through a quiz style onboarding experience and a guided in article suggestion.

Annual Goals Progress onVolunteer Support
See also blogs:Global Advocacy blog ·Global Advocacy Newsletter ·Policy blog ·WikiLearn News ·The Wikipedia Library ·list of movement events

• Wikimania 2026:Call for sessions is open until March 1.
• Wikipedia 25: Wikipedia celebrates 25 years of knowledge at its best withdocuseries, time capsule, and more.
• Virtual celebration: In case you missed it, over 10,000 people have watchedthe virtual celebration thatbrought together generations of Wikimedians, featuredan ode to the talk page, adramatic reading of a real talk page, a Magnetikpunksong dedicated to Wikipedia, a passing of thecake baton from Maryana to Bernadette, "The Birthday Cake Song" and more. All of it written and performed by humans of Wikimedia.
• Birthday mascot:Meet the Wikimedian whose casual sketch inspired Wikipedia’s 25th birthday mascot.
• Legal: Learn about two recent submissions advocatingthe need for proportionality in Brazil’s new online child safety law.
• Policy: The Global Advocacy team shared a report from digital policy organization InternetLab about the intersection between theopen knowledge movement and public interest journalism.
• Global Resource Distribution Committee: RefreshedFunding Principles are ready for review.

Annual Goals Progress onEffectiveness
See also:Progress on the annual plan

• Solving puzzles together:A final reflection from Maryana Iskander.
• Wikimedia Enterprise: Mistral AI and Wikimedia Enterprise announceda new strategic partnership.

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 ·Milestones ·Wikidata ·Central and Eastern Europe ·other newsletters

Subscribe or unsubscribe ·Help translate

For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see theproject page on Meta-Wiki. Let foundationbulletinwikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!

MediaWiki message delivery02:05, 4 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Hello! I recently came uponyour proposal to reassess GA status for the article onSuicide. In it, you bring up how the article does not mention LGBTQ people, which prompted me to add aSexual and gender variance section to the page in order to fix that issue. In turn, this led me to theSuicide among LGBTQ people article, and, particularly, the bad state it is in. Other than some highly dubious information about trans suicides (which has thankfully now beenremoved), the article uses very old sources, mainly primary studies, and may also need some help on the wording. I put up an update template about this andmade a list of recentWP:MEDRS on the Talk Page. Sadly, I am facing some very difficult time constraints, so I do not believe I will be able to sufficiently update the article myself. Since you seem to be a prolific LGBTQ editor who has taken interest in the topic, I would appreciate if you could take a look. Thanks!Amateur Truther (talk)14:11, 4 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

HiAmateurTruther. I appreciate you reaching out to me, but I don't think I'll realistically be able to take on a task like that in the near future. I have a lot on my plate as well, especially when it comes to my life offline. I also only have so much tolerance for emotionally heavy subjects. When I have the headspace for that, I usually am trying to focus on the article aboutJehovah's Witnesses, which I've been working on and off for about three years now. That said, you definitely have some serious research skills and I have faith that you'll make a meaningful difference to content quality in this subject when you have the time.Clovermoss🍀(talk)17:38, 4 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

That's completely understandable. I have already made some changed to the article, and will likely try to make more in the near future. I thank you for your attention.Amateur Truther (talk)11:49, 5 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2026).

Administrator changes

Vacant0

• Crisco 1492

• Deepfriedokra
• Hbdragon88
• Karl Dickman
• Worm That Turned

CheckUser changes

Daniel Quinlan

Vanamonde93

Mkdw

Oversight changes

Daniel Quinlan

Arbitration

• Due to the result of a recentmotion, a rough consensus of administrators at thearbitration enforcement noticeboard may impose an expanded topic ban on Israel, Israelis, Jews, Judaism, Palestine, Palestinians, Islam, and/or Arabs, if an editor'sArab-Israeli conflict topic ban is determined to be insufficient to prevent disruption. At least one diff per area expanded into should be cited.

Miscellaneous

• Voting in the2026 Steward elections started on 06 February 2026 at 14:00 (UTC) and will end on 27 February 2026 at 14:00 (UTC). Theconfirmation process for current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automaticallycheck your eligibility to vote.