News from the WMF:Product & Tech Progress on the Annual Plan A look at some product and tech highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation's Annual Plan (July–December 2024).
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.
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!
Hi, sorry, I have nothing to add, I thought it was understood, the translations from Google translator are correct. If you want more information ask thequestura di Milano, I can not disclose more. Hi,LukeWiller (talk)22:36, 30 June 2025 (UTC).[reply]
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!
Hi, I would like to apply for an Open Proxy Exemption. The reason I am applying is due to the recent wave of censorship here in the UK which might result in Wikipedia getting blocked here. Should that happen I would need to use a VPN to access the site therefore I would need one to edit. If you look at my history you can see my consistent history of good edits, particularly my work adding results for various London elections.
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.
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.
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.
It is indeed! I can't take credit for the quote itself, it's stolen shamelessly from a journalist here in Australia (which was then repurposed in a quite famous civil judgement a year or so ago). But geez, it speaks to a lot of misjudged choices that I see around these parts at times. It also somewhat aligns withUser:Barkeep49/Friends don't let friends get sanctioned too (an excellent essay).Daniel (talk)00:10, 30 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
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.
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.
Can I just close the thread at Arb Clarifications myself? I think it's a waste of time to go through the whole process if we can just speedy close it and make a new request at the correct place. —Matrixping mewhen u reply (t? -c)21:47, 17 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Daniel. I just noticed you suppressed some revisions atSawbrimedline. I didn't realize this when I re-added content about what the user's had posted on their user page back toWP:AN#Unblock request by Sawbrimedline. The user who modified AN post just left an edit summary saying "trim", which didn't make mention of the suppression. Anyway, my apologies if my re-adding of the post created another diff that needs to be hidden. --Marchjuly (talk)01:52, 28 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Marchjuly thanks for the note, will hide the revisions at AN also. While it wasn't my edit summary, I can speak for maybe why the editor used it - a lot of the time, generic or otherwise mundane edit summaries are used for this thing to avoid drawing attention to it. I used "rv" on the user page for that reason, and often we'll use simple things like "-" etc. Cheers,Daniel (talk)02:43, 28 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for clarifying. The user who modified my post subsequently explained on my user talk page why they left such an edit summary; so, things have all been sorted out. As for the ANI thread, I notified Oversight myself via email and someone suppressed the diffs; if that was you, then thanks. --Marchjuly (talk)05:57, 30 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
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.
@Daniel: Hello, I request that the above user be blocked from sending emails. The user is sending multiple emails to other users and requesting edits, which constitutes an attempt to evade their block.🅣𝓗𝓪𝓻𝓸𝓵𝓭 𝓚𝓻𝓪𝓫𝓼18:50, 15 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Harold Krabs: Was the email sent via the Emailuser function (Wikipedia:Emailing users), or directly to your email address? It will have"This email was sent by user "GennVekk" (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:GennVekk>) on the English Wikipedia to user "Harold Krabs". It has been automatically delivered and the Wikimedia Foundation cannot be held responsible for its contents." at the bottom of it, if it was sent via EmailUser. Thanks,Daniel (talk)19:08, 15 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Harold Krabs: thanks very much, confirming I got it. You'll notice at the bottom of the email, it saysThis email was sent by GennVekk to Harold Krabs by the "Email this user" function at Wikimedia Commons. Unfortunately I can't block them at Wikimedia Commons, as it's a totally separate project (seec:Commons:Welcome). My block only applies to the English Wikipedia, where I'm an admin here. The Commons administrator team may be able to assist, they can be found atc:Commons:Administrators' noticeboard. Cheers,Daniel (talk)00:23, 16 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Traffic report:One click after another Serial-killer miniseries, deceased scientist, government shutdowns and Sandalwood hit "Kantara" crowd the tubes.
Hello, Daniel. This message is being sent to remind you of significant upcoming changes regarding logged-out editing.
Starting 4 November, logged-out editors will no longer have their IP address publicly displayed. Instead, they will have atemporary account (TA) associated with their edits. Users with some extended rights like administrators and CheckUsers, as well as users with thetemporary account IP viewer (TAIV) user right will still be able to reveal temporary users' IP addresses and all contributions made by temporary accounts from a specific IP address or range.
How do temporary accounts work?
Editing from a temporary account
When a logged-out user completes an edit or a logged action for the first time, a cookie will be set in this user's browser and a temporary account tied with this cookie will be automatically created for them. This account's name will follow the pattern:~2025-12345-67 (a tilde, year of creation, a number split into units of 5).
All subsequent actions by the temporary account user will be attributed to this username. The cookie will expire 90 days after its creation. As long as it exists, all edits made from this device will be attributed to this temporary account. It will be the same account even if the IP address changes, unless the user clears their cookies or uses a different device or web browser.
A record of the IP address used at the time of each edit will be stored for 90 days after the edit. Users with thetemporary account IP viewer (TAIV) user right will be able to see the underlying IP addresses.
As a measure against vandalism, there are two limitations on the creation of temporary accounts:
There has to be a minimum of 10 minutes between subsequent temporary account creations from the same IP (or /64 range in case of IPv6).
There can be a maximum of 6 temporary accounts created from an IP (or /64 range) within a period of 24 hours.
Temporary account IP viewer user right
How to enable IP Reveal
Administrators may grant thetemporary account IP viewer (TAIV) user right to non-administrators who meet thecriteria for granting. Importantly, an editor must make an explicit request for the permission (e.g. atWP:PERM/TAIV)—administrators arenot permitted to assign the right without a request.
It will be possible to block many abusers by just blocking their temporary accounts. A blocked person won't be able to create new temporary accounts quickly if the admin selects theautoblock option.
It will still be possible to block an IP address or IP range.
Temporary accounts will not be retroactively applied to contributions made before the deployment. OnSpecial:Contributions, you will be able to see existing IP user contributions, but not new contributions made by temporary accounts on that IP address. Instead, you should useSpecial:IPContributions for this (see a video about IPContributions in a gallery below).
Rules about IP information disclosure
Publicizing an IP address gained through TAIV access isgenerally not allowed (e.g.~2025-12345-67 previously edited as 192.0.2.1 or~2025-12345-67's IP address is 192.0.2.1).
Publicly linking a TA to another TA is allowed if "reasonably believed to be necessary". (e.g.~2025-12345-67 and ~2025-12345-68 are likely the same person, so I am counting their reverts together toward3RR, but notHey ~2025-12345-68, you did some good editing as ~2025-12345-67)
@JayBeeEll: doesn't look like vandalism to me on first inspection, so I don't agree with the defence offered... I'd encourage you to open a discussion at AN or ANI, as I think it'd be best to form a consensus outcome on whether the defence flies or not. Thanks,Daniel (talk)22:41, 3 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hello! Voting in the2025 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 1 December 2025. 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.
Starting on November 4, the IP addresses of logged-out editors are no longer being publicly displayed. Instead, they will have atemporary account associated with their edits.
Administrators will now find thatSpecial:MergeHistory is now significantly more flexible about what it can merge. It can now merge sections taken from the middle of the history of the source (rather than only the start) and insert revisions anywhere in the history of the destination page (rather than only the start).T382958
AnArticles for Creation backlog drive is happening in December 2025, with over 1,000 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!
You are the glue that holds ArbCom together. As I am getting up to speed with everything that goes on within arbcom-en, one thing has been abundantly clear to me: the work that you do in keeping everything humming is indispensable, and greatly appreciated by all of the cats you are herding. Thank you for choosing to dedicate your time to this task, and I greatly look forward to serving together on ArbCom. All the best to you and yours in the holiday season!
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.
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.
Administrator changes
Guideline and policy news
Miscellaneous
Technical news
Arbitration
Interface administrator changes
The redirectLithuania national cricket team has been listed atredirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets theredirect guidelines. Anyone, including you, is welcome to comment on this redirect atWikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 September 29 § Lithuania national cricket team until a consensus is reached.Thryduulf (talk)17:42, 29 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
CheckUser changes
Done🅣𝓗𝓪𝓻𝓸𝓵𝓭 𝓚𝓻𝓪𝓫𝓼23:40, 15 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Enable theuser info card
There is currently a discussion atWikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. The section isTopic ban violation. --JBL (talk)23:35, 3 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I wish my holidays had weather like this