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Dumps are still broken

See Talk:Data dumps. They have now been broken for some time. I know the devs want us to post this to Phabricator, but not all of us want to share our email addresses with the WMF in order to get a Phabricator account. This should have already been caught by internal monitoring and fixed already. Come on devs, please get your act together. And please make it possible to register a Phabricator account without specifying an email address. The Anome (talk) 14:35, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

see phab:T368098#10420647 and phab:T383030. e 14:49, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

I'm glad to see they're on it. Hopefully dumps will restart soon, so dump-driven bots can re-start work. The Anome (talk) 17:36, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

For essential services, shouldn't be an easier way to find out than wading through endless tickets in phabricator. Like a list with everything that should be running and a link to the ticket when it isn't. e 21:07, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

See the recent 2025-01-22 Dumps failed delivery January dumps (enwiki, wikidatawiki) on the xmldatadumps-l mailing list. -- BDavis (WMF) (talk) 00:22, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

I was wondering why some users haven't updated in ages. Apparently the dumps are still not done yet. e 23:25, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

Notifications and topics on request pages

Usually I subscribe to a topic I commented on and get notifications when someone responds to them.

For pages like Steward requests/Global and Steward requests/Miscellaneous, one ends up subscribing and being notified about every request there. Is this wanted or just that one hasn't tried changing it? e 20:56, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Your account settings may have been automatically adding the edited pages/files to your watchlist by default:

1. To make an one-time change, there is a switchable "★" (concrete star sign) to the right of "View history" tab on the top menu of each article page, where you can click to change to "☆" (blank star sign) to opt out from the watchlist at any time to stop receiving future notifications.

2. If would like to make a general change on the notification pattern at any time, simply visit your account's "Preference" page > "Watchlist" tab > "Watched pages" section > deselect the "Add pages and files I edit to my watchlist" box to avoid the unwanted notifications at any time. Good luck and have a great day! Mickie-Mickie (talk) 21:18, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

What I'm looking for is to subscribe to Steward_requests/Miscellaneous#Old_RfC and not Steward_requests/Miscellaneous#Manual_requests. Because now I get notifications about all other requests in that section. e 21:28, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Oh, tough luck in that case... there seems to be no specifically assigned "[subscribe]" button for the sub-section of "Old RfC" topic, so the system defaults to the subscription of its parent section "Manual requests" – the application by design is out of my reach, sorry. An upper-level guidance or a programmer's input might be required... Mickie-Mickie (talk) 21:50, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

I'm curious if it's intended or if one just hasn't tried to change it (by some setting or by changing the level of the headers). e 21:54, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

At Help:DiscussionTools#Notes, it says "You can only subscribe to a ==Level 2 section==". So, one would need to change the headers to have that level. For Steward requests/Miscellaneous, this seems relatively simple. e 13:43, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

I agree. However it would mean that the old level 2, now level 1 sections would not be one-click subscribable. And some bots would need changing. Rich Farmbrough. 22:56 26 February 2025 (UTC).

It seems to work out correctly, see Steward requests/Miscellaneous. Seems to work out. e 13:47, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

Displaying a summed count for the counts of all three Frisian Wikipedias together

Hi, how do I get the total count of the fyː, frrː, and stqː wikipedias? (Probably should go somewhere else, but I can't make heads of tails of this wiki.) Mysha (talk) 10:52, 29 January 2025 (UTC)

There isn't a place on-wiki for something like that. I'm not sure exactly what you want to count, but you should be able to look at these pages:

• w:fy:Special:Statistics
• w:frr:Special:Statistics
• w:stq:Special:Statistics

To see the general stats for each of these different projects. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:33, 29 January 2025 (UTC)

User:Mysha, Normally, you could ask someone to execute a custom database query for you, but I believe the domain is restricted to a single Wikipedia. Possibly three SQL queries would do it, where a temp table could be output from two db queries, then re-imported as temp tables into a third query at another db. Check with the folks at en:WP:QUARRY (and link this discussion in your query) and see what they think. Mathglot (talk) 09:48, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

Reminder: first part of the annual UCoC review closes soon

Please help translate to your language.

This is a reminder that the first phase of the annual review period for the Universal Code of Conduct and Enforcement Guidelines will be closing soon. You can make suggestions for changes through the end of day, 3 February 2025. This is the first step of several to be taken for the annual review. Read more information and find a conversation to join on the UCoC page on Meta. After review of the feedback, proposals for updated text will be published on Meta in March for another round of community review.

Please share this information with other members in your community wherever else might be appropriate.

-- In cooperation with the U4C, Keegan (WMF) (talk) 00:48, 3 February 2025 (UTC)

An Essay explaining the First Pillar: What an Encyclopedia Is and Isn't

Wikipedia is an Encyclopedia, please read, comment, improve, and translate.

c.f. w:fr:WP:Wikipédia est une encyclopédie

Jaredscribe (talk) 21:58, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

Global Contribs bug

How do I report a bug about the global contribs feature when you click on global contributions at the top of the contributions list? Justjourney (talk) 02:41, 17 February 2025 (UTC)

Found the bug report (sent via discord): [1] Justjourney (talk) 02:46, 17 February 2025 (UTC)

Upcoming Language Community Meeting (Feb 28th, 14:00 UTC) and Newsletter

Hello everyone!

We’re excited to announce that the next Language Community Meeting is happening soon, February 28th at 14:00 UTC! If you’d like to join, simply sign up on the wiki page.

This is a participant-driven meeting where we share updates on language-related projects, discuss technical challenges in language wikis, and collaborate on solutions. In our last meeting, we covered topics like developing language keyboards, creating the Moore Wikipedia, and updates from the language support track at Wiki Indaba.

Got a topic to share? Whether it’s a technical update from your project, a challenge you need help with, or a request for interpretation support, we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to reply to this message or add agenda items to the document here.

Also, we wanted to highlight that the sixth edition of the Language & Internationalization newsletter (January 2025) is available here: Wikimedia Language and Product Localization/Newsletter/2025/January. This newsletter provides updates from the October–December 2024 quarter on new feature development, improvements in various language-related technical projects and support efforts, details about community meetings, and ideas for contributing to projects. To stay updated, you can subscribe to the newsletter on its wiki page: Wikimedia Language and Product Localization/Newsletter.

We look forward to your ideas and participation at the language community meeting, see you there!

MediaWiki message delivery 08:28, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Introducing eligibility criteria for global ban votes

(I hope this is the right forum.) I propose to introduce eligibility criteria for global ban votes similar to eligibility criteria for steward votes or even more stringent. Otherwise, someone can be banned based on whims of editor accounts with insubstantial editing history, accounts with no regard for banning policy, accounts that did nothing do demonstrate aptitude for anything let alone content editing or administrative fairness and upholding of rules.

Global banning votes are in general more serious than steward votes, in my view. The intervention into the editing rights is the most severe imaginable. This is a very serious matter.

--Dan Polansky (talk) 06:51, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

@Dan Polansky You are writing in the wrong place. You need to write this on Requests_for_comment Lemonaka (talk) 09:17, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

note that there are already criteria for the user creating the global ban request [2] which require at least 500 edits (compared to 600 for steward elections [3]) but a higher account age (6 months instead of 4). Johannnes89 (talk) 10:44, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

How can I contribute more to the Wikimedia community?

I am a self-taught photographer who is passionate about the beauty of nature and urban landscapes. Many of the photos I share were carefully planned and taken by me. I also created some images using virtual emulators, with artificial intelligence enhancement, although I do not use AI for the content of this page.

My goal is to enrich Wikimedia Commons with landscape photos, especially of the city of Santa Fé do Sul, which I consider to be a place of great beauty and visual potential. I hope that my contributions can be useful to those who seek authentic and inspiring representations of nature and cities.

I am currently going through a time of personal challenges and, although this impacts my mental health, I continue to be enthusiastic about creating new concepts and capturing images that share the beauty of the world around me. Wazzimagiygg (talk) 19:55, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for offering and I hope that adding to Wikimedia projects will be useful for your mental health. Taking photos and adding them to c: is a great start and you can then take the photos and add them to relevant articles at w: or travel guides at voy:, etc. If you're feeling even more adventurous, you can take photos to add to entries at wikt:: photographs are very instructive for dictionary definitions. I've found at times when I was mentally unhealthy by being too stressed or too depressed, doing transcriptions at s: is a good way to "zone out" and destress. Furthermore, on c:, there are sometimes contests or initiatives to get certain kinds of media, so you could enter a friendly competition or try to take specific photos that are requested by other users. Falas portugues? —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 20:08, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

Announcing the 2025 Ombuds Commission

Hello, everyone! I'm writing with information about the Ombuds Commission (OC), the small group of volunteers who investigate complaints about violations of the privacy policy, and in particular concerning the use of CheckUser and Oversight tools, on any Wikimedia project for the Board of Trustees. I apologize for the length of the announcement. :)

The application period for new commissioners for 2025-27 recently closed. The Wikimedia Foundation is extremely grateful to the many experienced and insightful volunteers who offered to assist with this work.

This year’s OC will consist of twelve members and one Steward-Observer.

I am pleased to announce the composition of the 2025 OC:

• だ＊ぜ (global account information) - だ＊ぜ, who also may be referred to as Dasze, has been contributing to Wikimedia since 2015. He's primarily active on Chinese Wikimedia projects, where he later served as a director of Wikimedia Community User Group Hong Kong from 2019 to 2023 while users in Hong Kong were suffering various affection in and out of Wikimedia projects. His expertise is international law, human rights law, and statistical and quantitative analysis thereon. He speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, English and some Japanese. This is Dasze's second year on the Ombuds Commission and his term will expire in 2026.
• Arcticocean (global account information) - Arcticocean has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2008. He is primarily active on Meta and English Wikipedia, where he is an administrator and previously a Checkuser, Oversighter and Arbitrator. Arcticocean served on the Ombuds Commission in 2020 and 2021 and again in 2023-24. His current term on the Ombuds Commission expires in 2026.
• Ameisenigel (global account information) - Ameisenigel has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2015. He is primarily active on German Wikipedia, where he served as an Arbitrator from 2020 to 2022 and from 2023 to the present day, and on Wikidata and is an administrator on both projects. He is an Oversighter on Wikidata and also serves as a Global Sysop. Ameisenigel speaks German and English. He has been on the Ombuds Commission since 2021 and his current term expires in 2026.
• Emufarmers (global account information) - Emufarmers has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2005. He is a Metapedian who primarily edits the English Wikipedia; he is also a bureaucrat and sysop on MediaWiki.org, and has provided software support to many third-party, non-Wikimedia wikis over the years. He has served as a VRTS administrator since 2015 and has been on the Elections Committee since 2023. He served on the Ombuds Commission from 2019-2021 and again in 2023-24. His current term expires in 2026.
• Faendalimas (global account information) - Scott Thomson, user:Faendalimas, has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2006. Originally Australian though based in Brazil, he is a taxonomist and evolutionary biologist with a background in International Wildlife Policy, his main editing interest is reptiles and amphibians. He is most active on WikiSpecies, where he is a bureaucrat, Checkuser, and administrator. Faendalimas speaks Portuguese and English. He has served on the Ombuds Commission since 2021 and as Chair from 2022 to 2023, and his current term expires in 2026.
• Galahad (global account information) - Galahad has been actively involved as a volunteer for Wikimedia projects since 2009 and has served as the sole administrator of Spanish Wikivoyage since 2013. He has contributed to various voluntary initiatives, including serving as a volunteer advisor to the Sister Projects Taskforce and as a member of the Ombuds Commission from 2019 to 2023. Additionally, he founded Wikimedia Small Projects and held the position of General Coordinator from 2020 to 2025. He is also a member of Wikimedia Venezuela and served as Vice-President from 2021 to 2023, and he is the founder and leader of the LAC Hub, PAW Initiative, and contributes as a volunteer on the Selection Committee for the Steering Committee members of the Wikipedia Asian Month User Group. His current term on OC expires in 2027.
• Nehaoua (global account information) - Nehaoua holds a master's degree in Highway and Bridge Engineering and currently works as a Civil Engineer. However, his true passion lies with knowledge and its free access for all. Since 2009, Nehaoua has been an active Wikimedian, contributing significantly across various projects like French and Arabic Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikisource, and Wiktionary. Nehaoua is fluent in Arabic and French, and is actively improving his English language skills. Nehaoua's term on OC expires in 2026.
• Renvoy (global account information) - Renvoy has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2014. He is primarily active on Ukrainian Wikipedia, where he serves as administrator. Also he holds roles of global sysop and global rollbacker. Renvoy speaks Ukrainian, Russian, English, Polish and Lithuanian. His current term runs through 2026.
• Revi C. (global account information) - revi started editing Korean Wikipedia in 2013, and became an admin on that wiki a year later. revi also serves as an oversighter there since 2018, and has been a Commons admin since early 2014. revi also served as an admin on Wikidata for 10 years (2013~2023), steward for 5 years (2018~2023), and admin on Meta for 9 years (2014~2023). On-wiki, revi is mostly interested in janitorial, anti-spam work and copyright stuff. His current term on OC ends in 2027.
• RoySmith (global account information) - Roy Smith has been editing Wikipedia since 2004. He has been an admin on English Wikipedia since 2005 and a checkuser since 2021. Previously an active sockpuppet hunter, as of late 2023, he has dialed that back to concentrate more on content creation. His term on OC runs through 2026.
• Teles (global account information) - Lucas is a Brazilian doctor that became a Wikipedian in 2007 and started to engage with CheckUser rights in 2009, when he became a local CU on the Portuguese Wikipedia. He held both Oversight and Checkuser rights on Ptwiki for many years, in different terms. He is currently an administrator on Meta, Commons and Ptwiki. In 2012, the global community elected him as a steward, a position he held for more than ten years, until asking removal in 2024. He has previously served the Ombuds Commission for three consecutive years. Today, he focuses on his work at AffCom advisoring, global renaming, occasional anti-vandalism work, translating medical content from English to Portuguese Wikipedia. His current term on OC ends in 2027.
• Zafer (global account information) - Zafer has been contributing to Wikimedia projects as a volunteer since 2008 and he is one of the founding members of the Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey since 2016. He is primarily active on Turkish Wikipedia, Wikidata and Commons, and he holds admin on Wikidata. He checks recent changes and new articles at Turkish Wikipedia and is specifically interested in sports related articles. He contributes wiki projects also by taking photos and uploading with free licences. This is Zafer's first year on OC and his term expires in 2027.
• Steward-Observer - The Steward-Observer serves as a liaison between the Ombuds Commission and the Stewards. The Steward-Observer is a non-voting, advisory role. The Steward-Observer was nominated by the Stewards and is appointed by the Wikimedia Foundation to a one-year term. This year's Steward-Observer is…
  • Vermont (global account information) - Vermont (they/them) has been contributing to Wikimedia projects since 2016. They have been a steward since February 2022, and previously a global sysop and rollbacker. Vermont is an administrator and checkuser on Meta-Wiki and the Simple English Wikipedia, and formerly volunteered on the UCoC Phase 2 and Revisions drafting committees. They served as Steward-Observer for the Ombuds Commission from 2023-25 as well. Vermont's term as Steward-Observer expires in 2026.

Departing members

Please join me in thanking the following volunteers who are leaving OC, who have given substantially of their time to serve the commission:

• Bennylin (global account information) - Bennylin has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2004. He's primarily active on Indonesian and Javanese Wikiprojects, where he's sysop in 6 of them, Checkuser in Indonesian Wikipedia, bureaucrat in Indonesian Wiktionary, and also active in Commons, Meta, Wikidata, and MediaWiki. He has previously served as a global Steward. He speaks Indonesian, English, Javanese, Chinese and some Spanish. Bennylin served on the Ombuds Commission in 2023-24.
• Daniuu (global account information) - Daniuu has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2019. They are primarily active on Dutch Wikipedia, where they are a sysop and have been a member of the Arbitration Committee. They are also a global sysop and focus on counter-vandalism work. Daniuu speaks Dutch and English. Daniuu was on the Ombuds Commission since 2023.
• Doğu (global account information) - Doğu Abaris (Doǵu) has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2012. He is primarily active on Turkish Wikipedia, where he has served as an administrator, interface administrator, and oversighter. Additionally, he is a volunteer MediaWiki developer and is currently working on the Auditor MediaWiki extension. He is studying software and data engineering at Singidunum University in Belgrade. He was appointed to OC in 2024 and resigned later that year.
• MdsShakil (global account information) - MdsShakil has been contributing to Wikimedia projects since 2019. He is primarily active on Bengali Wikipedia, where he serves as an administrator and oversighter. Additionally, he is an administrator on Bengali Wikibooks and contributes globally as a global renamer, global rollbacker, and global sysop. He speaks Bengali and English. MdsShakil was on the Ombuds Commission since 2023.
• Minorax (global account information) - Minorax has been active on Wikimedia projects since 2019. They are a Metapedian who is active on a large number of projects, including Commons, where they have over 400,000 edits, English Wikipedia, and Meta, where they are a Checkuser. They are also a global sysop. Minorax speaks English and Chinese. Minorax was on the Ombuds Commission since 2023.

Kbrown (WMF) (talk) 14:31, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

How can we find pages that need translation into our language (English to Portuguese example)

I would like to contribute even more with translation collaborations, whether on Wikimedia Commons or Wikicommons, it will be of great value to provide this rewarding service. Wazzimagiygg (talk) 16:10, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

@Wazzimagiygg - Special:LanguageStats should have a list of pages that need translations along with their translation status. Ternera (talk) 16:25, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

Creating a global abuse filter mailing list

I wanted to see what the Wikimedia community thinks of creating a mailing list for global edit filter maintenance. This would be similar to the local mailing lists that are available; that is, it would provide a centralized place to discuss private global filters and cross-wiki LTA/spam related to those filters. JJP_Master (she/they) 13:40, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

@JJPMaster and who would be eligible to be part of the filtermailing list? Leaderboard (talk) 14:11, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

You mean „part of the mailing list group“, right? ;-) TenWhile6 14:13, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

Yes - fixed. Leaderboard (talk) 14:16, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

@Leaderboard: Stewards, global sysops, global abuse filter helpers, Meta sysops, and abuse filter maintainers would definitely be included. Possibly, some local administrators could be allowed in as well when dealing with cross-wiki abuse, although I'm less certain about that part. JJP_Master (she/they) 14:17, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

While I like the idea, I think the scope needs to be carefully defined, because (i) the filter is likely to contain very sensitive information and we don't want it to get to the hands of the wrong person, and (ii) if not automated, this can be a headache to set up and maintain, especially if we are including admins of local wikis. Leaderboard (talk) 14:19, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

Okay, I changed my mind about including local administrators, since they can just email the mailing list if they need global help without needing to access the emails, and (like in my case), if they really need access to cross-wiki LTA filters, they should just request GAFH. I still think Meta admins (permanent admins and limited admins where AbuseFilter is part of their scope) should be included though. JJP_Master (she/they) 14:33, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

@Leaderboard JJPMas_ter (she/they) 14:39, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

That makes sense to me. Leaderboard (talk) 15:20, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

@Leaderboard: Okay--should I make the Phabricator ticket? JJP_Master (she/they) 15:36, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

@JJPMaster Not yet - let's get some consensus on this (or another relevant) thread first. Leaderboard (talk) 15:43, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

okay, therefore "Stewards, global sysops, global abuse filter helpers, Meta sysops, and abuse filter maintainers" will be the only members, correct? TenWhile6 16:43, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

Yes. JJP_Master (she/they) 18:53, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

Nascent scam?

I blanked the Wikimedia Homeschooling which looks very much like a scam, or at least holding out unrealistic expectations of reward.

The IP in question User:38.54.124.170 is within a globally blocked range 38.54.0.0/17, I'm not sure how they are editing at all.

Rich Farmbrough. 22:47 26 February 2025 (UTC).

Looks like a hoax. I've sent it to RFD. Ternera (talk) 03:54, 27 February 2025 (UTC)

@Rich Farmbrough: Re: "[…] not sure how they are editing at all." - Global blocks#Global IP blocks don't automatically apply on Meta-wiki to facilitate unblock requests. (I was confused, too, and had to ask!)

P.s. It looks like something about your custom signature & timestamp is breaking the DiscussionTools "reply" feature, hence people cannot easily 'reply' directly to any of your posts on this wiki (and perhaps elsewhere), and it might be preventing you from getting notifications about replies. cf. Private-window/logged-out screenshot. There are some notes at mw:Help:DiscussionTools/Why can't I reply to this comment? which may help you to fix it, but TLDR: simple or default is better, and I suspect the custom-time-signature (i.e. the missing comma after the time, and the added . after the (UTC)) might be the main cause? Hope that helps. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 23:58, 27 February 2025 (UTC)

Recently marked for speedy deletion this time, instead of RFD, as it was recreated. Codename Noreste (talk) 06:01, 28 February 2025 (UTC)

Problems regarding Wikipedia account, please read until the end!

For some reason, the moderators have been labeling me as a spammer since 2017, and in 2025, when I decided to post another article on the internet, I was accused of being a puppet account, a spammer, and sending threats via email. But this is all wrong.

First, the IP I was using was none other than the place where we study to create articles; I work with this.

Second: I am not trying to unblock the Wikipedia account, but when I saw that I was listed as a threat via email, it really shook me up.

Third: The supposed puppet account was created so that people other than me could interact with Wikipedia articles, but what happened is that the information backfired.

Fourth: Whoever is an administrator, see what I am asking for, what I am begging for. It is not about unblocking my Wikipedia account, but it is about my personal and professional reputation.

Conclusion: I don't know how Wikipedia articles work, or even what the moderators think, but accusing me of threats by email when I asked them for a (somewhat provocative) conversation ended up affecting my mental health. And this can happen to my professional health. What I'm going to ask for is with total sincerity in the world:

The linked IP is related to a study space of my university friends, so they are not responsible, I ask that you unblock the IP so that I don't have problems in my professional life

Remove the accusation of threats by email that the moderator (Chronos) unfairly placed, I don't intend to send emails to any moderator anymore.

Third, leave my account blocked, but talk to the moderators in a more refined way.

Any wrong decision can worsen my mental health, which now believes that this can cause professional problems, and if that happens, I don't know what I'll do with myself!

Please take a look at this, or give me a second change! Wazzimagiygg (talk) 02:32, 28 February 2025 (UTC)