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Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #249 is out: Annual plan 2026-2027

There is a new update ↗ for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!

In this issue, we present you the current draft of objectives for Wikifunctions and Abstract Wikipedia in the WMF Annual Plan 2026-2027, and we take a look at the latest software developments.

Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive ↗!

Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 09:48, 25 May 2026 (UTC)

Sincere Thank you :D

For the United States strikes on alleged drug traffickers during Operation Southern Spear ↗, thank you for moving the video and not deleting it. I know you do not like these videos as much, and personally I do not mind them being left out of the infobox as long as they are included. Thank you for remembering and being so considerate. (: Historyguy1138 (talk) 13:07, 25 May 2026 (UTC)

Tech News: 2026-22

<section begin="technews-2026-W22"/><div class="plainlinks">
Latest '''tech news ↗''' from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations ↗ are available.

'''Weekly highlight'''

Following a successful account creation experiment ↗, an improved logged-out edit warning message will be deployed to all Wikimedia wikis in the first week of June. The change will only affect logged-out users on mobile web who open an editing session. The updated experience is designed to encourage account creation more clearly, while still allowing users to edit with temporary accounts. Results from the experiment showed a significant increase in account creation, with a 27% relative lift among users shown the updated message. As expected, as more people funnel into account creation, temporary accounts decreased by a relative 16%. The experiment did not show any significant changes in constructive edit rates or other monitored contributor metrics. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T424595 ↗

'''Updates for editors'''

For security reasons, members of certain user groups are required to have two-factor authentication ↗ (2FA) enabled. Members of these groups will be unable to disable the last 2FA method on their account, and it will be impossible to add users without 2FA to these groups. Users will still be able to add new authentication methods or remove them, as long as at least one method is continuously enabled. In the next few weeks, users without 2FA will be removed from these groups. Notably, this applies to bureaucrats. See the linked tasks for deployment schedules. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T423119 ↗https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T423120 ↗

WMDE Technical Wishes ↗ will run an A/B test ↗ on 10 wikis ↗, testing potential improvements for Reference Previews ↗. The experiment will run for ~2 weeks at the end of May / beginning of June and will affect 10% of desktop readers on the participating wikis.

After two successful experiments, the Reader Growth team is rolling out an Image Browsing ↗ beta feature for all Wikipedias on mobile on May 25. This means that anyone who has all beta features on by default will start to see this feature, and others can check the box to turn it on in their preferences. The beta feature will include a carousel of all an article's images at the top of the article, with controls for editors to exclude images from the article's carousel or to exclude an article from the feature entirely ↗.

12px|link=|class=skin-invert|Recurrent item ↗ View all {{formatnum:30}} community-submitted {{PLURAL:30|task|tasks}} that were resolved last week ↗. For example, three dimensional STL files were being rendered incorrectly by the media viewer 3D extension which is now fixed. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T416723 ↗

'''Updates for technical contributors'''

The legacy CSS classes <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>tleft</nowiki></code></bdi> and <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>tright</nowiki></code></bdi> have been replaced with <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>floatleft</nowiki></code></bdi> and <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>floatright</nowiki></code></bdi> as the former do not work consistently across all MediaWiki platforms, notably mobile web and mobile apps. Projects relying on these classes are encouraged to review related usage and plan for migration. Please note that <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>floatleft</nowiki></code></bdi> and <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>floatright</nowiki></code></bdi> may also be deprecated in future, although there are currently no plans to do so. Read more ↗.

12px|link=|class=skin-invert|Recurrent item ↗ Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki ↗

'''''Tech news ↗''' prepared by Tech News writers ↗ and posted by bot ↗ • Contribute ↗ • Translate ↗ • Get help ↗ • Give feedback ↗ • Subscribe or unsubscribe ↗.''
</div><section end="technews-2026-W22"/>

<bdi lang="en" dir="ltr">MediaWiki message delivery</bdi> 21:50, 25 May 2026 (UTC)

Changes to List of NAE members (electronics)

I noticed that you made a few changes to the List of members of the National Academy of Engineering (electronics) ↗ page in the last week or so, first moving the "Year Elected" column to the left side, and then most recently changing the "d." for death year into "Died" throughout the page. I'm not sure if you're aware, but this is one list of ~43 pages that comprise the lists of the members of the NAE ↗ and the NAS ↗. I've been systematically updating all 43 pages with the ~10,000 names (living and deceased), pulling them from the online directories, checking and integrating with the existing Wikipedia information, etc. These pages were terribly out of date, and had a lot of incorrect information that had been added in an ad hoc manner over the years.

I believe that all 43 pages should have the same format, and I've been using the format that was set with the NAS pages, which dates back more than 12 years. This includes the "Year Elected" on the right and the indication of the death as "(d. ####)". I inadvertently overwrote your recent change of moving the "Year Elected" column because you moved it when I was in the process of updating that page with the new information between my first minor cleanup and then the full rebuild.

So, if you don't too strenuously object, I would like to revert your change of "d." -> "died" on this page, just so that all ~43 pages are a consistent format. But let me know what you think. LocusAndLeaf (talk) 12:11, 30 May 2026 (UTC)
: Thanks for the thoughtful response. I see two (unrelated) aspects:
:* Column ordering — The lists could be seen as either:
:*# "lists of people" (ordered by surname, so having the name in the first column) or
:*# "lists of ''elected'' people" (ordered by the year that they were elected, so having the year in the first column)
:*: The lists are currently #1 and I currently prefer #2 (chronological lists just make more sense to me). However, since the tables can be sorted, the choice is not very important.
:* Died — MOS:DOB ↗ advises the use of the whole word rather than just ''d.'' – space would need to be very tight to require the saving of just two characters.
: To ensure consistency, I am willing to change "d." to "died" in all 43 of the articles.
: Of course, there is also an argument for not saying "d." or "died" at all – it should really include DOB as well: {{TQ|M. Robert Aaron (1922–2007)}}, but that is probably a step too far ... — GhostInTheMachine <sup>talk to me</sup> 11:15, 31 May 2026 (UTC)
::On the column order, I think I would more strongly prefer to keep the name as the first column. These pages are "Lists of members...", not timelines of elections, and the primary entity in each row is the person. The election year is essentially a secondary attribute, and as you say, it is already an easily sortable table.
::On d. vs died, I see your point about MOS. My reading is that “d.” is permitted where space is limited. I was more focused on consistency, and since d. was used historically in these tables, I had kept it that way when updating them. I am fine with either, but generally I had preferred the compactness of "d." over "died" since there are some longer names and institution names that make the table wide.
::I'm not in favor of adding the date of birth, as that is more biographic than membership-relevant information, and it's not information supplied by the NAS/NAE directories, so there would be loads of incomplete entries.
::Thanks for fixing the short descriptions (I saw that adding those had created redundancy at the top), and for the discussion. LocusAndLeaf (talk) 14:17, 31 May 2026 (UTC)
: {{Y}} {{kitty}} — GhostInTheMachine <sup>talk to me</sup> 16:32, 1 June 2026 (UTC)
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{{ping|LocusAndLeaf}} An aside: should the articles be named with an upper case suffix or a lower case one? List of members of the National Academy of Engineering (aerospace) ↗ vs List of members of the National Academy of Engineering (Bioengineering) ↗. There seems to be a fairly even split... — GhostInTheMachine <sup>talk to me</sup> 13:01, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

:If it were up to me, I would have them all capitalized, because those are the titles of the NAS and NAE sections. But, there was a discussion about this (somewhat buried) in the talk page for the NAE Aerospace page ↗ before I came onto the scene as an editor. An editor decided that these were common descriptive titles and not proper nouns, and there was one supporting vote, so proceeded to change all of them to lowercase. Perhaps they missed a few, like Bioengineering - and I am in favor of consistency, even if lowercase was not my preference, so I would vote in favor of switching to lowercase; it seemed like the time to debate upper vs lower had passed. LocusAndLeaf (talk) 14:18, 1 June 2026 (UTC)
:: I also thought that UC was better ... Done them all anyway — GhostInTheMachine <sup>talk to me</sup> 14:39, 1 June 2026 (UTC)
:::Thanks. This reminded me that another change that I was considering was adding the official section number in the header at the top of each table, because the section numbers are designated by NAS and NAE, but are not currently in these tables or even clearly described in the main articles about the NAS and NAE. It would look something like:
:::== Section 1: Aerospace ==
:::and so forth for all the pages. This might reduce the redundancy of the table header with the page header. I haven't gotten around to this, obviously, but let me know if you think that's a good idea, bad idea, or are indifferent. LocusAndLeaf (talk) 15:43, 1 June 2026 (UTC)
:::: No-ish. When reading an article, the numbers would have no significance. The article should not aim to reproduce all aspects of the source — GhostInTheMachine <sup>talk to me</sup> 08:24, 2 June 2026 (UTC)
:::::Okay; it sounds like the main article on the NAE would be a better place to describe the organization into sections, perhaps with a table listing the 12 sections in the membership ↗ section. The NAS has a separate page on membership ↗ and a section describing the major disciplines, but nothing on the 31 named sections within those disciplines (which is how the lists of members are organized). So maybe a table there would be appropriate? LocusAndLeaf (talk) 13:40, 2 June 2026 (UTC)
::::::Just a note that I made these two changes, adding brief tables to each page to list the formal sections and classes (for NAS). LocusAndLeaf (talk) 15:47, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #250 is out: Looking back and forward

There is a new update ↗ for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!

In this issue, we present you a recollection of our work so far, now that we celebrate our 250th newsletter, we share with you a summary of our latest outreach activities, and we take a look at the latest software developments.

Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive ↗!

Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 10:04, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – June 2026

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

right|150px ↗

20px|alt= ↗ '''Administrator changes'''
:20px|alt=added|Added ↗ {{hlist|class=inline
|Asukite ↗
|Bobby Cohn ↗
|Bonadea ↗
|Ca ↗
|Drm310 ↗
|Reconrabbit ↗
|Sammi Brie ↗
}}
:20px|alt=readded|Readded ↗ {{hlist|class=inline|
|Tamzin ↗
|TonyBallioni ↗
}}
:20px|alt=removed|Removed ↗ {{hlist|class=inline
|Ezhiki ↗
|Queen of Hearts ↗
}}

20px|alt= ↗ '''Bureaucrat changes'''
:20px|alt=removed|Removed ↗ {{hlist|class=inline
|WereSpielChequers ↗
}}

20px|alt= ↗ '''Guideline and policy news'''

Following an RfC ↗, the "persistent usage of large language models ↗" has been included as a common reason for a block ↗.

20px|alt= ↗ '''Technical news'''

Mandatory 2FA for bureaucrats ↗: Bureaucrats ↗ without two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled have already lost access to their advanced rights on 26 May. Those who do not enable 2FA may be automatically removed from the groups in mid-June 2026, and from that point onward, new members must have 2FA enabled before they can be added. (T423119 ↗, T423120 ↗)

20px|alt= ↗ '''Arbitration'''

The arbitration case ''SchroCat ↗'' has been closed.

The arbitration case ''Michael Jackson ↗'' has opened. Evidence submissions in this case closes on 1 June.

20px|alt= ↗ '''Miscellaneous'''

Voting for the 2026 Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) election ↗ closes on 1 June.

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{{center|{{flatlist|

Discuss this newsletter ↗

Subscribe ↗

Archive ↗

}}}}
{{center|1=<small>Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:14, 1 June 2026 (UTC)</small>}}

George Floyd

Hello there. You reverted my insertion of a map showing xenophobia protests in Durban. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_and_March Not sure why. Wikipedia made a wonderful map of protests in the US https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:George_Floyd_protests_map. The same is needed here. Derek J Moore (talk) 19:51, 1 June 2026 (UTC)
: The March and March ↗ article is about an organization. A map of protests in Durban might be appropriate in an article about protests in Durban — GhostInTheMachine <sup>talk to me</sup> 20:09, 1 June 2026 (UTC)
::March and March are a national organisation. They have organised protests in Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria. Derek J Moore (talk) 13:14, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

Tech News: 2026-23

<section begin="technews-2026-W23"/><div class="plainlinks">
Latest '''tech news ↗''' from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations ↗ are available.

'''Updates for editors'''

The Reader Experience team ↗ is conducting an experiment to show the reading lists ↗ feature, which is still in development, to logged-out mobile readers to test whether it encourages account creation at a higher rate compared to the watchstar button. The experiment ↗ was launched on May 18th on German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Dutch, Turkish, and Urdu wikis, and it will run for a month.

The Wikimedia Apps team released Phase 1 ↗ of the redesigned Home Feed to the Android Beta app. The new Home Feed includes a refreshed "Community" tab and a personalized "For You" tab featuring daily updated reading recommendations. The redesign is part of a broader effort to improve content discovery and create more engaging learning experiences in the Wikipedia apps.

12px|link=|class=skin-invert|Recurrent item ↗ View all {{formatnum:18}} community-submitted {{PLURAL:18|task|tasks}} that were resolved last week ↗. For example, an issue where images could fail to load for some suggested edits on Special:Homepage ↗, leaving the thumbnail stuck in a loading state, has now been fixed. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T424048 ↗

'''Updates for technical contributors'''

12px|link=|class=skin-invert|Recurrent item ↗ Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki ↗

'''''Tech news ↗''' prepared by Tech News writers ↗ and posted by bot ↗ • Contribute ↗ • Translate ↗ • Get help ↗ • Give feedback ↗ • Subscribe or unsubscribe ↗.''
</div><section end="technews-2026-W23"/>

<bdi lang="en" dir="ltr">MediaWiki message delivery</bdi> 21:06, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

Died vs. "d." in tables?

Hi! I saw you recently updated the list of National Academy pages with died instead of 'd.' As I'm one of the main people (somewhat sporadically) updating those pages, I just wanted to say thank you for updating all of the pages and not just one, and ask for your thoughts behind using 'd.' when space is limited versus writing out 'died' in the tables? I'm fine with either option, as it was an arbitrary decision I made in the first place. I'm just curious on if there's a guideline beyond 'when space is limited' or anything beyond what's listed in MS:DDOT ↗. Thanks! Cyanochic (talk) 16:45, 3 June 2026 (UTC)
: Geniologists often use {{TQ|d.}} or {{dagger}}, but WP has to assume a very general readership and so we should avoid abbreviations - especially where they are not explained. The words {{TQ|born}} and {{TQ|died}} are also only four letters, so a two character abbreviation saves very little space and is hard to justify — GhostInTheMachine <sup>talk to me</sup> 09:32, 5 June 2026 (UTC)
::Thank you! Makes plenty of sense to me. I'll make sure to keep with the new formatting. Cyanochic (talk) 17:35, 5 June 2026 (UTC)

Speedy deletion ↗ nomination of :Category:Kuwaiti companies established in 2012 ↗

48px|left|alt=|link= ↗

A tag has been placed on :Category:Kuwaiti companies established in 2012 ↗ indicating that it is currently empty, and is not a disambiguation category ↗, a category redirect ↗, under discussion at Categories for discussion ↗, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion. If it remains empty for seven days or more, it may be deleted under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion ↗.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason you may '''contest the nomination''' by visiting the page ↗ and removing the speedy deletion tag.   <span style="color:#000000">✗</span><span style="color:white;background:black;font-family:felix titling;font-size:80%">plicit</span> 14:01, 5 June 2026 (UTC)

Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #251 is out: The illustrated encyclopaedia

There is a new update ↗ for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!

In this issue, we introduce our first function to import images on Abstract Wikipedia, we present our Functions of the Week, and we take a look at the latest software developments.

Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive ↗!

Also, we remind you that if you have questions or ideas to discuss, the next '''Volunteers' Corner''' will be held on '''June 8, at 17:30 UTC ↗''' (link to the meeting ↗).

Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 14:14, 5 June 2026 (UTC)

Tech News: 2026-24

<section begin="technews-2026-W24"/><div class="plainlinks">
Latest '''tech news ↗''' from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations ↗ are available.

'''Weekly highlight'''

Wikimedia Enterprise has increased the free usage limits for its API offerings. The monthly request limit for the On-demand API has increased from 5,000 to 50,000 requests, while the Snapshot API limit has increased from 15 to 30 requests per month. In addition, Structured Contents snapshots are now available for free accounts. These changes expand access to Wikimedia Enterprise data for developers, researchers, and organizations using Wikimedia content. https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/blog/enhanced-free-api ↗

'''Updates for editors'''

The refreshed Explore Feed ↗, now called the Home Feed, is rolling out to 50% of users of the Wikipedia Android app. The Home Feed helps readers discover relevant content through two new tabs: ''Community'' and ''For You''. The Community tab provides a scrollable feed of curated content and updates from the broader Wikimedia community and movement, while the ''For You'' tab offers a full-screen, swipeable experience that shows content tailored to a user's interests. The redesign is part of a broader effort to improve discovery and enhance the learning experience in the Wikipedia app.

The Which came first? ↗ daily trivia game is now available in the beta version of the Wikipedia iOS app in English, German, French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Turkish. The game uses historical events from Wikipedia's "On This Day" content and challenges readers to guess which of two events happened first. The game was previously released on Android. Communities interested in making the game available in their languages can read the instructions and requirements ↗.

Sub-referencing ↗, a new MediaWiki feature that allows editors to reuse references with different details, will begin rolling out to Wikimedia wikis following a successful pilot phase. Deployment will start on 8 June for most Group 1 wikis ↗ and French Wikipedia, with additional Wikipedia language editions receiving the feature over the coming months. Communities are encouraged to prepare by checking for untranslated Cite extension messages ↗ in their language and reviewing any use of Reference Tooltips ↗, which may require updates ↗ to support the new functionality. Wikis using Reference Previews ↗ do not need to take any action. Communities may also wish to create the ''cite-tracking-category-ref-details'' tracking category ↗ as a hidden category using <code><nowiki>__HIDDENCAT__</nowiki></code> (or a dedicated template), and connect it to the corresponding Wikidata item d:Q129764848 ↗. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T425662 ↗

The Page Previews experiment ↗ on mobile web has concluded. The team decided not to roll out the feature after the results showed no statistically significant impact on reader retention, as the primary success metric was retention improvement. Page Previews, which are already available on desktop and in the apps, display a thumbnail, lead paragraph, and link to the full article when readers tap a blue link. The experiment tested this experience on mobile web across six Wikipedias.

The user interface icon library ↗ will be updated later this week or next week ↗. Most of the ~300 icons have been slightly refined and ~30 new icons have been added. These changes improve the icons to make them more consistent and comprehensible, and provide more visual balance when they are used in groups.

The Universal Language Selector ↗ (ULS) interface in MediaWiki, which helps users select content in other languages, has been updated. The new version improves speed and accessibility, and users of Wikimedia projects can now pin languages for quicker language switching. The deployment to Wikimedia sites will happen gradually in the coming weeks. You can test it now as a beta feature by selecting beta features ↗ in your profile preferences and share your feedback on the project page ↗.

12px|link=|class=skin-invert|Recurrent item ↗ View all {{formatnum:21}} community-submitted {{PLURAL:21|task|tasks}} that were resolved last week ↗. For example, an issue where the Pageviews Analysis dashboard on pageviews.wmcloud.org stopped updating graph data in May 2026, affecting all users, has been fixed. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T427171 ↗

'''Updates for technical contributors'''

The function signature for <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>mw.util.addPortletLink()</nowiki></code></bdi> has been simplified. Developers can now pass a configuration object instead of a list of positional parameters when creating portlet links. The previous function signature remains supported for backwards compatibility. For example, instead of: <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>mw.util.addPortletLink('p-cactions', '#', 'Stub', 'ca-stubtag', 'Add a stub tag to this page');</nowiki></code></bdi> use <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>mw.util.addPortletLink('p-cactions', { href: '#', text: 'Stub', id: 'ca-stubtag', tooltip: 'Add a stub tag to this page' });</nowiki></code></bdi>. Script maintainers are encouraged to review existing uses of <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>addPortletLink()</nowiki></code></bdi> and update them where appropriate. This change will be available on all wikis from 11 June. Thanks to community volunteer Gerges for contributing this improvement. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T427945 ↗

'''Community Wishlist discussion''': Product & Technology introduced changes ↗ meant to increase the number and complexity of wishes fulfilled, including the disbanding of the Community Tech team. They are engaging in discussions ↗ about a proposed direction for the wishlist ↗ from community members. Includes ways to structure annual voting, better tracking of wishes, removing focus areas, and staffing updates ↗.

12px|link=|class=skin-invert|Recurrent item ↗ Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki ↗

'''''Tech news ↗''' prepared by Tech News writers ↗ and posted by bot ↗ • Contribute ↗ • Translate ↗ • Get help ↗ • Give feedback ↗ • Subscribe or unsubscribe ↗.''
</div><section end="technews-2026-W24"/>

<bdi lang="en" dir="ltr">MediaWiki message delivery</bdi> 21:28, 8 June 2026 (UTC)

Feedback request: Maths, science, and technology request for comment

48px|left|alt=|link= ↗Your feedback is requested  at '''Talk:Sayyid'''  on a "Maths, science, and technology" request for comment ↗. Thank you for helping out!<br/><small>You were randomly selected to receive this invitation from the list of Feedback Request Service ↗ subscribers. If you'd like not to receive these messages any more, you can opt out at any time by removing your name ↗.</small> <div class="paragraphbreak" style="margin-top:0.5em"></div> <small>(replacing <span class="plainlinks">Yapperbot ↗</span>)</small> SodiumBot (botop|talk ↗|contribs ↗) 05:31, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #252 is out: Improved loading and display of Test results

There is a new update ↗ for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!

In this issue, we present you an improvement in loading and display of Test results, we talk about our next events, and we take a look at the latest software developments.

Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive ↗!

Also, we remind you that Denny will lead a discussion on the new NLG types ↗ in the next '''Natural Language Generation Special Interest Group meeting''', that will be held on '''June 16, at 16:00 UTC ↗''' (link to the meeting ↗).

Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 15:29, 12 June 2026 (UTC)

Tech News: 2026-25

<section begin="technews-2026-W25"/><div class="plainlinks">
Latest '''tech news ↗''' from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations ↗ are available.

'''Weekly highlight'''

The Reader Growth team ↗ has launched an Image Browsing ↗ beta feature on the mobile web version of all Wikipedias. The feature shows an image carousel at the top of articles with 3 or more images. Editors can configure this feature with the following controls: to hide a specific image from a page, either use <code>class=notpageimage</code> excluding it from thumbnail previews, or <code>class=noviewer</code> excluding it from MediaViewer. The carousel can also be disabled from a page entirely, with the magic word <code><nowiki>__NOMEDIAVIEWERCAROUSEL__</nowiki></code>. To submit feedback or flag bugs, please visit the project page ↗.

Wikitables ↗ can now be sorted in descending order ↗ on the first click by adding <code dir=ltr>data-sort-order="desc"</code> to the header cell. Previously, by default, clicking a column header for the first time sorts it in ascending order. This addition to a Wikitable gives it more control and flexibility, while the default behavior for subsequent clicks remains unchanged. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T398416 ↗

'''Updates for editors'''

The Article guidance ↗ feature is currently being tested with some editors creating new articles on the Simple English, French, and Turkish Wikipedias. The experiment will soon begin on the Arabic and Bangla Wikipedias as well. This feature ↗ gives editors community-curated guidance to help them create articles that follow community standards. Experienced editors can continue creating or adapting outlines for specific article types that are commonly created by less experienced contributors. The outlines guide less experienced editors in creating high-quality articles. A quick guide to markups used in outlines can be found on this page ↗. Example outlines ↗ that can be adapted and instructions for how to adapt them are on this section ↗ of the project page.

Wikis that wish to replace the "indefinitely" button in Special:Block for temporary accounts (for example, wikis that block temporary users only until account expiration) will be able to do so by creating MediaWiki:ipb-indefinite-expiry-temporary-account ↗ with the block duration they want. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T427125 ↗

12px|link=|class=skin-invert|Recurrent item ↗ View all {{formatnum:41}} community-submitted {{PLURAL:41|task|tasks}} that were resolved last week ↗.

'''Updates for technical contributors'''

By the end of June, a valid user-agent string will be required for automated dumps downloads from the dumps.wikimedia.org website. Automated requests that provide a generic or empty user-agent will be blocked. This extends enforcement ↗ of the long standing user-agent policy ↗. Access to dumps through Wikimedia Cloud Services will not change.

The roll out of global API rate limits ↗ is now complete, with limits enforced across all APIs and at the documented levels for all groups. Bots running in Toolforge/WMCS or with the bot user right on any wiki remain exempt. All bots should continue to follow the documented best practices to avoid being rate limited.

The API Portal wiki ↗ will be read only starting this week (June 15-18). The following week (June 22-25), all API Portal wiki URLs will redirect to Wikimedia APIs on mediawiki.org ↗. Learn more on the project page ↗.

12px|link=|class=skin-invert|Recurrent item ↗ Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki ↗

'''Meetings and events'''

On June 17th at 6pm UTC the WMF will be holding Discord call focused on a code review. We've heard through the Developer Satisfaction Survey ↗ that volunteers are struggling with code review and we'd like to discuss these experiences with the goal of surfacing workable solutions. You can join the call via the Wikimedia Community Discord server ↗.

The Latin American Wikimedia Conference ↗ will host a regional hackathon that will bring together the Wikimedia movement’s technical community including developers, system administrators, data scientists, and users with extended rights. Interested technical contributors can apply for a scholarship ↗ to participate until June 21 at midnight (Bolivia time, UTC-4).

Sign up for Wikimania Team Challenges to join this special event. The Team challenges will take place online and in person from July 21 to 22, before Wikimania conference. Everyone is welcome, regardless of skills or Wikimania registration. Teams will work on 10 important challenges supporting the Wikimedia community. For details, visit the Team Challenges page ↗ and register there ↗. Registration closes on June 20th at 11pm UTC.

'''''Tech news ↗''' prepared by Tech News writers ↗ and posted by bot ↗ • Contribute ↗ • Translate ↗ • Get help ↗ • Give feedback ↗ • Subscribe or unsubscribe ↗.''
</div><section end="technews-2026-W25"/>

<bdi lang="en" dir="ltr">MediaWiki message delivery</bdi> 16:46, 15 June 2026 (UTC)

Fanfix, assistance requested

Hello, {{u|GhostInTheMachine}}. Pleasure to meet you. I am affiliated with Fanfix ↗ and have declared my COI as per Wikipedia regulations ↗. I noticed your participation in Project computing ↗ and would be grateful for your assistance with the edit request I posted ↗ for Fanfix, the subscription crowdsourcing platform. If you approve these edits, I can make them myself to save you time. Appreciate your review. Looking forward to hearing from you, Bluecenter2020 (talk) 23:17, 16 June 2026 (UTC)

Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #253 is out: The or not the, this is (the?) question

There is a new update ↗ for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!

In this issue, we present you a delicate question regarding grammatical framework, we talk about our next events and about the results of our latest online meetings, we discuss news about Types, and we take a look at the latest software developments.

Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive ↗!

Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 12:34, 19 June 2026 (UTC)

Tech News: 2026-26

<section begin="technews-2026-W26"/><div class="plainlinks">
Latest '''tech news ↗''' from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations ↗ are available.

'''Weekly highlight'''

Growth features ↗ are now available at Wikidata ↗. This update enables access to Mentorship (if configured ↗), Impact module, the Help Panel, and a simplified Newcomer Homepage (without Suggested Edits). Wikidata administrators are still configuring the features through Community Configuration.

'''Updates for editors'''

The special page {{#special:RangeCalculator}} ↗ has been created. It allows users to find an IP range without needing to rely on external tools. Until now, this tool was only available to CheckUsers. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T268429 ↗

Sub-referencing ↗ is a new MediaWiki feature that allows editors to reuse references with different details. It will be deployed to most small and medium-sized Wikipedia language versions on June 23. The FAQ ↗ lists possible actions to take on your wiki to support the deployment. Check the rollout plan ↗ for the next deployment steps. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T428902 ↗

Starting next week, users will get a notification when they are blocked or unblocked from editing, or if this block changes. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T100974 ↗

12px|link=|class=skin-invert|Recurrent item ↗ View all {{formatnum:32}} community-submitted {{PLURAL:32|task|tasks}} that were resolved last week ↗.

'''Updates for technical contributors'''

Starting next week, abuse filters that are set to "require CAPTCHA verification" will begin to also affect users with the <code>skipcaptcha</code> right, which includes most autoconfirmed users. Bots are exempted. This change only affects edits that trigger an abuse filter. The <code>skipcaptcha</code> right will continue to exempt users from having to solve CAPTCHAs in the ordinary course of using the wikis. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T402595 ↗

Reference documentation for the Lift Wing API ↗ has moved from the API Portal to the interactive REST Sandbox ↗.

The API Portal wiki is now closed. For API documentation, see Wikimedia APIs on mediawiki.org ↗. All API Portal wiki URLs (https://api.wikimedia.org/wiki/) will redirect to the mediawiki.org page starting June 22. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T427537 ↗

12px|link=|class=skin-invert|Recurrent item ↗ Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki ↗

'''Meetings and events'''

Join an online call on 25 June at 2:30pm UTC to meet the current Wikimedia interns for Google Summer of Code ↗ and Outreachy ↗. Interns will provide an overview of their projects and a brief demo of their work so far. Attendees are encouraged to share ideas and connections in their community ↗.

'''''Tech news ↗''' prepared by Tech News writers ↗ and posted by bot ↗ • Contribute ↗ • Translate ↗ • Get help ↗ • Give feedback ↗ • Subscribe or unsubscribe ↗.''
</div><section end="technews-2026-W26"/>

<bdi lang="en" dir="ltr">MediaWiki message delivery</bdi> 13:03, 23 June 2026 (UTC)

I have sent you a note about a page you started

Hi GhostInTheMachine. Thank you for your work on Bag of holding ↗. Another editor, Mariamnei, has reviewed it as part of new pages patrol ↗ and left the following comment:

{{Bq|1=Thank you for your work on this article. Please establish notability as per WP:GNG ↗. Thanks and have a wonderful day!}}

To reply, leave a comment here and begin it with {{code|<nowiki>{{Re|</nowiki>Mariamnei<nowiki>}}</nowiki>}}. <small>(Message delivered via the Page Curation ↗ tool, on behalf of the reviewer.)</small>

<span style="font:italic bold 115% Palatino,Georgia,serif;color:#1A4A3A;">Mariamnei</span> ✦ <sup><span style="color:#2D7A5F;font-style:italic;font-size:85%;">reach out 🕊️</span></sup> 10:15, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
: {{re|Mariamnei}} That was somewhat aggressive ... — GhostInTheMachine <sup>talk to me</sup> 10:31, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
::@GhostInTheMachine - Sorry I missed this. I read through my comments again and I do not see anything aggressive, but I apologise if something came off too strongly. Have a good day! <span style="font:italic bold 115% Palatino,Georgia,serif;color:#1A4A3A;">Mariamnei</span> ✦ <sup><span style="color:#2D7A5F;font-style:italic;font-size:85%;">reach out 🕊️</span></sup> 07:26, 9 July 2026 (UTC)

Galleries in "Meso position (tetrapyrrole)" and "Seco (tetrapyrrole)"

Dear GhostInTheMachine,
Thanks for trying to improve my new articles "seco" and "meso". However, as a chemist (specialized in chemical information retrieval/chemoinformatics), I have some comments and reservations concerning your efforts:

The term "meso" has quite different meanings in chemistry, even within the narrow field of "tetrapyrroles" (see Footnote in "meso"). The description I gave is the chemically exact definition; if that is considered too long or too specific for a SHORT DESCRIPTION, the version "bridging positions between pyrrole rings" I now changed it to should be OK; "Bridges linking rings in organic compounds" is not appropriate here, far too general, and meaningless regarding this very specific case.

I can imagine that the gallery feature in Wikipedia is useful for articles that contain a lot of figures relative to the size of the text, as is indeed the case for "seco" (but IMHO not so for "meso"). So far, I have not encountered galleries for chemical reaction schemes in Wikipedia, and not used them myself.
There are IMHO several reasons for this: First, a gallery displays pictures, standing for themselves - but the formulas in "meso" and "seco" are closely related to the text; collecting formulas at the end of text in galleries will NOT foster understanding.
The gallery with figs. 3 & 4 must therefore be placed between the two paragraphs explaining them.

Second, Galleries are great for fotos, where a "one height/width fits all" works, but chemical formulas and even more so chemical reaction schemes are too diverse to be presented that way in most cases.
Figs. 3 & 4 in "seco" are OK in your gallery, an exception to the above "rule", because they group schemes with chemical structures of the same type and size.
However, unless you - based on your long-term experience - tell me how to size gallery items individually (within limits at least), the other galleries just won't fit.

Chemists have a close esthetic relation to formulas, the unique language of their field, influencing perception. In this respect, lumping together figs. 1 and 2 in "meso" doesn't look proper, fig. 1 being far too "big". I reverted it to a separate display, but with fig. 1 at left.

Figs. 1 & 2 in "seco" look now really terrible due to the very different sizes of the COMMON pentacyclic pyrrole rings - this MUST NOT be left that way, as it will reflect negatively on the quality of the article as a whole for readers interested in chemistry, used to proper formulas in Wikipedia and elsewhere.
I would rather eliminate both figs. 1 & 2, or at least fig. 2 in "seco" than keep them that way - but this would be against my major intention to illustrate the rather abstract term "seco" with important examples! Refering just to the literature instead of using fig. 2 would not do: both refs are NOT Open Access (i.e. not generally accessible).
The only acceptable alternative to show them "gallery-like", but in the same size (as changed by me now) would be to combine them in ONE scheme, joining the captions under the heading "Seco-tetrapyrroles as products of biological and chemical degradation". Let me know if this would be preferable.

Best regards Easyloc (talk) 05:41, 26 June 2026 (UTC)
: I do not pretend to understand the chemistry, but thanks for the post re my edits to Meso position (tetrapyrrole) ↗ and Seco (tetrapyrrole) ↗.
: Your SD changes seem fine. Short is good.
: '''Meso''': Starting an article with an image on the left is truly evil, so I have moved the two images so that they both sit to the right side of the text that discusses them. Strictly speaking, the second image is too big. See MOS:IMAGESIZE ↗
: '''Seco''': Galleries are indeed ''designed'' to offer a row of images displayed at the same height (but possibly different widths). I changed the image placement to reflect the effect you probably wanted, with the two images side-by-side.
: All OK enough? — GhostInTheMachine <sup>talk to me</sup> 14:37, 26 June 2026 (UTC)
::OK INDEED! Thank you very much for your help.
::I followed up your remark on image size in "meso", resizing fig 2 from 460 to 400px, center-ing it after the related paragraph, and resized fig 1 from 264 to 220 to keep both "in size". Easyloc (talk) 14:13, 27 June 2026 (UTC)
:::{{Y}} ... All seems well — GhostInTheMachine <sup>talk to me</sup> 14:48, 27 June 2026 (UTC)

Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #254: Working on Functions, together

There is a new update ↗ for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!

In this issue, we report on new collaborative patterns emerging in our community, we discuss news in Types, we share some events that relate to Wikifunctions and Abstract Wikipedia at Wikimania 2026, and we take a look at the latest software developments.

Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive ↗!

Also, we remind you that if you have questions or ideas to discuss, the next '''Volunteers' Corner''' will be held on '''July 6, at 17:30 UTC ↗''' (link to the meeting ↗).

Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 09:58, 27 June 2026 (UTC)

Tech News: 2026-27

<section begin="technews-2026-W27"/><div class="plainlinks">
Latest '''tech news ↗''' from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations ↗ are available.

'''Updates for editors'''

As part of the Account Creation Experiments ↗, the Growth team tested adding a user account icon in the mobile web header for logged-out users, providing direct access to "Create account" and "Log in" actions. The experiment increased account creation by about 20% without negatively affecting edit quality or constructive edit rates. The feature will now be rolled out to all Wikimedia Foundation wikis on mobile web in the first week of July. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T428220 ↗

After a successful experiment ↗, logged-in users who did not confirm their email address ↗ when their account was created see a new banner asking them to complete that process. This helps reduce the risk that users get locked out of their account, and makes account email addresses overall more reliable. This is part of the Account Security ↗ project. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T428292 ↗

An update to Search ↗ is refining how the <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>-prefix:</nowiki></code></bdi> behaves when used to exclude results. Previously, using <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>-prefix:</nowiki></code></bdi> with negation could unintentionally broaden search results by adding the namespaces included in the search scope, leading to confusing behavior for users expecting a straightforward exclusion filter. With the update, <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>-prefix:</nowiki></code></bdi> will now strictly exclude matching page titles as intended and may display a warning if the relevant namespace has not been explicitly selected. The behavior of <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>prefix:</nowiki></code></bdi> without negation however remains unchanged. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T427443 ↗

12px|link=|class=skin-invert|Recurrent item ↗ View all {{formatnum:33}} community-submitted {{PLURAL:33|task|tasks}} that were resolved last week ↗. For example, an issue where reviewers using the Page Curation toolbar were not automatically subscribed to talk page discussions they started has now been fixed. Reviewers will now receive notifications when someone replies to those discussions. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T329346 ↗

'''Updates for technical contributors'''

Starting June 29th, automated downloads from the dumps.wikimedia.org website will be subject to the user-agent policy ↗. Automated requests that provide a generic or empty user-agent will be blocked. Access to dumps through Wikimedia Cloud Services remains unaffected. This is a follow up to the announcement made in the 2026/25 issue of Tech News ↗.

12px|link=|class=skin-invert|Recurrent item ↗ Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki ↗

'''''Tech news ↗''' prepared by Tech News writers ↗ and posted by bot ↗ • Contribute ↗ • Translate ↗ • Get help ↗ • Give feedback ↗ • Subscribe or unsubscribe ↗.''
</div><section end="technews-2026-W27"/>

<bdi lang="en" dir="ltr">MediaWiki message delivery</bdi> 11:46, 29 June 2026 (UTC)

Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #255: Integration on test wiki and annual plan

There is a new update ↗ for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!

In this issue, we discuss integration of Abstract Wikipedia in Test Wiki and our objectives for the new Wikimedia Foundation Fiscal Year, we remind you of the Wikifunctions and Abstract Wikipedia events at Wikimania 2026, and we take a look at the latest software developments.

Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive ↗!

Also, we remind you that if you have questions or ideas to discuss, the next '''Volunteers' Corner''' will be held on '''July 6, at 17:30 UTC ↗''' (link to the meeting ↗).

Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 08:22, 2 July 2026 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2026

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

right|150px ↗

20px|alt= ↗ '''Administrator changes'''
:20px|alt=added|Added ↗ {{hlist|class=inline|Chipmunkdavis ↗|TechnoSquirrel69 ↗}}
:20px|alt=removed|Removed ↗ {{hlist|class=inline
|Mlaffs ↗
|SpuriousQ ↗
|Lectonar ↗
|Dennis Brown ↗
|Hog Farm ↗
}}

20px|alt= ↗ '''CheckUser changes'''
:20px|alt=readded|Readded ↗ {{hlist|class=inline
|Giraffer ↗
|TonyBallioni ↗
}}
:20px|alt=removed|Removed ↗ {{hlist|class=inline
|Dbeef ↗
|EdJohnston ↗
}}

20px|alt= ↗ '''Oversight changes'''
:20px|alt=readded|Readded ↗ {{hlist|class=inline
|Giraffer ↗
|TonyBallioni ↗
}}
:20px|alt=removed|Removed ↗ L235 ↗

20px|alt= ↗ '''Guideline and policy news'''

A request for comment ↗ asks whether the criteria for autoconfirmed and extended confirmed should be modified.

A request for comment ↗ proposes an addendum for the Real name section of the Username policy ↗.

20px|alt= ↗ '''Technical news'''

The special page Special:RangeCalculator ↗ has been created for any users to use to find an IP range. (phab:T268429 ↗)

The "indefinitely" button in Special:Block ↗ for temporary accounts can be replaced with a preferred block duration stated on MediaWiki:ipb-indefinite-expiry-temporary-account ↗. (phab:T427125 ↗)

20px|alt= ↗ '''Arbitration'''

Following a series of motions ↗, changes to the contentious topics procedure ↗ to restructure awareness ↗ have been implemented.

The arbitration case ''Michael Jackson ↗'' has been closed.

20px|alt= ↗ '''Miscellaneous'''

The 2026 Developing Countries WikiContest ↗ will run from 1{{nbsp}}July to 30{{nbsp}}September. '''Sign up now ↗'''!

10 candidates have been appointed ↗ to the U4C.

----
{{center|{{flatlist|

Discuss this newsletter ↗

Subscribe ↗

Archive ↗

}}}}
{{center|1=<small>Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:07, 2 July 2026 (UTC)</small>}}

Tech News: 2026-28

<section begin="technews-2026-W28"/><div class="plainlinks">
Latest '''tech news ↗''' from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations ↗ are available.

'''Updates for editors'''

12px|link=|class=skin-invert|Recurrent item ↗ View all {{formatnum:34}} community-submitted {{PLURAL:34|task|tasks}} that were resolved last week ↗. For example, an issue where the search bar results on Wikidata, showed English results instead of using the correct language fallback for users of language variants, has now been fixed. Search suggestions will now follow the expected language fallback chain. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T429769 ↗

'''Updates for technical contributors'''

In preparation for Celebrate Women campaign ↗ planned for March 2027, the Wikimedia Foundation’s Content Enablement team ↗ has launched a 22-question survey to better understand technical contributions by women+ (anyone who identifies as a woman) across Wikimedia projects. The survey takes approximately 15–20 minutes to complete and will remain open until 20 July 2026. The questions ↗ are also available on-wiki for review in advance.

The Score extension ↗ now supports rendering music scores as SVG images in addition to PNG, addressing a long-standing feature request ↗ and resolving historical image quality issues. Both formats are now provided to clients, with PNG in the <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>src</nowiki></code></bdi> attribute and SVG in the <bdi lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><code><nowiki>srcset</nowiki></code></bdi> attribute.

The new Parsoid ↗ parser continues to be deployed to additional wikis ↗, making it easier to introduce new reading and editing features. It was enabled on French Wikipedia, bringing total progress to covering 78.9% of Wikipedia page views. Rollout to English Wikipedia desktop will progress through this week.

12px|link=|class=skin-invert|Recurrent item ↗ Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki ↗

'''In depth'''

The Wikimedia Hackathon 2026 recap blog post ↗ is now live. It highlights the projects, sessions, and social activities from this year’s event, and shares initial plans for the 2027 Wikimedia Hackathon.

'''''Tech news ↗''' prepared by Tech News writers ↗ and posted by bot ↗ • Contribute ↗ • Translate ↗ • Get help ↗ • Give feedback ↗ • Subscribe or unsubscribe ↗.''
</div><section end="technews-2026-W28"/>

<bdi lang="en" dir="ltr">MediaWiki message delivery</bdi> 13:54, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #256: Moving toward our first Abstract Wikipedia integration milestone

There is a new update ↗ for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!

In this issue, we discuss further our objectives for the new Wikimedia Foundation Fiscal Year, we show the latest community tool, we remind you of the Wikifunctions and Abstract Wikipedia events at Wikimania 2026, and we take a look at the latest software developments.

Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive ↗!

Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 09:43, 9 July 2026 (UTC)