Wikipedia:Village pump (WMF)

The WMF section of the village pump is a community-managed page. Editors or Wikimedia Foundation staff may post and discuss information, proposals, feedback requests, or other matters of significance to both the community and the Foundation. It is intended to aid communication, understanding, and coordination between the community and the foundation, though Wikimedia Foundation currently does not consider this page to be a communication venue.

Discussions of proposals which do not require significant foundation attention or involvement belong at Village pump (proposals)
Discussions of bugs and routine technical issues belong at Village pump (technical).
Consider developing new ideas at the Village pump (idea lab).
This page is not a place to appeal decisions about article content, which the WMF does not control (except in very rare cases); see Dispute resolution for that.
Issues that do not require project-wide attention should often be handled through Wikipedia:Contact us instead of here.
This board is not the place to report emergencies; go to Wikipedia:Emergency for that.

Threads may be automatically archived after 14 days of inactivity.

Behaviour on this page: This page is for engaging with and discussing the Wikimedia Foundation. Editors commenting here are required to act with appropriate decorum. While grievances, complaints, or criticism of the foundation are frequently posted here, you are expected to present them without being rude or hostile. Comments that are uncivil may be removed without warning. Personal attacks against other users, including employees of the Wikimedia Foundation, will be met with sanctions.

« Archives, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

WMF Board of Trustees Election Bug

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T373945

A few minutes ago, shortly after midnight GMT, 3 September 2024, I saw a pop-up message saying that WMF Board of Trustees elections were open, and giving me a link to click. I right-clicked on the link to open a new page, and got a page saying that I was not eligible to vote because 300 edits were required, and I had 39 edits. I tried again, and got the same message. That page was on Meta:, and 39 is in fact my count of edits on Meta:. A few minutes later, that banner was no longer displayed at the top of my English Wikipedia pages. So I think I have at least four questions:

1. Where can I vote for WMF Trustees?
2. Is my analysis correct, that it was using the number of Meta: edits when it should have been using total edits?
3. Was this error corrected promptly?
4. What are the actual voting requirements?

Robert McClenon (talk) 00:26, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I have same bug, but eligibility is open to any-one Wiki project. I am not eligible via Meta, but I am via English Wikipedia (exclusive) or Wikidata. Eligibility check here. A direct link to voting should also be linked in meta:Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024 in case the pop-up was accidentally dismissed. ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 01:41, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. It now says that I am eligible to vote on English Wikipedia, although the number of edits that it says I have made is somewhat different from what CA shows, but still large. Robert McClenon (talk) 04:44, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

My mistake with a back-end setting on SecurePoll, should be OK now. Voter criteria are at meta:Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024/Voter eligibility guidelines. Joe Sutherland (WMF) (talk) 05:34, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If you would like more info about this I filed a bug report, T373945. Joe Sutherland (WMF) (talk) 22:17, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

How does one get one of these invitations? From what's been said I'm sure I am eligible. Does one have to say nice things about the Foundation to be invited? DuncanHill (talk) 22:26, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@DuncanHill Check this link, it will let you vote if you're eligible meta:Special:SecurePoll/vote/400. Further overview at Meta:Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024/Voter eligibility guidelines ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 22:37, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@User:Shushugah thanks, will you be messaging every other eligible voter who hasn't been told? Tagging @User:JSutherland (WMF) too as he has WMF in his name. DuncanHill (talk) 22:41, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The problem was a bug in the setup; everyone eligible should now be able to vote and doesn't need an exemption. If you're not able to vote even now (and you are eligible please email the Elections Committee. Joe Sutherland (WMF) (talk) 22:48, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@User:JSutherland (WMF) but how does anyone KNOW they can vote if nobody has bothered to tell them there is an election for them to vote in? I only found out because I have this page watchlisted and saw Robert's question. DuncanHill (talk) 22:52, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Enwiki is probably going to run a watchlist notice for a week. MediaWiki talk:Watchlist-messages#WMF Board of Trustees elections. –Novem Linguae (talk) 22:55, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There's also a CentralNotice banner, and an email was sent to Wikimedia-l earlier today. There will probably also be an email sent mid-vote, which is at this point customary in Board elections. Joe Sutherland (WMF) (talk) 23:00, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've had no notice and no email. And yes, I have checked my junk folder, I always check my junk folder. DuncanHill (talk) 23:02, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I found out about the vote via a large WP:CentralNotice banner. If there is a bug, it would be worthwhile investigating, but being condescending makes me less inclined to want to investigate with you. ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 22:55, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've not had any such notice. DuncanHill (talk) 22:59, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Create a report at Meta:CentralNotice/Report an issue and include your operating system, screenshots, what skin you are using. And perhaps someone more knowledgeable can debug and figure out why this is happening. ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 23:05, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've reported it here. This is the page to communicate with WMF. Monobook, Win 11, Edge. I do not feel safe on Meta after previous experiences there. I am sure I'm not the only editor not to have received notification. People on en-Wiki need to know. DuncanHill (talk) 23:08, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Just checking: do you have "Governance" banners ticked in the banners tab of Special:Preferences? If you have unticked that, then you won't see election banners. the wub "?!" 23:35, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@User:the wub I have them all ticked. And even if I didn't, I would rather have assumed that "Certain platform notices, such as those relating to site maintenance and special notices considered necessary to all users, will always be displayed" would cover WMF trustee elections as "special notices considered necessary to all users". DuncanHill (talk) 23:44, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Are you saying that you think that who has ultimate control over the Wikipedia servers is really "considered necessary to all users"? Maybe you and we think so, but maybe some people think that is an abstraction, or maybe they think that the "movement" and the servers are only incidentally related. And I haven't seen statements or questions that seem directly relevant to our servers anyway. Robert McClenon (talk) 21:24, 5 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I was going to answer that but then I realised it would be pointless. DuncanHill (talk) 21:35, 5 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

FYI I received an email just now about being eligible to vote and containing a link to vote. Looks like WMF is doing a massive email blast today to eligible voters. Hopefully this addresses concerns farther up in the thread about folks not being sufficiently informed. –Novem Linguae (talk) 18:50, 6 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Donation banners

Why are these banners so persistent? I've managed to get no less than 10 of these banners in the space of just a few minutes. 88.97.195.160 (talk) 19:28, 10 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

88, do you allow tracking cookies from wikipedia.org in your browser? If not, the site won't remember that you've dismissed the banner already. Another option is to create an account (it's free and a single step; doesn't even require email confirmation), which will allow you to hide donation banners. Folly Mox (talk) 11:02, 11 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin September Issue 1

Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation over the first half of September 2024. Please help Translate.

Upcoming and current events and conversations Talking: 2024 continues

The Voting period for the 2024 Board of Trustees election is open until September 17. Go to the SecurePoll voting page to vote.
Scholarship application for Wikisource Conference 2025 in Bali, Indonesia is open until September 20.
WikiConference Nigeria 2024 will be held in Abuja, Nigeria from September 12–14.
Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2024 will take place in Istanbul, Türkiye on September 20–22.
Celtic Knot Wikimedia Languages Conference will take place in Waterford City, Ireland on September 25–27.
Italian WikiConference will be held in Padua, Italy on September 27–29.
Join Wiki Loves Onam, a photo campaign dedicated to documenting the vibrant and colorful festival of Onam on Wikimedia Commons. The campaign runs until September 30.

Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on Mediawiki.org

Users of all Wikis will have access to Wikimedia sites as read-only for a few minutes on September 25, starting at 15:00 UTC. This is a planned datacenter switchover for maintenance purposes.
The Alternative Text suggested edits feature has now been fully deployed to production on the iOS App for Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and French Wikipedias! This feature, part of WE1.2, is designed to enhance how newcomers add alt text to images, aiming to improve accessibility and engagement. For more details, visit the project page and explore the new feature in the app!
Editors and volunteer developers interested in data visualization can now test the new software for charts. Its early version is available on beta Commons and beta Wikipedia. This is an important milestone before making charts available on regular wikis. You can read more about this project update and help test the charts.
A new draft text of a policy discussing the use of Wikimedia’s APIs has been published on Meta-Wiki. The draft text does not reflect a change in policy around the APIs; instead, it is an attempt to codify existing API rules. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome on the proposed update’s talk page until September 13 or until those discussions have concluded.
More recent tech updates from Tech News.
The latest status updates from Wikifunctions.
Help us find WikiProjects or other online collaboration spaces!

Annual Goals Progress on Equity See also a list of all movement events: on Meta

Revamping Movement Strategy Grants with Hub Focus.
Watch the recordings of Let's Connect Grantee Partner Learning Conversation: Conversation #1 with Wiki in Africa, Wiki Advocates Philippines, and Indic MediaWiki Developers UG and Conversation #2 with Wikimedia Community UG Malta, Wikimedia MA UG, and Wikimedia Canada.

Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog

Wikimedia Foundation defeats gambling magnate’s lawsuit in Germany.
Wikimedia Indonesia and UNESCO Jakarta Team Up Against Harmful Content Online.
Child Rights Impact Assessment at EduWiki Knowledge Showcase and more: Latest updates from the Global Advocacy team.
Protecting the people: Some recommendations for safety while contributing to Wikimedia projects.

Board and Board committee updates See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter

The Movement Charter Drafting Committee published their recommendations and bid farewell.
Read updates from the July 2024 Wikimedia Endowment Board Meeting.
Learn more about 12 candidates running for 4 seats on the Board by reading their statements and their answers to community questions.
See the new members of the U4C following the results of the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) special election, a new decision making group that will enforce the UCoC in specific circumstances.

Other Movement curated newsletters & news See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Wikimedia World · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · other newsletters:

Topics: Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library
Wikimedia Projects: Milestones · Wikidata
Regions: Central and Eastern Europe

Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate

Previous editions of this bulletin are on Meta. Let askcacwikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!

MediaWiki message delivery 21:40, 12 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin September Issue 2

Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation over the second half of September 2024. Please help Translate.

Upcoming and current events and conversations

Talking: 2024 continues

"Wikimania Katowice coverage travels around the world" – a curated list of community and media coverage of Wikimania 2024. Over 100 pieces so far have been published about the event.
WikiForHumanRights will lead a conversation about the future of the campaign with the Africa region on September 25 at 15:00 UTC.
Let’s Connect: “Technology for Language Diversity in Wikimedia” will take place on September 26 at 15:00 UTC.
Wikisource Conference 2025, the deadline for scholarship applications has been extended to September 29.
Big Fat Brussels Meeting 9 will be held in Brussels, Belgium from September 29–30.
WikiConference North America will be held in Indianapolis, USA from October 3–6.
WikiIndaba Conference 2024 will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa from October 4–6.
Wikimedia Technology Summit (WTS 2024): will be held in Hyderabad, India from October 4–5.
ESEAP Community Call will be held on October 6 at 07:00 UTC.
Wikimedia+Libraries International Convention 2025 is accepting submissions until October 6.
The Language and Product Localisation team is hosting two office hours to discuss this year's plans and gather feedback from event organizers. The first session is October 5 at 16:00 UTC (Europe-Africa-Americas friendly), and the second is on October 6 at 03:00 UTC (Asia-Pacific friendly).

Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on Mediawiki.org

MediaWiki Product Insights: The latest edition includes details about: research about hook handlers to help simplify development, research about performance improvements, work to improve the REST API for end-users, and more.
Tech News: Find out about the new automated Special:NamespaceInfo page, the latest Wishlist focus area, Template recall and discovery, and more recent tech updates.
Wikidata Query Service: A new change to Wikidata Query Service will impact certain uses. The project will enter a transition period until the end of February 2025. For more details, visit the announcement page.
Wikimedia Enterprise: Enhanced Free API Accounts: Recurring Credits and More Frequent Updates, early beta release of Structured Contents in Snapshot API, and early beta dataset release to Hugging Face.
Wikifunctions: Status updates from September 20.
Wikipedia Mobile Apps: Over 20,000 images have been added via the "Add an Image" feature on both iOS and Android (T372954)!
Knowledge is Human: Read about ongoing work on the 2024 iteration of the "Knowledge is Human" public awareness campaign
Server Switch: A server switch was completed successfully on September 25 with a read-only time of only 2 minutes 45 seconds.

Annual Goals Progress on Equity See also a list of all movement events: on Meta

Wikimedia Research Showcase: Watch the latest showcase with the theme of Curation of Wikimedia AI Datasets.
Conference and Event Fund: Updates and changes to the Conference and Event Fund program beginning in September 2024.

Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog

UN Summit of the Future Action Days: Watch the Wikimedia event titled "The Power of the Commons: Digital Public Goods for a more secure, inclusive, and resilient world" at The Summit of the Future. This is expected to result in a negotiated Global Digital Compact, which represents the final phase of our movement-wide campaign to impact the text of the Global Digital Compact.
Wikipedia and the Digital Services Act: Lessons on the strength of community and the future of internet regulation.

Foundation statements

Ahead of UN General Assembly, Wikimedia Foundation calls on governments to ensure the future internet is shaped by communities for the public interest.

Other Movement curated newsletters & news See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Wikimedia World · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · other newsletters:

Topics: Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library
Wikimedia Projects: Milestones · Wikidata
Regions: Central and Eastern Europe

Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate

Previous editions of this bulletin are on Meta. Let askcacwikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!

MediaWiki message delivery 17:10, 27 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Add A Fact malfunctioning

See Talk:JD Vance#Add A Fact: "Walz vs Vance in VP debate" where Add A Fact has recommended something that not only isn't a fact... It fails verification. Add A Fact doesn't appear to have pulled a fact from the source, Add A Fact appears to have made up a questionable fact. Horse Eye's Back (talk) 16:25, 3 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Horse Eye's Back, thanks for flagging this. To clarify, the way this tool works requires the user (must be logged in and autoconfirmed on English Wikipedia) to manually select a snippet of text in a source (in this case, a Reuters article) to check against Wikipedia. That text snipped itself is not modified in any way by the tool (it's not even possible for the user to modify it once they've elected to look it up on Wikipedia via this tool). So I suspect what happened here is actually that the source itself (i.e., the Reuters article) was edited by Reuters after this user found the claim and sent it as a suggestion to the talk page via the tool. There appears to be an "updated a day ago" message at the top of the article, indicating that this may be the case. So I think the user of this tool unintentionally caught some possibly-fishy information that Reuters itself was putting out there and then walking back... Maryana Pinchuk (WMF) (talk) 19:40, 3 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the explanation of how the tool works. Horse Eye's Back (talk) 21:47, 3 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin October Issue 1

Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation over the first half of October 2024. Please help Translate.

Upcoming and current events and conversations

Talking: 2024 continues

WikiArabia Conference 2024 will be held in Muscat, Oman, from October 25 to 27.
WikiConvention francophone 2024 will be held in Québec, Canada, from November 2 to 3.
AffCom, Case Review Committee (CRC) and the Ombuds commission (OC) are seeking new member applications from October 14.

Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure

Tech News: Updates on Dark Mode, Vector 2022 skin, CampaignEvents extension, and more on tech news.
Translation suggestion: Sign up to participate in the test project, Translation suggestions: Topic-based & Community-defined lists, which will help organisers identify and add relevant content based on high-impact topics to their Wikipedia.
Wikifunctions: Status updates from September 26.
Wikipedia Apps: Check out the latest issue of the Apps Quarterly Newsletter!

Annual Goals Progress on Equity

See also a list of all movement events: on Meta

WikiWomen Summit: Event summary at Wikimania 2024.
Let's Connect: Watch recordings of the session Technology for Language Diversity in Wikimedia.
WikiLearn: The latest online learning opportunities created by Wikimedians for Wikimedians.
Indonesia: Training for Indonesian Wikipedia Administrators to Safeguard Knowledge Integrity Ahead of the Regional Elections

Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity

See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog

Mexico: Wikimedia Foundation files amicus brief in Mexico urging continued use of intermediary liability protections for user-generated content in Richter v. Google.
Paraguay: Wikimedia Foundation to Paraguayan Supreme Court: Do not allow people to abuse the law to suppress legitimate information
Global: Celebrating a legal victory in Germany against censorship, reflections on Open Culture strategic workshop, and more global advocacy updates.

Board and Board committee updates

See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter