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Administrators' newsletter – September 2026

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

Administrator changes

Dclemens1971

• Lectonar

• Bucketsofg
• Keenan Pepper
• The Wordsmith
• Caknuck

Oversight changes

• Richwales

Guideline and policy news

• Speedy deletion criteria G15 has been renamed from "LLM-generated pages without human review" to "Unambiguously LLM-generated pages" and has an additional sign of detection added to it following a RfC.

Miscellaneous

• The September 2026 New Pages Patrol backlog drive is ongoing. Help tackle the 30,000+ article backlog!
• This week's article for improvement will be added to the Main Page to try converting readers into editors following a RfC.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:36, 14 September 2026 (UTC)

Merging {{Bot2}}

Hi. Today, I spent a bunch of time preparing {{Bot}} for merging. Since you were involved in the merging process, and created the template, could you take a look at Template:Bot/testcases and tell me what you think? I'm probably going to push this change soon, though I wonder, should {{Bot2}} become a wrapper or a redirect (with the transcluded instances' parameters being edited to stay consistent)? Let me know what you think. Thanks, Axolitl (talk | contribs) 04:59, 20 September 2026 (UTC)

@Axolitl A few comments:

• We should just bite the bullet and switch to the Bot2 images. The current images are under an attribution required license and require linking, which is undesired for a template like this, and are raster images that should be SVGs.
• The sandbox version seems to omit the Administrators: if this bot is malfunctioning or causing harm, please block it. message for non-AWB bots.
• If we're using the banner format, we shouldn't be varying the icon on the left, as it's redundant.

While I appreciate the work that you put in, I'm wondering what was wrong with the version that I had at Special:Permalink/1371173723 / Special:Permalink/1371173520? Setting |ombox=yes does the Bot2 format, otherwise it does a slightly tweaked version of Bot with public domain images. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 16:12, 20 September 2026 (UTC)

1. I thought about this, but I wasn't sure if it needed consensus or not. However, I think you're right, and have changed the default. I added |oldimage= just in case though.
2. Are you sure? This seems to appear on all of them for me (so long as sysop-show is visible). Nevermind, HouseBlaster fixed this.
3.  Done.
4. Honestly, the reason I didn't end up using your version is kind of silly: I simply didn't notice it until I had pretty much the same result, with some differences in other formatting. So, when I realized you had already done a lot, I tried to incorporate a lot of what you did, like for example using {{Bot/messages}}.

Axolitl (talk | contribs) 16:35, 20 September 2026 (UTC)

Another slight difference is that all the banners in the sandbox now use classes and TemplateStyles, so that the appearance can be improved on dark mode. Axolitl (talk | contribs) 16:37, 20 September 2026 (UTC)

@Axolitl Looks good. I did a little code cleanup, including fixing blank banners when the status was invalid and consistent indenting. I also just removed the old images, as it adds a ton of complexity. If people really want to use the old images, they can use |image=. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 18:08, 20 September 2026 (UTC)

October 2026 Administrator Elections – Schedule

• The October 2026 administrator elections are set to proceed.
• We plan to use the following schedule:
  • September 29 – October 5: Candidate sign-up
  • October 8–12: Discussion phase
  • October 13–19: SecurePoll voting phase
• If you have any questions, concerns, or thoughts before we get started, please ask at Wikipedia talk:Administrator elections.

You're receiving this message because you signed up for the mailing list. To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself from the list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:46, 26 September 2026 (UTC)

globalusagecount.toolforge.org

Hi, I think you are a maintainer of the "globalusagecount" tool. The tool needs to be updated with new DB names per 2026 Commons links tables database split to avoid outputting stale stats. Example: c:File:SKQSfont2.pdf vs tool's result. PacmanD (talk) 16:30, 26 September 2026 (UTC)

https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/toolforge-repos/globalusagecount/-/merge_requests/1 PacmanD (talk) 17:30, 26 September 2026 (UTC)

@PacmanD Is is bad to admit that I completely forgot that I had taken over this tool? I got your patch running on https://globalusagecountmirror.toolforge.org/. Let me know if it's running as expected. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 21:58, 27 September 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for updating! Yes, I can confirm that the mirror site's results are correct: https://globalusagecountmirror.toolforge.org/?lang=en&file=SKQSfont2.pdf PacmanD (talk) 00:12, 28 September 2026 (UTC)

@PacmanD  Done. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 19:01, 29 September 2026 (UTC)

October 2026 Administrator Elections – Call for Candidates

The administrator elections process has officially started! Qualified editors are encouraged to find at least one experienced nominator. Self-nominations are also allowed. Please review instructions at Wikipedia:Administrator elections/October 2026/Candidates.

Here is the schedule:

• September 29 – October 5: Nominations phase (we are here)
• October 8–12: Discussion phase
• October 13–19: SecurePoll voting phase

Please note the following:

• The requirements to run are identical to RFA—a prospective candidate must be extended confirmed. However, in practice, few candidates succeed without ~10K edits, some content creation, no recent behavioral issues, and a nominator.
• Prospective candidates are advised to become familiar with the community's expectations of administrators, which are much higher than the minimum requirement of having extended confirmed status. This includes reviewing successful and unsuccessful RFAs, reading the essay Wikipedia:Advice for admin elections candidates, and possibly requesting an optional poll on their chances of passing.
• The process will have a seven day call for candidates phase, a two day pause, a five day discussion phase, and a seven day private vote using SecurePoll. Discussion and questions are only allowed on the candidate pages during the discussion phase.
• The outcome of this process is identical to making a request for adminship. There is no official difference between an administrator appointed through RFA versus administrator elections.
• Administrator elections are also a valid means of regaining adminship for de-sysopped editors.

Ask any questions about the process at the talk page. Later, a user talk message will be sent to official candidates with additional information about the process.

If you are interested in the process, please make sure to watchlist the appropriate pages. A watchlist notice will be added when the discussion phase opens, and again when the voting phase opens.

You're receiving this message because you signed up for the mailing list. To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself from the list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:59, 29 September 2026 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – October 2026

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

Administrator changes

• Cleared as filed
• Dante Alighieri
• Doug Weller
• Gentgeen
• Vacant0

Oversight changes

• Doug Weller
• ToBeFree

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, the good article criteria have been amended to add accessibility requirements.
• Following an RfC, late signatures added to administrator recall petitions after 720 hours from opening are reverted or struck and do not count towards the threshold, even if the petition has not yet been formally closed.
• The post-May 2026 administrator elections RfCs concluded with consensus for election monitors to curate blatantly inappropriate questions after posting, and to remove or merge true duplicates, clearly marking merged questions. Calls for candidates will include advisory guidance that users with less than one year’s experience or 5,000 edits generally lack a realistic chance of success.

Technical news

• Interface administrators no longer need to specify the ResourceLoader option in the definitions for gadgets on MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition as gadgets are always loaded through ResourceLoader. (T298199)
• The list=abusefilters API module now supports formatversion=2 and includes breaking changes to its responses. In particular, the actions property is now a JSON array rather than a string, regardless of the format version. Maintainers of user scripts and other code using this module should check compatibility and update their code as needed. (T435828)

Arbitration

• The arbitration case Gun control 2 has been closed.

Obituaries

• Doug Weller passed away on 30 September 2026. Doug Weller began editing Wikipedia in 2006 and became an administrator in 2008, making nearly 275,000 edits over two decades. He served on the Arbitration Committee from 2015 through 2018 and was also a longtime CheckUser and Oversighter.

Miscellaneous

• The October 2026 administrator elections are scheduled to run from September 29 to October 19. The call for candidates ends October 5.
• Self-nominations for the electoral commission for the 2026 Arbitration Committee elections is opened and closes on 8 October.
• The Good Article Nominations backlog drive has begun and is scheduled to end on November 3.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:30, 3 October 2026 (UTC)

October 2026 Administrator Elections – Discussion Phase

The discussion phase of the October 2026 administrator elections is officially open. As a reminder, the schedule of the election is:

• October 8–12: Discussion phase (we are here)
• October 13–19: SecurePoll voting phase
• Scrutineering phase

We are currently in the discussion phase. The candidate subpages are open to questions and comments from everyone, in the same style as a request for adminship. You may discuss the candidates at Wikipedia:Administrator elections/October 2026/Discussion phase.

On 13 Oct, we will start the voting phase. The candidate subpages will close to public questions and discussion, and everyone will have a week to use the SecurePoll software to vote, which uses a secret ballot. You can see who voted, but not who they voted for.

Any questions or issues can be asked on the election talk page. Thank you for your participation. Happy electing.

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:05, 8 October 2026 (UTC)

New cross-language page link: Houthi attacks on commercial vessels

A new page حملات حوثی‌ها به کشتی‌های تجاری on the Persian Wikipedia has been linked to the page Houthi attacks on commercial vessels, which you created, via Wikidata (Q133523383).

You will not be notified about future links to pages you created. To opt in to these notifications, follow the opt-in instructions.

NervousBot (talk) 17:34, 10 October 2026 (UTC)

October 2026 Administrator Elections – Voting Phase

The voting phase of the October 2026 administrator elections has started and will continue until 19 October 2026 at 23:59 UTC. You can participate in the voting phase at Wikipedia:Administrator elections/October 2026/Voting phase.

As a reminder, the schedule of the election is:

• October 13–19: SecurePoll voting phase (we are here)
• Scrutineering phase

In the voting phase, the candidate subpages close to public questions and discussion, and everyone who qualifies to vote has a week to use the SecurePoll software to vote, which uses a secret ballot. You can see who voted, but not who they voted for. Please note that the vote totals cannot be made public until after voting has ended and as such, it will not be possible for you to see an individual candidate's vote total during the election. The suffrage requirements are similar to those at RFA.

Once voting concludes, we will begin the scrutineering phase, which will last for a few days, perhaps longer. Once everything is certified, the results will be posted on the results page (this is a good page to watchlist), and transcluded to the main election page. In order to be granted adminship, a non-recall candidate must have received at least 70.0% support, calculated as Support / (Support + Oppose), and a minimum of 20 support votes. Recall candidates must achieve 55.0% support. Because this is a vote and not a consensus, there are no bureaucrat discussions ("crat chats").

Any questions or issues can be asked on the election talk page. Thank you for your participation. Happy electing.

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:11, 13 October 2026 (UTC)