User talk:splains

The Signpost: 13 July 2026

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An award for you!

		The Deletion to Quality Award
		For your contributions to bring .mf (prior candidate for deletion at: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/.mf) to Good Article status, I hereby present you The Deletion to Quality Award. Congratulations on this rare accomplishment, and thanks for all you do for Wikipedia's readers! JustARandomSquid (talk) 03:26, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Pula (motto) moved to draftspace

Thanks for your contributions to Pula (motto). Unfortunately, I do not think it is ready for publishing as a live article at this time because it has no sources. I have converted it to a draft which you can improve, undisturbed for a while.

Please see more information at Help:Unreviewed new page. When the article is ready for publication, please click on the "Submit the draft for review!" button at the top of the page OR move the page back. -MPGuy2824 (talk) 05:50, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

Your nomination of Flag of Botswana is under review

Your good article nomination of the article Flag of Botswana is under review. See the review page for more information. This may take up to 7 days; feel free to contact the reviewer with any questions you might have. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of HaphazardBinBag -- HaphazardBinBag (talk) 11:23, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

Women in Red – August 2026

Women in Red | August 2026, Vol 12, Issue 8, Nos 358, 359, 378, 379, 380 Events: New: Alphabet run: Countries starting with N and O | Indigenous women | Women born before 1900 Continuing (year-long initiatives): #1day1woman | Sports More ... Announcements: On 25 July, at Wikimania Paris, Women in Red was named the Coolest Project! Tip of the month: Read the essay Determining Native American and Indigenous Canadian identities to understand the criteria for a woman's status as Native American or Indigenous Canadian. Other ways to participate: Become a member. You can always opt-out of notifications. Join the conversations on our talkpage. Help us plan future events and add any general ideas on developing the project. Follow us on social media: Instagram & Pinterest

--Chocmilk03 (talk 21:41, 30 July 2026 (UTC) via MassMessaging

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DCWC August update

The 2026 Developing Countries WikiContest has been running for a month now, so let's check in with the competition so far!

As of the time of writing, our top contestants are:

1. Vanderwaalforces (submissions) ahead of the pack with 715 points, with two FAs and many GAs on the monarchs of the Kingdom of Benin;
2. Simongraham (submissions) with 291 points, mostly with GAs on jumping spiders, alongside various GAN and FAC reviews;
3. Jaguarnik (submissions) with 240 points, mostly from an FA on the 1945 film Ivan the Terrible;
4. Grnrchst (submissions) with 215 points, mostly from GAs on anarchist history in various countries, alongside many GA reviews, and;
6. Vestrian24Bio (submissions) tied for 4th with 215 points, with an FL and four GAs on Indian cricket!

These competitors are in the lead, but if past experience is any indication, big shake-ups might still await us in the contest. If you're looking for a way to boost your position, we got a table of review requests from fellow participants—you can rack up a lot of points through reviews, and it might just convince others to review your own nominations! You can also look through the eligible reviews page to find other articles to review, with highlights for articles eligible for the 1.5× multiplier. The coordinators would like to thank Jaguarnik (submissions) for his work to keep this page up to date.

Thank you so much for all your work in the contest so far, dear participants, and keep on the good fight against systemic bias on our wiki! Have any questions? Leave a message on the contest talk page or send it to one of our wonderful coordinators: Arconning (talk · contribs), Generalissima (talk · contribs), Magentic Manifestations (talk · contribs), sawyer777 (talk · contribs), and TechnoSquirrel69 (talk · contribs). (To unsubscribe from these updates, remove yourself from this list. Sent via MediaWiki message delivery.) Generalissima (talk) (it/she) 05:25, 2 August 2026 (UTC)

The Signpost: 2 August 2026

• In the media: Union drive, most prolific editor make headlines
  AI's impact on Wikipedia, World Cup editing, and encyclopedia's place in public life.

• News and notes: Foundation rejects voluntary recognition of union, proposed board eligibility rules sharply restrict candidates
  Further: harassment allegations at Wikimania, and new RfC for Abstract Wikipedia.

• WikiConference: "Kurier, Signpost, wikipress: You can be a Wikimedia journalist" - Wikimania presentation by User:Noé Recap
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• In focus: Is Larry Sanger the co-founder of Wikipedia?
  A look over the years.

• Arbitration report: Think, and not just about content
  ArbCom continues business.

• News from Diff: Meet the Wikimedians of the Year 2026!
  Wikimedians of the Year 2026 announced at Wikimania 2026 - Paris.

• On the bright side: The beautiful game
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• Traffic report: Odyssey and Oyarzabal
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• Comix: Well-spotted
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Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)/Archive 230#FFAC/FAC

Heya, could you be a bit more specific? What pages should be updated, exactly? I'm interested in making Wikipedia icons and templates more consistent. FaviFake (talk) 16:12, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

@FaviFake: The colors of the FAC/FLC and FFAC/FFLC icons have different colors than the FA/FL star (a bit lighter). I recently got the FFL star changed to the FFA star (the previous FFL star was different color, and the X was literally two lines drawn on top of each other, but they weren't perpendicular or the same in length) — splains (💬/📝) 01:52, 9 August 2026 (UTC)

Again, you described the problem, but not your proposed solution. I don't know what to do with this information... what pages or files do you want to change? Where exactly do the old icons appear and how do you want them to be updated or changed? Thanks in advance! FaviFake (talk) 09:04, 9 August 2026 (UTC)

FaviFake: Template:Icon, WP:FAC, WP:FLC, Template:FAC, Template:FLC and Template:Article history. If you compare those stars (FFAC, FAC) with the regular FA star, you'll notice the colors are different. The version I attached in the village pump thread has the same colors as the regular FA star. — splains (💬/📝) 14:00, 9 August 2026 (UTC)

So do you want those pages and templates' source codes to be updated with the new file names, or do you want the old files on WP:COMMONS to be overwritten with your new version? I can do both, and only the former involves updating pages on enwiki.

Also, when you refer to a FFAC do you mean WP:FFA? I couldn't understand what a FFAC is.

What are the names of the old files? FaviFake (talk) 14:09, 9 August 2026 (UTC)

Articles with the FFAC icon include Talk:United States, Talk:Juventus FC, Talk:Lionel Messi, and Talk:History of Scotland. splains (💬/📝) 14:59, 9 August 2026 (UTC)

You have not responded to any of my three questions. Would you like me to clarify them? FaviFake (talk) 15:01, 9 August 2026 (UTC)

New file names pls. The old ones should be kept for archive. An FFAC is the icon for a former featured article candidate. Talk:United States does not feature it. My bad. splains (💬/📝) 15:03, 9 August 2026 (UTC)

Thanks! That's two out of three though. What are the names of the old files that need to be replaced with the new files? FaviFake (talk) 15:06, 9 August 2026 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2026

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

Administrator changes

• MCE89
• Staraction

• Danaman5

CheckUser changes

• dbeef

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RfC, the 30-day requirement for extended-confirmed status now begins after an account's first edit instead of its registration (T431060).

Technical news

• Inactive editors can now be removed as mentors at Special:CommunityConfiguration/Mentorship automatically.
• The Suggested Edits' Revise Tone feature is now enabled. It encourages editors to identify and revise non-neutral language in articles.

Miscellaneous

• The Unreferenced articles August 2026 backlog drive is underway. Help to add references to 47,000 articles.
• The Articles for creation August 2026 backlog drive is under way. Help to review 4,500+ drafts.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:52, 10 August 2026 (UTC)

Good article nominations RfC

Hi Splains,

There is an ongoing Request for Comment (RfC) at Wikipedia:Good article nominations/August 2026 RfC, which you may be interested in because in the past year, you have nominated or reviewed more than one good article nomination. This message has also been sent to all subscribers to the Good Article Gazette. The RfC contains many proposals (33 at the time of writing), which are split into the following categories: nominators, reviewers, reviews, volunteer roles, reviewing initiatives, and others. However, you are more than welcome to add any proposals of your own that you wish to put to the community.

By the end of September, all the proposals will have been closed by an uninvolved editor, either as a consensus for one of the options or with no consensus. At this point, editors will be invited again to develop these proposals into coherent policy and implement them.

Thank you for your contributions to the good articles project, and I look forward to your input! (in solidarity), JacobTheRox^{(talk|contributions)} 16:03, 11 August 2026 (UTC)

Your nomination of Flag of Botswana has passed

Your good article nomination of the article Flag of Botswana has passed; congratulations! See the review page for more information. If the article is eligible to appear in the "Did you know" section of the Main Page, you can nominate it within the next seven days. Please also consider reviewing somebody else's nomination to help keep the backlog down. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of HaphazardBinBag -- HaphazardBinBag (talk) 17:43, 18 August 2026 (UTC)

Your nomination of Coat of arms of Botswana is under review

Your good article nomination of the article Coat of arms of Botswana is under review. See the review page for more information. This may take up to 7 days; feel free to contact the reviewer with any questions you might have. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of HaphazardBinBag -- HaphazardBinBag (talk) 16:03, 19 August 2026 (UTC)

Your nomination of Coat of arms of Botswana has failed

Your good article nomination of the article Coat of arms of Botswana has failed. See the review page for more information. If or when the reviewer's feedback has been addressed, you may nominate the article again. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of HaphazardBinBag -- HaphazardBinBag (talk) 01:02, 21 August 2026 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 August 2026

• News and notes: Union process progresses, unanswered questions about Littler Mendelson remain
  And Raju Narisetti leaves WMF board after nine years.

• In the media: Wikipedia editors save Sam Altman's life
  Can AI do that? Meanwhile, Ruwiki gives porn the shaft, and has Grokipedia ghosted?

• Recent research: Women in blue? Wikipedia's gender gap reverses in some areas
  And other new research findings.

• Discussion report: Again and Again
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• Traffic report: Look out, here comes the Spider-Man!
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• Humour: Her tastes, her Wikimania, her upcoming tour... Baby Globe reveals everything
  A short (parody) interview with Baby Globe via the French wikipress outlet, Regards sur l’Actualité du mouvement Wikimédia (RAW).

• On the bright side: The great outdoors
  Blue Angels, Indigenous Peoples' Day, and the Perseids meteor shower.

• Opinion: Are we embarrassed yet?
  One editor wants to find out more about a Department of Justice investigation of Wikipedia and its editors.

• Special report: Paris Syndrome: Labor Strife, AI Anxiety, and a Leadership Test at Wikimania 2026
  Notes from a delightful Wikimania and the ugly week that followed.

• Comix: WP:FAOWN
  "Explaining civilly" probably should go both ways...

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Women in Red - September 2026

Women in Red | September 2026, Vol 12, Issue 9, Nos 358, 359, 381, 382, 383 Events: New: Labour activists | Writers & their works | Alphabet run: Countries starting with P, Q & R Continuing (year-long initiatives): #1day1woman | Sports More ... Tip of the month: Try her pen name when searching for sources, and remember to add her to any of these that apply: List of pen names, List of literary initials, and Category:Pseudonymous women writers. Other ways to participate: Become a member. You can always opt-out of notifications. Join the conversations on our talkpage. Help us plan future events and add any general ideas on developing the project Follow us on social media: Instagram & Pinterest

--Rosiestep (talk) 15:44, 26 August 2026 (UTC) via MassMessaging

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Replaceable non-free use File:GhanziAirport.jpg

Thanks for uploading File:GhanziAirport.jpg. I noticed that this file is being used under a claim of non-free use. However, I think that the way it is being used fails the first non-free content criterion. This criterion states that files used under claims of non-free use may have no free equivalent; in other words, if the file could be adequately covered by a freely-licensed file or by text alone, then it may not be used on Wikipedia. If you believe this file is not replaceable, please:

1. Go to the file description page and add the text {{Di-replaceable non-free use disputed|<your reason>}} below the original replaceable non-free use template, replacing <your reason> with a short explanation of why the file is not replaceable.
2. On the file's talk page, write a full explanation of why you believe the file is not replaceable.

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If you have uploaded other non-free media, consider checking that you have specified how these media fully satisfy our non-free content criteria. You can find a list of description pages you have edited by clicking on this link. Note that even if you follow steps 1 and 2 above, non-free media which could be replaced by freely licensed alternatives will be deleted 2 days after this notification, per the non-free content policy. If you have any questions, please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. Whpq (talk) 18:55, 30 August 2026 (UTC)

Your nomination of Ghanzi Airport is under review

Your good article nomination of the article Ghanzi Airport is under review. See the review page for more information. This may take up to 7 days; feel free to contact the reviewer with any questions you might have. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of SounderBruce -- SounderBruce (talk) 02:24, 7 September 2026 (UTC)

Your nomination of Ghanzi Airport has failed

Your good article nomination of the article Ghanzi Airport has failed. See the review page for more information. If or when the reviewer's feedback has been addressed, you may nominate the article again. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of SounderBruce -- SounderBruce (talk) 03:44, 7 September 2026 (UTC)

DCWC September update

The 2026 Developing Countries WikiContest has now been running for two months! We have seen tremendous improvements in the encyclopedic coverage of several underrepresented areas thanks to contributions from a wide range of editors. The coordinators would like to highlight some of the new participants this year who have been making notable contributions to the contest, including but by no means limited to:

• Kisseran (submissions) – 462 points, with a featured article (Ancient Cappadocian language) and various reviews primarily on Chinese topics
• Dragonhawk12 (submissions) – 280 points, who's well on their way to breaking the DCWC record for good article reviews and peer reviews
• Jishara (submissions) – 268 points, with a couple of good articles and a diverse selection of reviews as well
• Rainsage (submissions) – 113 points, with two good articles, notably the Jenin Horse
• Chickenpox4dinner (submissions) – 107 points, largely from their Did you know writing about Caribbean folklore
• Propitheque (submissions) – 105 points, from two good articles about Malagasy lemurs

With less than a month remaining until the end of the contest, it's time to get your last rounds of submissions over the finish line! Please consider picking up one of the review requests or eligible reviews to help out your fellow participants and earn some additional points in the process.

If you have any questions, please leave a message on the contest talk page or ask one of the coordinators: Arconning (talk · contribs), Generalissima (talk · contribs), Magentic Manifestations (talk · contribs), sawyer777 (talk · contribs), or TechnoSquirrel69 (talk · contribs). (To unsubscribe from these updates, remove yourself from this list. Sent via MediaWiki message delivery.) —⁠TechnoSquirrel69 (talk) 18:17, 7 September 2026 (UTC)

Promotion of List of general elections in Botswana

Congratulations, splains! The list you nominated, List of general elections in Botswana, has been promoted to featured status, recognizing it as one of the best lists on Wikipedia. The nomination discussion has been archived.

This is a rare accomplishment and you should be proud. If you would like, you may nominate it to appear on the Main Page as Today's featured list. Keep up the great work! Cheers, PresN (talk) via FACBot (talk) 23:25, 8 September 2026 (UTC)

Your nomination of Botswana at the Paralympics is under review

Your good article nomination of the article Botswana at the Paralympics is under review. See the review page for more information. This may take up to 7 days; feel free to contact the reviewer with any questions you might have. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of Dragonhawk12 -- Dragonhawk12 (talk) 00:22, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

Your nomination of Botswana at the Paralympics is on hold

Your good article nomination of the article Botswana at the Paralympics has been placed on hold, as the article needs some changes. See the review page for more information. If these are addressed within 7 days, the nomination will pass; otherwise, it may fail. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of Dragonhawk12 -- Dragonhawk12 (talk) 02:02, 13 September 2026 (UTC)

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) 20:37, 14 September 2026 (UTC)

The Signpost: 16 September 2026

• News and notes: The Balance of Power
  Wikimedia employees unionize, officer departs, The Signpost gains sister on Wiktionary

• In the media: Shocking photos may be changed on Wikipedia
  The image gallery anyone can edit.

• Disinformation report: Have UN Secretary-General candidates manipulated Wikipedia?
  Speaking diplomatically, not all of them.

• Recent research: Google's AI overviews may have reduced search engine referrals to English Wikipedia by 5%
  And other research findings.

• WikiConference report: The backwater symbiosis – reflections from Wiki Conference India 2026
  The fourth iteration of Wiki Conference India.

• Traffic report: Heaven let your light shine down
  The recently deceased dominate while still leaving room for some entertainment.

• Serendipity: Wikipedia Family Mosh Pit
  A poem by Mollystarkdean.

• Obituary: Passing of Gobonobo, community leader advocating for women and minorities
  Promoter of cultural knowledge and organizer of global cooperation.

• On the bright side: Fantasy video games, hopeful science fiction, and the change of seasons
  The Legend of Zelda, Star Trek, and Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.

• Comix: The Adventure of the Unknown Corpse
  An elementary case for fiction's greatest detective.

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Your nomination of Coat of arms of Botswana is under review

Your good article nomination of the article Coat of arms of Botswana is under review. See the review page for more information. This may take up to 7 days; feel free to contact the reviewer with any questions you might have. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of Vigilantcosmicpenguin -- Vigilantcosmicpenguin (talk) 04:23, 26 September 2026 (UTC)

Your nomination of Coat of arms of Botswana is on hold

Your good article nomination of the article Coat of arms of Botswana has been placed on hold, as the article needs some changes. See the review page for more information. If these are addressed within 7 days, the nomination will pass; otherwise, it may fail. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of Vigilantcosmicpenguin -- Vigilantcosmicpenguin (talk) 02:42, 27 September 2026 (UTC)

A flag for you!

	Flag of Botswana
	For getting Botswana at the Paralympics, take the Botswana flag! Stuff like this promotes Wikilove, and I hope this made you happier! Dragonhawk12 (talk) (Guestbook) (Wikicats) 04:17, 30 September 2026 (UTC)

Your nomination of Botswana at the Paralympics has passed

Your good article nomination of the article Botswana at the Paralympics has passed; congratulations! See the review page for more information. If the article is eligible to appear in the "Did you know" section of the Main Page, you can nominate it within the next seven days. Please also consider reviewing somebody else's nomination to help keep the backlog down. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of Dragonhawk12 -- Dragonhawk12 (talk) 04:22, 30 September 2026 (UTC)

Women in Red - October 2026

Women in Red | October 2026, Vol 12, Issue 9, Nos 358, 359, 384, 385, 386 Events: New: STEM | Alphabet run: Countries starting with S | Award winners Continuing (year-long initiatives): #1day1woman | Sports More ... Announcements: Women in Green Good Article Edit-a-thon is happening in October & The Asia-Oceania Destubathon is happening in November Tip of the month: Who are/were the leaders of national organizations in your field? How about national award winners? That's a great place to start looking for article subjects you'd be well-suited to work on. Other ways to participate: Become a member. You can always opt-out of notifications. Join the conversations on our talkpage. Help us plan future events and add any general ideas on developing the project Follow us on social media: Instagram & Pinterest

--Rosiestep (talk) 17:24, 30 September 2026 (UTC) via MassMessaging

DCWC award

		The Anti-Systemic Bias Barnstar
		Hey Splains, thank you for participating in this year's Developing Countries WikiContest! For your outstanding contributions — which earned you 145 points — here's a well-deserved barnstar. Congratulations, and we hope to see you around next year! —⁠TechnoSquirrel69 (talk) 03:49, 3 October 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) 07:31, 3 October 2026 (UTC)

New cross-language page link: Karowe diamond mine

A new page Mine de Karowe on the French Wikipedia has been linked to the page Karowe diamond mine, which you created, via Wikidata (Q21514700).

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NervousBot (talk) 06:34, 7 October 2026 (UTC)

Nomination of Template:Expand index for discussion

Template:Expand index has been listed for discussion, which may result in the template being merged or deleted by consensus. You are invited to comment on the proposed action at the nomination on the Templates for discussion page. Bearcat (talk) 14:19, 10 October 2026 (UTC)

DYK for Edwin Masuge

On 11 October 2026, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Edwin Masuge, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that Edwin Masuge temporarily stepped away from athletics to focus on his schooling after placing seventh in the 400 metres T13 final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Edwin Masuge. You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (Edwin Masuge), and the hook may be added to the statistics page after its run on the Main Page has completed. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to nominate it.

Dclemens1971 (talk) 00:03, 11 October 2026 (UTC)

The Signpost: 13 October 2026

• News and notes: AELECT returns, Jimbo gives a union update, VisualEditor is now default
  Plus a survey for North Americans, proposed changes to BoT elections, and developments in the Puerto Rican editing community.

• Serendipity: From a rare portrait of a female millionaire in Nancy to a Japanese painter in Lyon
  Images from Leuven Libraries popular on Wiki.

• Obituary: Doug Weller
  Twenty-year editor, long-term admin, dearly missed.

• In the media: A(I)pocalypses afoot
  Cannibals, freeloaders, rogue agents, scams ... the usual.

• WikiConference Report: WikiConference 2026 & the importance of in-person community
  Celebrating 12 years of WikiConference North America.

• By the numbers: Does the country of birth affect the likelihood of having a Wikipedia biography?
  A cross-country and cross-wikipedia comparison of the likelihood of having a biography in Wikipedia.

• News from Diff: OpenAI "rogue" agent activities found on Wikimedia projects
  CPO/CTO Selena Deckelmann explains the recent detection of AI agent activities on Wikimedia projects.

• On the bright side: Good people
  Nice comments and real-life rescuers.

• Op-ed: Who are our readers?
  The movement makes progress when we know what our scope is.

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DCWC closing update

Three weeks ago, the 2026 Developing Countries WikiContest came to a close! After three months of competition, we have our winners. OpalYosutebito (submissions) comes in third with 525 points earned from a large series of good articles about pandas. Vestrian24Bio (submissions), with an immense number of submissions relating to cricket, comes in second with 1040 points. And our runner-up from last year makes their way to the top of the podium: Simongraham (submissions) takes gold with 1065 points, coming from another round of good articles about African jumping spiders!

The award for the most countries covered goes, once again, to Simongraham (submissions) who submitted articles under 30 flags! Vestrian24Bio (submissions) tops the chart for the most quality articles (23 good articles). Kisseran (submissions) and OpalYosutebito (submissions) tie for the award for most submissions under a single country; both made 14 submissions related to China. The award for most submissions related to women goes to GreenLipstickLesbian (submissions) with 12 biographies about women. We also have a tie for the most reviews! Both Dragonhawk12 (submissions) and Simongraham (submissions) submitted 23 reviews each for the category!

Multiple DCWC records were also broken! Simongraham (submissions) set the new record for the most total points, with 1100. Vestrian24Bio (submissions) set two inaugural records, earning the contest's first featured and good topics. GreenLipstickLesbian (submissions) submitted 29 In the news entries, 12 more than the previous record.

Among the participants' contributions were six FAs, five FLs, 132 GAs, and a number of DYKs, ITNs, and reviews of every kind—far more than last year! Regardless of your level of participation, every contestant can be proud to have contributed to a major step in countering the systemic bias on Wikipedia. Every year, millions of readers and editors around the globe use Wikipedia to educate themselves and communicate with others about parts of the world that often receive less attention than they deserve. Thank you for participating in the contest and contributing to this effort. The DCWC will return next year, and we look forward to seeing your contributions again! However, before that...

We need your feedback! Join the conversation on the talk page to discuss your reflections on the contest (even if you didn't participate!) and help us make it better.

If you have any questions, please leave a message on the contest talk page or ask one of the coordinators: Arconning (talk · contribs), Generalissima (talk · contribs), Magentic Manifestations (talk · contribs), sawyer777 (talk · contribs), or TechnoSquirrel69 (talk · contribs). (To unsubscribe from these updates, remove yourself from this list.) —⁠TechnoSquirrel69 (talk) 04:49, 23 October 2026 (UTC)