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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.

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WMF annual planning: How can we help more contributors connect and collaborate?

Hi all - the Wikimedia Foundation is kicking off our annual planning work to prepare for next fiscal year (July 2025-June 2026). We've published a list of questions to help with big-picture thinking, and I thought I'd share one of them here that you all might find interesting: We want to improve the experience of collaboration on the wikis, so it’s easier for contributors to find one another and work on projects together, whether it’s through backlog drives, edit-a-thons, WikiProjects, or even two editors working together. How do you think we could help more contributors find each other, connect, and work together? KStineRowe (WMF) (talk) 20:27, 10 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@KStineRowe (WMF), by providing more funding for scholarships to Wikimania and other conferences, for one thing. Sdkb talk 22:57, 10 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Anyone is invited to collaborate and provide feedback on the page, Meta:Meta:Neuro-inclusive event strategies. I think working on this could go a long way. Hexatekin (talk) 19:33, 28 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I think opening up the article translation features to more people would be beneficial for collaboration between the various languages of wikipedia. I also think english wikipedia and simple english wikipedia should collaborate more, but I don't have any ideas for that specifically (other than maybe having a button to link users to a simple english version of a page if it exists) Mgjertson (talk) 16:06, 6 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I think WikiProjects could get more promotion with maybe a popup for new editors saying "talk with other editors active in this topic area here". ꧁Zanahary꧂ 22:51, 11 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
To me it seems like WikiProjects are mostly handy to get assistance from other people interested in a topic area / get consensus for some widespread change, but they only really work if the talk pages aren't dead. So links might help, although every article in a WikiProject's talk page already links to the project, though. Mrfoogles (talk) 03:50, 25 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Kill switch to delete information on user IP and email addresses

WMF should have a kill switch to delete all information on the IP addresses and email addresses associated with all user accounts. If DOGE can just walk in and seize the US treasury, seize USAID, gain access to the federal payment system and potentially everyone's SSN's, etc., then there is no reason to think people couldn't just show up at the WMF some day and seize all of our user data. The WMF should have a protocol in place to rapidly delete user data should that occur. Photos of Japan (talk) 07:16, 4 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think WMF would just say "No". DOGE is only able to do the stuff it does the federal government because it has the President, who can at least lie to people who work for him he has authority over this stuff. WMF would instead say something like "Do you have a warrant?" and suchlike. Mrfoogles (talk) 18:23, 20 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Why would they care about the WMF saying "No."? They just show up to federal agencies with armed officers and waltz on in, who is going to stop them? Some office worker in the WMF, "Do you have a warrant?", bunch of armed people just walk right past them. Photos of Japan (talk) 18:31, 20 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Do you have any evidence of DOGE going in to any organisation that is not government owned? I'm no fan of Elon Musk, but I don't think he has any control over Wikipedia (much as he'd like to). Phil Bridger (talk) 18:51, 20 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
They are too busy to care about something like Wikipedia right now. They are also in the process of flushing out the Department of Justice and mass firing FBI agents to replace them with their own people. They just released an EO declaring Trump determines the authoritative legal interpretation of the law for all employees of the executive branch, and has complete supervision and control over the executive. If Trump has thousands of FBI agents that do whatever he says, then one year from now there's no reason to assume the WMF won't be subjected to some illegal raid. You prepare for problems before they happen, you don't wait for them to occur and then react to them. Photos of Japan (talk) 19:16, 20 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I think that currently both the main and backup sites are in the USA, along with the WMF and the endowment. Maybe now would be a good time to move some or all of that to countries with a greater seperation of powers between the executive and the judiciary. Or at least change the fundraising model to a more decentralised one where the money raised in each country where we have a national charity is under the control of that charity. ϢereSpielChequers 21:44, 21 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

WP and WMF in the news again

See here. I'm glad we took action on Heritage Foundation but it really does seem like Wikipedians are going to need to learn that the far-right doesn't care about our neutrality goals. Simonm223 (talk) 19:40, 11 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm glad to see another media outlet cover Wikipedia and for there to be a nice summary of the two meetings that happened recently available for all. There isn't, I don't think, anything new in there, but I am appreciative of people who are taking the threats to us seriously and covering them for wider audiences. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 21:34, 11 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
In general I've noticed an up-tick in trollish far-right disruptive edits across a broad range of articles of late. We're going to be in for a rough four years I think. Simonm223 (talk) 13:47, 12 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I can vouch for this. I've been canvassed and harassed in order to force my cooperation on a couple of articles. It seems to have stopped for now, since I've disabled email contact. King Lobclaw (talk) 03:54, 22 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

In the news once again

It appears that the WMF has received a police notice regarding "objectionable" content on Sambhaji. According to India Today, the notice states:

This misinformation is causing unrest among his followers and could potentially lead to a law and order situation. Given the gravity of the situation and its potential impact if not addressed in a timely manner, you are hereby directed, under the powers vested in this office by the relevant laws and regulations, to remove the objectionable content and prevent its re-uploading in the future.

The WMF has also faced threats of legal action if it does not comply. I just hope this doesn’t turn into ANI vs. WMF 1.1—WMF is already dealing with major legal issues in India. I find this concerning, as it could potentially lead to a ban on WMF projects in India, though that seems unlikely. Also, I don’t think the office has anything to say at this moment, as the situation is still developing but still I am adding this topic so that others could be aware. The AP (talk) 14:20, 19 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

And this is from today: "The Cyber Cell of Maharashtra Police has lodged a case against 4–5 editors of Wikipedia for failing to take down controversial content on Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, sources said. Sources said 4 to 5 individuals were involved in editing and spreading disinformation about Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj on Wikipedia, which could lead to a law and order situation."

More listed under "This article has been mentioned by multiple media organizations:" at Talk:Sambhaji. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:01, 21 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Quiddity (WMF), @KStineRowe (WMF), it would be good to hear from the WMF asap on this issue, even at the minimum level of "we cannot comment about the ongoing legal issue but we are aware and working on it." Problems like this (alongside building wiki technology) are the fundamental reason for the WMF's existence. —Ganesha811 (talk) 16:54, 21 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Given that 4-5 editors have been booked, response from WMF should be asap. The AP (talk) 09:12, 22 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
[1]. Nakonana (talk) 17:10, 22 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
What's booked mean in Indian English? In American English it is the process you go through when you first arrive at a jail, but I don't think that's what happened here. –Novem Linguae (talk) 19:04, 22 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It means that the police has registered a FIR against them. The AP (talk) 07:05, 23 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

For the interested, Jimbo commented at User_talk:Jimbo_Wales#New_India-thing. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 16:21, 23 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Update from the Foundation

The Foundation supports community members facing legal action arising from their good-faith contributions to Wikimedia projects, in accordance with its Legal Fee Assistance Programs (see Legal fees assistance and defense of contributors). If any community member, regardless of their location, receives any correspondence regarding their contributions, please contact legal@wikimedia.org. For concerns about immediate individual safety, please contact emergency@wikimedia.org.

We stand by Wikipedia's model of community consensus constantly improving the quality of articles on Wikipedia; driven by the policies of verifiability, neutral point of view, and transparency that guide it. Wikipedia serves as a critical knowledge resource for millions of readers worldwide and we remain committed to protecting access to knowledge, while supporting the rights of volunteers who contribute to Wikipedia. We continue to encourage volunteers to continue to improve articles that may encounter controversy while practicing good digital safety. Our experience is that concerns regarding content on Wikipedia are best addressed through collaborative efforts of the Wikimedia Community to ensure that articles are well-written and accurately-sourced in light of the public critique. Joe Sutherland (WMF) (talk) 19:12, 24 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 3

Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation since our last issue on 10 February. Please help translate.

Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues

Digital public good logo
Wikipedia recognised as a digital public good.
  • Wikipedia as a digital public good: Wikipedia has been recognized as a digital public good by the UN-endorsed Digital Public Goods Alliance.
  • Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) Connect: The first edition of this regional community call for 2025 will be held on February 22.
  • Wikimedia Research Showcase: The next showcase will be about "Wikipedia Administrator Recruitment, Retention, and Attrition" and will take place on February 26 at 17:30 UTC.
  • Celebrate Women 2025: The Gender Organizing community in the Wikimedia Movement hosts an annual campaign every March called Celebrate Women. Conversation hours to learn about some exciting tools that can support your efforts at closing the gender gap will be held on February 25 at 14:00–16:00 UTC.
  • Outreachy: Wikimedia Foundation is participating in Round 30 of the Outreachy program that runs from June – August 2025. The deadline to submit projects is March 4 at 16:00 UTC .


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

  • Growth features: The new Community Updates module is a new feature to facilitate the connection between wiki editing initiatives and newcomers.
  • Simple article summaries: The Web team at the Wikimedia Foundation has introduced Simple Article Summaries project on select Wikipedias. It aims to display article summaries that would be easy to digest for readers.
  • Language and internationalization: Five new languages added to Wikipedia as part of the future of language incubation initiative. Read more on the latest edition of the Language and internationalization newsletter.
  • Tech News: Communities using growth tools can now showcase one event on the Special:Homepage for newcomers. More updates from tech news week 07 and 08.


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


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


Annual Goals Progress on Effectiveness
See also: quarterly Metrics Reports

  • Wikimedia Enterprise: Wikimedia Enterprise has partnered with Ecosia, a Berlin-based search engine.


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


Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters

Subscribe or unsubscribe · Help translate

For information about the Bulletin and to read previous editions, see the project page on Meta-Wiki. Let askcac(_AT_)wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!


MediaWiki message delivery 20:13, 24 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

We want to buy you books - update

The next phase of discussion has started for the resource support pilot project, building from the opening questions' responses to now try and develop the details of what the pilot will look like. Please participate at: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Resource Exchange/Resource Request#Working on specifics, and let me know if you have any questions :) RAdimer-WMF (talk) 00:12, 27 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Without context, this just sounds like the Wikimedia Foundation will buy you random books. What if they gave you a random slice of the World Book encyclopedia??? The Master of Hedgehogs (talk) (contributions) (Sign my guestbook!) 12:24, 28 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I think the idea is to buy books that are requested at places like WP:RX but are not easy to obtain. I think this idea was first proposed on a talk page somewhere during a discussion about non-ideal ways the WMF was spending their money and what they should be spending it on instead. I'm actually quite happy to see that the WMF took the idea seriously and is trying to meet volunteers in the middle by listening to their ideas and turning them into an actionable program. Full credit to WMF for trying this out. –Novem Linguae (talk) 23:11, 28 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
That makes sense. The Master of Hedgehogs (talk) (contributions) (Sign my guestbook!) 11:18, 1 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
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