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The Signpost: 24 June 2025

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* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:28, 24 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Sister Projects Task Force reviews Wikispore and Wikinews

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Copied from Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) § Sister Projects Task Force reviews Wikispore and Wikinews because this page is listed on Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)/Subscribe.

Dear Wikimedia Community,

The Community Affairs Committee (CAC) of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees assigned the Sister Projects Task Force (SPTF) to update and implement a procedure for assessing the lifecycle of Sister Projects – wiki projects supported by Wikimedia Foundation (WMF).

A vision of relevant, accessible, and impactful free knowledge has always guided the Wikimedia Movement. As the ecosystem of Wikimedia projects continues to evolve, it is crucial that we periodically review existing projects to ensure they still align with our goals and community capacity.

Despite their noble intent, some projects may no longer effectively serve their original purpose. Reviewing such projects is not about giving up – it's about responsible stewardship of shared resources. Volunteer time, staff support, infrastructure, and community attention are finite, and the non-technical costs tend to grow significantly as our ecosystem has entered a different age of the internet than the one we were founded in. Supporting inactive projects or projects that didn't meet our ambitions can unintentionally divert these resources from areas with more potential impact.

Moreover, maintaining projects that no longer reflect the quality and reliability of the Wikimedia name stands for, involves a reputational risk. An abandoned or less reliable project affects trust in the Wikimedia movement.

Lastly, failing to sunset or reimagine projects that are no longer working can make it much harder to start new ones. When the community feels bound to every past decision – no matter how outdated – we risk stagnation. A healthy ecosystem must allow for evolution, adaptation, and, when necessary, letting go. If we create the expectation that every project must exist indefinitely, we limit our ability to experiment and innovate.

Because of this, SPTF reviewed two requests concerning the lifecycle of the Sister Projects to work through and demonstrate the review process. We chose Wikispore as a case study for a possible new Sister Project opening and Wikinews as a case study for a review of an existing project. Preliminary findings were discussed with the CAC, and a community consultation on both proposals was recommended.

Wikispore

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The application to consider Wikispore was submitted in 2019. SPTF decided to review this request in more depth because rather than being concentrated on a specific topic, as most of the proposals for the new Sister Projects are, Wikispore has the potential to nurture multiple start-up Sister Projects.

After careful consideration, the SPTF has decided not to recommend Wikispore as a Wikimedia Sister Project. Considering the current activity level, the current arrangement allows better flexibility and experimentation while WMF provides core infrastructural support.

We acknowledge the initiative's potential and seek community input on what would constitute a sufficient level of activity and engagement to reconsider its status in the future.

As part of the process, we shared the decision with the Wikispore community and invited one of its leaders, Pharos, to an SPTF meeting.

Currently, we especially invite feedback on measurable criteria indicating the project's readiness, such as contributor numbers, content volume, and sustained community support. This would clarify the criteria sufficient for opening a new Sister Project, including possible future Wikispore re-application. However, the numbers will always be a guide because any number can be gamed.

Wikinews

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We chose to review Wikinews among existing Sister Projects because it is the one for which we have observed the highest level of concern in multiple ways.

Since the SPTF was convened in 2023, its members have asked for the community's opinions during conferences and community calls about Sister Projects that did not fulfil their promise in the Wikimedia movement.[1][2][3] Wikinews was the leading candidate for an evaluation because people from multiple language communities proposed it. Additionally, by most measures, it is the least active Sister Project, with the greatest drop in activity over the years.

While the Language Committee routinely opens and closes language versions of the Sister Projects in small languages, there has never been a valid proposal to close Wikipedia in major languages or any project in English. This is not true for Wikinews, where there was a proposal to close English Wikinews, which gained some traction but did not result in any action[4][5], see section 5 as well as a draft proposal to close all languages of Wikinews[6].

Initial metrics compiled by WMF staff also support the community's concerns about Wikinews.

Based on this report, SPTF recommends a community reevaluation of Wikinews. We conclude that its current structure and activity levels are the lowest among the existing sister projects. SPTF also recommends pausing the opening of new language editions while the consultation runs.

SPTF brings this analysis to a discussion and welcomes discussions of alternative outcomes, including potential restructuring efforts or integration with other Wikimedia initiatives.

Options mentioned so far (which might be applied to just low-activity languages or all languages) include but are not limited to:

  • Restructure how Wikinews works and is linked to other current events efforts on the projects,
  • Merge the content of Wikinews into the relevant language Wikipedias, possibly in a new namespace,
  • Merge content into compatibly licensed external projects,
  • Archive Wikinews projects.

Your insights and perspectives are invaluable in shaping the future of these projects. We encourage all interested community members to share their thoughts on the relevant discussion pages or through other designated feedback channels.

Feedback and next steps

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We'd be grateful if you want to take part in a conversation on the future of these projects and the review process. We are setting up two different project pages: Public consultation about Wikispore and Public consultation about Wikinews. Please participate between 27 June 2025 and 27 July 2025, after which we will summarize the discussion to move forward. You can write in your own language.

I will also host a community conversation 16th July Wednesday 11.00 UTC and 17th July Thursday 17.00 UTC (call links to follow shortly) and will be around at Wikimania for more discussions.


-- Victoria on behalf of the Sister Project Task Force, 20:56, 27 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Feedback for User:KevinClerkBot

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Can you consider using colors with transparency for compatibility with dark mode in the data tables? For example, for #FFCCCC, you can replace it with #FF000040, and for #FFFFCC, you can replace it with #FFFF0040. Or maybe use template styles and similar. Aasim (話す（はなす）) 01:56, 30 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Very glad to change the hue, and I'll make the change when I get to my laptop! More broadly, if there are templates that you would prefer seeing, I'd be glad to incorporate them; I didn't have the time to write them, but I'm glad to consider it. Best, KevinL (aka L235 · t · c) 02:15, 30 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Arbcom word counts

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My section in the "Capitalization Disputes" case request didn't show the word count total until I made a second edit that I signed, which triggered your bot to make this edit. (My first edit, which was unsigned, triggered this initial update.) I'm guessing there is some algorithm for how your bot retrieves the user name that tries different locations and uses the first one that succeeds? isaacl (talk) 16:33, 30 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Correct - the operative code is at [1], which shows the logic. I can change it such that the first letter is always assumed to be uppercase. Best, KevinL (aka L235 · t · c) 17:14, 30 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for looking into this! I had looked at bit at your code, but at that time I thought the problem was with the timestamps. Only later when I looked at the diffs for the data file did I realize that the user name was determined differently. isaacl (talk) 05:02, 1 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 12

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Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation since our last issue on June 13. Please help translate.
Wikimedia Hackathon 2025 Istanbul
Wikimedia Hackathon 2025 Istanbul

Upcoming and current events and conversations
Let's Talk continues

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

  • Wikimedia Hackathon 2025: Highlights from Wikimedia Hackathon, a place where everything is 'technically possible'.
  • Wiki Mentor Africa Hackathon: Reflections and insights from participants and mentors.
  • Wikimedia API: The MediaWiki Interfaces team will be investing in Wikimedia web (HTTP) APIs to better serve technical volunteer needs and protect Wikimedia infrastructure from potential abuse.
  • Tech News: The Editing team will release Multi Check to most Wikipedias. This feature shows multiple Reference checks within the editing experience. This encourages users to add citations when they add multiple new paragraphs to a Wikipedia article. More updates from Tech News week 25 and 26.
  • Temporary Accounts: Temporary accounts were rolled out on ten large and medium-size Wikipedias, including Arabic, Chinese, French, Polish, Indonesian and more. Deployments on more Wikipedias will follow this week. Share your thoughts about the project.
  • Mobile Apps: Mobile Apps team launched A/B test of Tabbed Browsing on the iOS Wikipedia App. Users in Arabic, English, and Japanese in select regions will see the test.
  • WikiGames: The Android team launched Which Came First? — a fun, multilingual trivia game now available to all Android users in nine languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish). It's a new step in making Wikipedia more interactive and engaging for mobile users.
  • Community Wishlist: Read results of the recently closed "Wishathon", our internal hackathon organized by Community Tech to help fulfil more wishes from Community Wishlist.
  • Wikifunctions: Read Wikifunctions' July–September 2025 plans.
  • CampaignEvents Extension: CampaignEvents extension has now been deployed to all Wikipedia, meaning that organizers on any language Wikipedia can now gain access to the extension features directly on that Wikipedia through the Wikipedia local admins.

Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity
See also: list of movement events · WikiLearn News

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

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 19:08, 1 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

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