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An RfC has resulted in a broad prohibition on the use of AI-generated images in articles. A few common-sense exceptions are recognized.
The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Richard C. Seaver until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.
Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article until the discussion has finished.
You undid my addition of a quote to the lead of Akira Kurosawa. I think that was a mistake. The lead for William Shakespeare (a Featured Article) rounds out with the following from Ben Jonson: "not of an age, but for all time". The lead for James Joyce has the following from the man himself: "For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal." That's also a Featured Article.
So I think it's entirely appropriate to have the Kurosawa quote in the lead, but won't press the issue until consensus has been reached. Charlie Faust (talk) 14:59, 9 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I edited that article only as part of an AWB run, so you may want to be a little more selective in your notices. Cheers, Sdkbtalk21:57, 15 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
No worries; always better to err on the safe side of over-notification. For the future, I'd say that most uses of AWB are automated enough that people are only spending a few seconds per article, so if someone's only edit to a page has an AWB tag I wouldn't consider it necessary to notify them about a deletion/merge/etc. unless it somehow related to the edit. Sdkbtalk16:40, 19 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
DYK for Downstate (play)
On 18 May 2025, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Downstate (play), which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that the theatre which premiered a play about sex offenders had to hire additional security for its run? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Downstate (play). You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Downstate (play)), 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 suggest it on the Did you know talk page.
I went through some examples, Trizek (WMF). I initially got some Failed to load resource. Server responded with: 500 () errors, which then mysteriously went away when I reloaded. There wasn't any sort of tracker of how many evaluations I made, so not sure if I did 30. Sdkbtalk20:31, 23 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, we had a few 500 errors. They are now fixed; please let me know if they aren't.
The tracker would be a nice to have feature, but I'm afraid it would be the next time. I checked a few edits for French as a test, and, as the process is quite straightforward, I rapidly passed the 30 threshold without noticing it. ^^
Hello! I have submitted a Wiki page for Christine Huber and it has not been approved. Could you let me know what needs to be done to get it approved? TIA Kjeverett79 (talk) 17:46, 29 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The article you submitted looked like this. On taking another look, it seems there was a hidden comment that was opened but never closed, causing the article to be cut off. I fixed that issue for you. I'd recommend using the preview function to catch stuff like that in the future and ensure the page looks how you're intending. You could try resubmitting it, but from a quick glance at the references, I don't think they're sufficient. The standard you need to show Huber meets is WP:NBIO, which requires references that provide "significant coverage" of Huber herself (e.g. a profile of her career, not just a mention that she commented on a sports event) from sources that are entirely independent of her (e.g. a newspaper article in a publication she does not work for). Sdkbtalk18:20, 29 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Awesome! I found a bunch of article links. Do I just put them in at the bottom of my submission?
An Articles for Creation backlog drive is happening in June 2025, with over 1,600 drafts awaiting review from the past two months. In addition to AfC participants, all administrators and new page patrollers can help review using the Yet Another AFC Helper Script, which can be enabled in the Gadgets settings. Sign up here to participate!
Just now, I submitted an article about iBeesoft Data Recovery. For the purpose of rigor, I asked the developer about the algorithm and listed some. However, after I submitted it, someone thought it was an advertisement. Now, I deleted this part. Is this okay? To be honest, iBeesoft helped me recover important files when I didn't have money to buy the full version of data recovery software. Therefore, I hope to help them publish this article. --Nicole Mensi (talk) 17:20, 12 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Nicole. Currently, the article does not read like a neutral encyclopedia article which is expected of Wikipedia articles; rather, much of the text reads like an advertisement, discussing things like pricing and features immediately upon reading.
Articles should instead be written neutrally and in your own words, taking information from reliable sources. On that note, many of the sources cited within the article are either unreliable or only somewhat reliable. A lot of the sources cited seem more like advertisements themselves than reliable articles about this software.
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Mentoring new editors
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“Get Started” notification: Engineering is in progress for a new notification (Echo/email) to encourage editing among newcomers with zero edits. Early research shows this type of nudge is effective. (T392256)
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The Wikimedia Foundation’s 2025–2026 Annual Plan is taking shape. The Growth and Editing teams will focus on the Contributor Experiences (WE1) objective, with a focus on increasing constructive edits by editors with fewer than 100 cumulative contributions.
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Hi, I'm new to all this. I started maintaining a journal in wiki format, and figured I could also direct some of those efforts toward collective human knowledge. I've begun noticing that many articles use inadequate citations, or, when considering more complex topics, fail to properly explain the ideas as originally presented by primary source authors. Two questions to start off, how necessary is it to learn the Wikipedia markup language, and in what manner should reference and citations be used? Should I have a citation for every sentence, or if ideas are contained across multiple sentences, can I use one citation for all of them? Also, how should one cite a sentence or section which borrows ideas from multiple sources? --KawigglesOfTheKaWiki (talk) 03:29, 25 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hi @KawigglesOfTheKaWiki! Glad to have you contributing, and good questions! Regarding the markup language, most experienced editors prefer to use it, since it allows you to do some more advanced tasks, but it definitely isn't necessary to use it to get started! You can just edit using the VisualEditor, which works like a word processor and doesn't require any markup knowledge.
Regarding citations, the best practice (which you'll find at most featured-quality articles) is to place them so that it's as clear as possible where each piece of information is coming from (see also here). If you're editing a more niche article that doesn't have a lot of citations currently, that might mean adding a paragraph and just putting the citation for it at the end of that paragraph. However, if there's a paragraph with several citations already, I'd put it after every sentence. You can always reuse citations (don't put in the same info twice).
If a sentence has information from multiple sources, you have two options. You can either place the citations directly after the info being cited from each source, or (if that's not possible because it's the same info, or mixed up rather than one after another) you can just put both at the end of the sentence.
Thanks for your suggestion. When you believe an article needs improvement, please feel free to change it. We encourage you to be bold in updating pages, because wikis like ours develop faster when everybody edits. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. You can always preview your edits before you publish them or test them out in your sandbox. If you need additional help, check out our getting started page or ask the friendly folks at the Teahouse. Sdkbtalk05:17, 2 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hello, thank you very much for your support. I just edited an entry on Strigoi to correct the type of source. While information was described as published as a book, it was in fact an article in a magazine. The magazine has a Wikipedia entry, but I do not know how to link the name to the Wikipedia entry. I have provided a primary source (photos of the covers of the magazine, published in 1909) published on a credible website (Australian gutenberg project). --MiDBC (talk) 20:51, 1 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hi @MiDBC! My apologies for the delay in replying to you. Thanks for correcting the format of the source! I see you figured out how to link the name of the magazine (you can use [[link]] code). I've also improved the reference formatting a bit myself. Cheers, Sdkbtalk06:51, 22 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Reporter seeking your insights
Sdkb,
I'm a reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education. I'm working on a story about Wikipedia's role in the perception of higher ed, and I'm told that you'd be a good person to speak to on the subject considering your work on the Pomona page (and others). Shoot me an email through my page and we can talk more.
Administrator elections will take place this month. Administrator elections are an alternative to RFA that is a gentler process for candidates due to secret voting and multiple people running together. The call for candidates is July 9–15, the discussion phase is July 18–22, and the voting phase is July 23–29. Get ready to submit your candidacy, or (with their consent) to nominate a talented candidate!
Hi! Thought I’d contribute what I can, I’m a teacher by trade with a bachelors and masters in history. I love the subject, with a focus on ancient Rome, high/late Middle Ages, and the American Civil War.
Hi Romulus x Remus, and welcome! Apologies for the delayed reply, and I hope you had a good vacation. I left a note on your talk page with some info and tips on contributing. Cheers, Sdkbtalk06:54, 22 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hello! I am still trying to publish the Christine Huber page. I have updated the footnotes and added citations. It was still denied. Any other things I need to add to it? TIA --Kjeverett79 (talk) 00:31, 10 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hi @Kjeverett79, and apologies for the delayed reply! The reviewer, CanonNi, suggested you read Help:Referencing for beginners, which will help explain both how to find reliable sources and how to format them better (it looks like you've copied and pasted some identical ones rather than reusing a single reference you define). Having reliable sources is more key for demonstrating notability than having them nicely formatted, but in practical terms good formatting can make the reviewer's job easier. If you have further questions, feel free to ask me, but it might also give you more info to just ask CanonNi directly by mentioning their name (which will send them a ping). Cheers, Sdkbtalk07:00, 22 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hello Sdkb, I am glad to have a mentor who can guide and assist me in my journey to editing Wikipedia, following the rules, and in a correct manner. I do have some questions. I am a paid contributor. Some changes and editing are required for the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamdard_India page. For example, I need to remove "Ansarullah Tabani" from the founder under the history section, as he was not the founder. He played an important role, but only "Hafiz Abdul Majeed" is the founder of Hamdard Laboratories. Similarly, I am also looking forward to updating/rewriting the History section. But before making any edits, I need your assistance on how I can smoothly update the page. I will be looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you, Nisha. --Nishacoach (talk) 05:04, 16 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you Sdkb. I want to and will follow the Wikipedia editing policies before making any future edits. I hope my journey here stays smooth and nothing from my end goes wrong. I will keep looking forward to your assistance. Thank you, Nisha. Nishacoach (talk) 18:42, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Orphaned non-free image File:Luisa Moreno.jpg
⚠
Thanks for uploading File:Luisa Moreno.jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of non-free use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).
I don't dare AfD it, not sure if that would make the world explode, but can we please get rid of Template:Accessibility editnotice? Unless people actually think that those who benefit from accessibility guidelines hate irony more than most? People read about what interests them; people who benefit from the accessibility guideline do not necessarily read accessibility-related articles all day. And the special editnotice suggests the default isn't already supposed to be inclusive. Also, the editnotice is useless to 99.99% of editors. One needs pretty nerdy skills to be able to make a real difference. Polygnotus (talk) 00:37, 18 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Polygnotus! Sorry I've been behind on my talk page replies; yes, I'm here! You've made a few different arguments here, but I don't find any of them really persuasive. Going through them:
That people with accessibility limitations are not more likely than others to read accessibility articles. I don't have evidence for this, but I think common sense would suggest that yes, they are more likely to read these articles.
the special editnotice suggests the default isn't already supposed to be inclusive. If it does suggest this, the solution would be to tweak the language, not to get rid of it. I don't think it really does suggest this. It's a nod to the reality that focusing 100% on accessibility 100% of the time isn't practical (I'd be hard-pressed to find someone who's included alt text on every single image they've ever added) but that it does matter more some times than others.
the editnotice is useless to 99.99% of editors. One needs pretty nerdy skills to be able to make a real difference. I don't think particularly nerdy skills are needed to e.g. write alt text.
The most basic scenario is that it prompts someone adding an image to an accessibility-related article to add alt text when they otherwise would not have gone to the trouble. Sdkbtalk15:11, 21 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I think common sense would suggest that yes, they are more likely to read these articles. Common sense is often wrong (e.g. the geocentric model), and what can be asserted without evidence...
the solution would be to tweak the language, not to get rid of it. No, the solution would be to show it on all articles, not just on articles that are vaguely related to accessibilty. Which is proof that it is pointless. If you post a warning everywhere you need to make it part of the interface.
write alt text That is an excellent example of pointless busywork; if a non-nerd does it. A nerd can write a program that shows an image and provides a textbox and a "Next" button. And use AI/filenames/metadata for suggestions. Polygnotus (talk) 15:16, 21 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I know that many other websites do use AI to help write alt text, and that some Wikipedians have strongly opposed it in the past. It might be a topic to look up in the WT:Accessibility archives or raise there again. Cheers, Sdkbtalk15:29, 21 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
So I should just XfD it? My common sense tells me that the Earth is stationary and that the Sun revolves around it. I can see it with my eyes. Where is the consensus for adding this template to all those pages? Polygnotus (talk) 15:31, 21 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
To break it down: Readers tend to be more likely to read about topics that are relevant to them. For instance, someone who is visually impaired might want to read the visual impairment article for any number of reasons: potential treatments/cures, understanding the history, understanding the cultural associations, etc. Yes, they'd have personal knowledge of the topic, but not so much personal knowledge that they'd know everything in the article and have no use for it. Readers without visual impairment would not have these reasons for being interested in the article. Given all that, I would be very surprised if visual impairment did not have a higher percentage of visually impaired readers than your average Wikipedia article. Ditto for others. Sdkbtalk15:52, 21 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
How is that relevant? If visually impaired people are statistically very likely to be interested in dinosaurs (or 70s muscle cars, or Brian Eno), should we add this editnotice to all articles about those topics? How would that help them? A WP:VAGUEWAVE in the direction of a page with 8k words that are a waste of time except for some nerds does not help anyone. You could, for example, have a popup show up when someone uses a header out of order (or adds an image without alt text or whatever), like those recent WMF experiments. That would give people who are actually in that situation the actual information they can actually use. This editnotice is just a bad idea. Polygnotus (talk) 16:00, 21 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Request for Patrolling – Kocaeli Health and Technology University
I hope you’re well.
I’m reaching out regarding the article Kocaeli Health and Technology University, which I created under the username Newinwiki8.
The page has been published and indexed by Google for over 1 month and 20 days, but still remains unpatrolled. My account was registered 5 months and 20 days ago, with around 3 months initially spent waiting for indexation.
@Newinwiki8, it looks like @Cordless Larry has taken a look at the article, so I'll defer to their judgement. I also echo the advice you've been given that removing an ANI post about your actions is not likely to elicit sympathy. Sdkbtalk19:55, 2 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Martin, I would like to know what is a semi-protected page and how to know if my account has the privilege to edit that semi-protected page. --Williamchan2 (talk) 04:51, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
