Welcome to Wikipedia! Here’s what we’re doing to help you stick around

Someone signing up to edit a Wikipedia page for the first time may feel a bit like a visitor to a new planet—excited, to be sure, but wildly overwhelmed. Many new editors must wonder: Just how many millions of articles are in this vast online resource? And which of those millions of articles need that….

Read more

Thanks for the thanks! Examining the efficacy of Wikipedia’s thanks feature

Much like Asgard, Wikipedia is not a place but a people. Specifically, an extensive community of volunteers from around the world who donate their time each day to building, curating, and watching over the largest collection of knowledge ever assembled. Unlike Asgard, the people who contribute to Wikipedia often only rarely meet outside of the….

Read more

Malicious attack on Wikipedia—What we know, and what we’re doing

Today, Wikipedia was hit with a malicious attack that has taken it offline in several countries for intermittent periods. The attack is ongoing and our Site Reliability Engineering team is working hard to stop it and restore access to the site. As one of the world’s most popular sites, Wikipedia sometimes attracts “bad faith” actors.….

Read more

Idil Keysan illustrates Wikipedia, “the brain of the world,” in a set of gifs

Idil Keysan is a Turkish artist and illustrator known for her playful and relatable animated work on Giphy, the GIF-hosting platform. Idil’s keen understanding of what’s trending and how audiences interact with gifs have helped her work get over two billion views on the website. Her fun, charming, brightly colored illustrations are inspired by “famous….

Read more

Farhad Fatkullin, 2018 Wikimedian of the Year, looks back on his successes and forward to what’s next

One year ago, Farhad Fatkullin was at home gifting his time to simultaneously translating the speeches being given at Wikimania, the annual conference that celebrates Wikipedia, the Wikimedia projects, and the volunteers who contribute to them. Up on stage for the closing ceremony was Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia who at each year gives….

Read more

Фәрһад Фәткуллин: “Ел Викимедиачысы 2018” ирешелгәне һәм киләчәккә планнары турында

Үткән елгы Викимания конференциясе чыгышларын Фәрһад Фәткуллин үз өеннән синхрон рәвештә тәрҗемә итеп торды. Видео-трансляцияне карап була, тик Россиянең төрле регионнарында яшәүче вики-волонтёрларының зур өлеше инглизчәне белми. Чит ил телләрендәге Википедия һәм башка Викимедиа проектлары бүлекләрен үстерүче иреклеләр нәрсә турында сөйләшкән-уйлашканнарны да аңларга мөмкинлек тудырырга теләде ул. Конференциянең ябылу мөрәсиме бара иде. Сәхнәдә — Википедиянең….

Read more

Викимедиец 2018 года Фархад Фаткуллин о достигнутом и планах на будущее

Год назад Фархад Фаткуллин находился дома и осуществлял синхронный перевод выступлений, которые делались в ходе ежегодной конференции Викимания. Ему захотелось дать волонтёрам из разных уголков России возможность не только увидеть, но и понять, о чём говорят их иностранные коллеги, развивающие своим добровольным вкладом Википедии и прочие проекты Викимедиа на других языках. Шла церемония закрытия конференции.….

Read more

The Equal Edit: Making Swedish history on Wikipedia more gender equal

For centuries, much of our recorded history has been written by men. Even in Sweden, which is considered a leader in gender equity, less than ten percent of the people mentioned in the main article about Swedish history on the Swedish language Wikipedia, “Sveriges historia”, are women. With Wikimania, the annual conference celebrating Wikipedia and….

Read more

Let’s talk about The North Face defacing Wikipedia

Yesterday, we were disappointed to learn that The North Face, an outdoor recreation product company, and Leo Burnett Tailor Made, an ad agency retained by The North Face, unethically manipulated Wikipedia. They have risked your trust in our mission for a short-lived marketing stunt. In a video about the campaign, Leo Burnett and The North….

Read more

Four open design methods we used to improve Wikipedia’s iOS app

Wikipedia is built and edited by the collaborative efforts of volunteers around the world. When it came time to improve the editing features on Wikipedia’s iOS app, we here on the Wikimedia Foundation’s iOS team wanted to ensure that our design process reflected that and the values of our organization, including our design principles. To….

Read more