MediaWiki talk:Watchlist-messages

Wikipedia has five kinds of top-of-page messages that can be used to convey information or announcements to readers and editors.

The "Sitenotice", found at MediaWiki:Sitenotice, is displayed at the top of all pages for all logged-in users, and for anonymous users if the following message is empty.
MediaWiki:Anonnotice can be used to display information only to anonymous/IP users, not logged-in users. Alternatively, by 'blanking' the anonnotice and replacing it with nothing (not even a space or empty paragraph!), then the sitenotice can be used as a "logged-in users only" notice to display information only to editors. When "Anonnotice" contains nothing, no notice is shown to anonymous users. When it contains "-" it disables the message in favour of Sitenotice. If it contains anything else, it will be rendered to anonymous users instead of the Sitenotice (including a "hide" button).
MediaWiki:Watchlist-messages is displayed at the top of Special:Watchlist for all users who use this feature.
The CentralNotice, found at meta:Special:CentralNotice, is an extension which can display banners at the top of a select group of Wikimedia sites simultaneously.
Geonotice, at Wikipedia:Geonotice, allows location-specific notices – and is a candidate for integration into MediaWiki.

Archives

Archive 1	Archive 2	Archive 3
Archive 4	Archive 5	Archive 6
Archive 7	Archive 8	Archive 9
Archive 10	Archive 11	Archive 12
Archive 13

This page has archives. Sections older than 14 days may be automatically archived by when more than 3 sections are present.

See Wikipedia:Watchlist notices for documentation of how to add, maintain or hide watchlist notices.

Unreferenced Articles backlog drive notice

Please post the following watchlist message (for the full two weeks if possible):

Sign up here for the June 2025 Unreferenced Articles backlog drive.

Thank you. Cielquiparle (talk) 11:12, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Cielquiparle, we usually run things for a week or less. What one-week period would you prefer? Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 12:13, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Firefangledfeathers Please start ASAP (i.e. today or tomorrow). (I see there's quite some competition from other backlog drive goodness.) Thanks! Cielquiparle (talk) 12:35, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Done, thanks! Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 12:40, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Protected edit request on 20 May 2025

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Please add this message for the period of May 25 through May 31:

Help rescue new articles from draft limbo! Articles for Creation invites new and returning reviewers to a backlog-elimination drive this June. Sign up here!

Thanks,— Sophisticatedevening🍷^(talk) 12:32, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Done With slight edit for conciseness. qedk (t 愛 c) 12:54, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@QEDK Do you think you can adjust it to run through the 25th to 31st? Want to avoid notif-blindness with the other messages. Sophisticatedevening🍷^(talk) 14:18, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Done. Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 14:44, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Typical message types and durations

After watching this talk page for a couple years, I decided to write down some of the unwritten norms / typical practices. It's at MediaWiki talk:Watchlist-messages/doc#Message types and durations if anyone would like to read/modify. Dropping a link here since folks don't usually watchlist /doc pages. Thanks. –Novem Linguae (talk) 18:35, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The World Destubathon

The World Destubathon is scheduled to begin on 16 June and will run until 13 July. It's an editing contest and editathon to improve stub articles and longer, poorer quality articles for every country and topic.

Please could a watchlist notice be created to encourage people to sign up? Perhaps something like:

Editors are invited to sign up for The World Destubathon, a writing contest and editathon running from 16 June to 13 July that aims to improve as many of our 3 million + stub articles as possible. Over $3300 in vouchers can be won to buy books to create further content.

A similar notice ran in April in support of The European Destubathon (request).

Perhaps the watchlist notice could appear in the lead up to the start of the competition? And if it's not too much of an ask there could be a different message when the competition starts?

Pinging User:Dr. Blofeld as the competition organiser. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 10:12, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Richard Nevell (WMUK): We can run it once for a week whenever you want. --qedk (t 愛 c) 11:50, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@QEDK: 2-9 June sounds like a good slot, give them a week-two weeks notice.♦ Dr. Blofeld 13:49, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Done With adjustments for conciseness. --qedk (t 愛 c) 18:00, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, appreciated. ♦ Dr. Blofeld 16:34, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]