Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 23

Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation since our last issue on November 21. This will be the final bulletin for 2025 and we’ll be back in late January 2026 with the next issue. Previous editions of this bulletin are on Meta. Let askcac@wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!

Upcoming and current events and conversations

Let’s Talk continues

• CEO appointment: The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees has appointed Bernadette Meehan as the new CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation. She will be meeting communities around the puzzle globe when she officially joins on January 20, 2026.
• Wikipedia’s 25th birthday party: Join the virtual celebration for games, prizes, musical performances, volunteer spotlights, data visualization, surprise guests and more. January 15 at 16:00 UTC. Register on Meta.
• Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees: Join the next Conversation with the Trustees on December 11 at 17:30 UTC.

Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure

See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Product Safety and Integrity · Readers · Research · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org

• Wishathon: 15 patches were written and 5 merged, as part of a Wishathon for the Community Wishlist. One wish from the community was completed (“Preview page with this template” should not work with pages that do not transclude the template), and three more now have a clearer path forward.
• Activity Tab on Mobile App: The Wikipedia iOS app is running an experiment that replaces the History tab with a redesigned Activity tab. This new tab surfaces personalized insights about reading, editing, and donations — all stored locally on your device for privacy. The goal is to see whether the new experience increases engagement and retention among logged-in readers.
• Wikipedia Year in Review in Apps: The Wikipedia Year in Review 2025 is now available for the iOS and Android apps. This year introduces new personalized insights, updated reading highlights, and refreshed designs.
• Add a Link: A feature that suggests links to be added to articles based on a prediction model, Add a link, has been deployed at Japanese, Urdu and Chinese Wikipedias. While this feature has already been available on most Wikipedias, the prediction model could not support certain languages. A new model has now been developed to handle these languages, and it will be gradually rolled out to other Wikipedias over time.
• Abstract Wikipedia: The second round of voting on the name of Abstract Wikipedia concluded with Abstract Wikipedia as the top-voted name with 100 votes, followed by Wikigenerator with 91 votes. The name for the wiki project will now remain Abstract Wikipedia.
• Anti-vandalism tool: Automoderator, now has the option to choose between two machine learning models to power the software on wikis using the tool.
• Tools to support newcomers: Newcomers failing to add a citation to support added content has been one of the most common mistakes on Wikipedia. Reference Check, a tool that prompts them to add a citation before publishing an edit, has gone live for an A/B test on English Wikipedia.
• Tech News: Latest updates from Tech News week 48 and week 49 include the Foundation working on improving the text and presentation of the Verification Email sent to new users to make them more welcoming, useful, and informative; and two new wikis being created: a Wikipedia in Toki Pona and a Wikiquote in Nigerian Pidgin.
• Infrastructure: Unifying our mobile and desktop domains achieved 20% faster mobile response times, improved SEO, and reduced infrastructure load.

Annual Goals Progress on Volunteer Support

See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog · WikiLearn News · list of movement events

• Legal win in France: Wikimedia Foundation secures crucial legal win in France against legal attacks on freedom of speech.
• CEE Hub: Overview of three years of growth, learning, and regional impact of CEE Hub.
• Don’t Blink: The latest developments from around the world about protecting the Wikimedia model, its people and its values.
• Digital Violence: How the Wikimedia movement is responding to digital gender based violence.
• Wikimedia Research Showcase: The next research showcase will feature a special panel on “Experimentation on Wikipedia” and will take place on December 10 at 17:30 UTC.

Annual Goals Progress on Effectiveness

See also: quarterly Metrics Reports

• Audit Report: Key takeaways from the Foundation’s audit report for fiscal year 2024-2025.
• Wikimedia Enterprise: Wikimedia Enterprise Financial Report for fiscal year 2024-2025.
• Annual Plan Progress: A look back at progress made against the plan during the second half of our fiscal year. Up to date regular updates are included in the Foundation Bulletin.

Board and Board committee updates

See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter

• Sister Projects Task Force: Results of the consultation about Wikispore and Wikinews: No immediate changes should be made to Wikispore’s current technical setup and archive all editions of Wikinews, preserving their content.

Foundation statements

• Wikipedia’s unique revenue model: How is Wikipedia funded and how does the Wikimedia Foundation use donations to Wikipedia?
• Most read articles: Wikipedia’s most-read articles of 2025.

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

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