On January 23, 2026, contributors and volunteers of Wiki Advocates Philippines met and joined the global celebration of Wikipedia’s 25th Birthday. The event was an avenue to rekindle and reinforce stronger relationships by both the new and continuing contributors.
Acknowledging the role of Wikipedia in furthering the desire of a freer knowledge available to all, volunteers met at Smigrita, a pizza parlor in Naga City, to use and talk about WikiCommons Explorer Tool and read some sample zines which are to be documented under the PHZines project.
Introduced in my last Diff article, the WikiCommons Explorer is a delineator-like tool that helps users to find resources available to WikiCommons easier and faster in just a matter of seconds. As they appreciate the ease of navigation, volunteers (@littletomboy) and (@Itronomethia) willingly shared this feature to their personal accounts. Definitely, a moment of joy and reminisce as they appreciate both the tool and the photos.
Meanwhile, the PHZines Project generally documents underground literature (those materials published without ISBN, alternative or indie publishing, or those published with very limited quantity, among others) by archiving and documenting certain noncopyrighted details through Wikidata. While we didn’t have the documentation session, we at least tried to appreciate the idea of ‘zines’, which is also foreign for other volunteers.
Hence, we read selections from zines by Bente-Bente Zines, a local maker from Cavite. Blending one-act plays, short stories, and personal essays, these zines feature the following titles, from which we read excerpts:
- Ang Diyos Ko ay Umaattend ng Pride March (My God attends Pride March) by Christian Raynera
- Artificial Incompetence by Pura Luka Vega
- Ang Sweatshop, Ang Aparador, at ang Pinakamatigas na Tsinelas sa Balat ng Lupa (The Sweatshop, The Wardrobe, and the Hardest Slipper on Earth) by Jasper Villasis
- The First Bakla (The First Queer) by Mark Dimaisip
- La Reyna (The Queen) by Ellamil
These activities, in one way or another, gave them the opportunity to know Wikipedia more. We savor the moment as everyone is busy with each undertaking, united by the very goal of enriching free knowledge more, we further together!
Happy 25th birthday, Wikipedia!
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