Meta:Babel
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Call to protect volunteer contributors from media and institutional attacks
[edit]Dear members of the Wikimedia community,
It is worrying to note that volunteer contributors, dedicated to the enrichment of free knowledge, are more and more often the target of attacks from certain media and institutions. These actions compromise not only the security of the individuals concerned, but also the integrity and sustainability of our collaborative projects.
A notable example is the 2013 case involving Rémi Mathis, then president of Wikimedia France. Under pressure from the Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur (DCRI), he was forced to delete a Wikipedia article about a military radio station, allegedly because of classified information. This intervention sparked controversy over the methods used to restrict the dissemination of information, and highlighted the pressure exerted on volunteer contributors.
More recently, journalists from various media have taken the liberty of publicly attacking contributors, going so far as to divulge personal information or make threats. These practices are unacceptable and run counter to the fundamental principles of respect and collaboration that govern our community.
In response to these attacks, Wikipedia's French-speaking community has written an open letter denouncing these acts and calling for collective awareness. This initiative underlines the need to protect our contributors and preserve a safe and healthy working environment for all.
The Wikimedia Foundation's Universal Code of Conduct clearly states that harassment, threats and personal attacks have no place within our projects. It is imperative that these principles are also respected by external actors, be they media or institutional.
We therefore call for a collective mobilization to :
- Strengthen the protection of contributors: put in place effective mechanisms to preserve the anonymity and security of volunteers.
- Raise awareness among the media and institutions: engage in constructive dialogue to make them understand the importance of respecting contributors and the harmful consequences of their actions.
- Promote a healthy collaborative environment: encourage interactions based on mutual respect, benevolence and recognition of each other's work.
Together, let's protect those who work every day to ensure that knowledge is free and accessible to all.
If you have any further questions or discussions, please use the associated discussion page.
Enclosed you'll find the open letter drafted by frwiki, which has already received a large number of signatories from all over the Wikimedia world.
Aelxen Équipe EBRC 14:36, 17 February 2025 (UTC)
Upcoming Language Community Meeting (Feb 28th, 14:00 UTC) and Newsletter
[edit]Hello everyone!
We’re excited to announce that the next Language Community Meeting is happening soon, February 28th at 14:00 UTC! If you’d like to join, simply sign up on the wiki page.
This is a participant-driven meeting where we share updates on language-related projects, discuss technical challenges in language wikis, and collaborate on solutions. In our last meeting, we covered topics like developing language keyboards, creating the Moore Wikipedia, and updates from the language support track at Wiki Indaba.
Got a topic to share? Whether it’s a technical update from your project, a challenge you need help with, or a request for interpretation support, we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to reply to this message or add agenda items to the document here.
Also, we wanted to highlight that the sixth edition of the Language & Internationalization newsletter (January 2025) is available here: Wikimedia Language and Product Localization/Newsletter/2025/January. This newsletter provides updates from the October–December 2024 quarter on new feature development, improvements in various language-related technical projects and support efforts, details about community meetings, and ideas for contributing to projects. To stay updated, you can subscribe to the newsletter on its wiki page: Wikimedia Language and Product Localization/Newsletter.
We look forward to your ideas and participation at the language community meeting, see you there!
MediaWiki message delivery 08:28, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
Universal Code of Conduct annual review: proposed changes are available for comment
[edit]Please help translate to your language.
I am writing to you to let you know that proposed changes to the Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) Enforcement Guidelines and Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) Charter are open for review. You can provide feedback on suggested changes through the end of day on Tuesday, 18 March 2025. This is the second step in the annual review process, the final step will be community voting on the proposed changes. Read more information and find relevant links about the process on the UCoC annual review page on Meta.
The Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC. This annual review was planned and implemented by the U4C. For more information and the responsibilities of the U4C, you may review the U4C Charter.
Please share this information with other members in your community wherever else might be appropriate.
-- In cooperation with the U4C, Keegan (WMF) 18:50, 7 March 2025 (UTC)
Who should be able to see IP addresses when Temporary Accounts have been introduced?
[edit]To be clear, this question is about Meta-Wiki specifically, hence this page, and not Wikimedia Forum
With Temporary Accounts, we are replacing IP addresses of unregistered editors with a new unique identifier. After this change, the IP addresses of unregistered editors will be hidden from public view. We are making this change to strengthen our support for safety and privacy, to ensure our contributors continue to feel safe.
On the other hand, in some situations, users who protect the wikis (fight spam, vandalism, harassment etc.) need to see IP addresses of unregistered editors to do their work effectively. To balance these needs, our policy is to continue giving some users access to IP addresses of temporary accounts, using the processes described below.
Before we roll out temporary accounts on [this wiki] later this year, we need to clarify who gets to see IP addresses of temporary accounts. We would like to ask you for opinions.
The problem
Currently, the right is given automatically to users who:
- do have extended rights (e.g. admins, CheckUsers, global sysops, Stewards – see the policy for more examples)
- do not have extended rights but their local account is a minimum of 6 months old, and who have made a minimum of 300 edits to the local project.
Our problem is only about #2. We have chosen these numerical thresholds before deploying temporary accounts on any wiki. However, it’s become clear to us that these thresholds are quite low and it is still too easy for bad-faith actors to gain access to temporary account IP addresses. We have heard concerns about this from multiple communities, including those in the first pilot group. We want temporary accounts to meaningfully improve editor privacy, so we need to be more restrictive before we roll this feature out on wikis with large communities.
After consulting on other options with Stewards, community members from some of the pilot wikis, and community members active on English Discord, we’re looking for your feedback before we finalize this change.
Our new approach
We are proposing that users without extended rights would be able to apply for the right to view IP addresses of temporary accounts, and admins or stewards would decide whether to grant it. Our goal is to more consistently limit IP address access to only those who need it. This will entail human manual work, but the burden should be less than if we continued to grant the rights automatically.
When we deploy temporary accounts to more wikis, we can evaluate the impact and adjust our approach as needed.
How will this work
- When a user without extended rights needs to view temporary account IP addresses, they will need to file a request for being added to the "Temporary account IP viewers" group. They will file the request to admins (the local communities will be able to decide what that process will be) or stewards (for wikis without local admins).
- The software will require that the user has at least 300 edits and the account since at least 6 months. Admins and stewards will not be able to grant temporary account IP access to accounts that do not meet that criteria. This is a minimum, and we encourage the communities – especially the larger ones – to enforce higher thresholds. Based on the comments from communities piloting temporary accounts, we recommend at least 600 edits as a threshold.
- The user reviewing the request will check if the user applying for the right meets requirements and that they have provided a valid justification. The right itself will be granted through Special:UserRights.
- Users who grant requests for the right will also handle removal of the right.
Note that requirements for access to the IP Info feature will be identical with the ones for access to the temporary accounts' IP addresses.
Other options we have considered
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We have considered a range of options, including:
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Our questions to you
- Does the new proposal sufficiently address privacy concerns?
- Are there any consequences for your community we should know as we work on this policy? We would like to make updates to the policy within 2–3 weeks.
In the coming weeks, we will be back to you with more updates and materials about temporary accounts and related features.
Again, thanks to everyone who has helped us identify different options. If you'd like to learn more about the project, read the Diff post, visit our project page and the FAQ. Subscribe to the newsletter to stay in touch. Thanks! NKohli (WMF) and SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 01:52, 11 March 2025 (UTC)