CentralNotice/Request/Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026: Photo Competition

Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026: Photo Competition

• Bonnjalal00 (talk · contribs · page moves · block user · block log), primary contact (Requested at 14:58, 3 February 2026 (UTC))

Central Notice Settings
What is the campaign duration? 24 February 2026 → 02 March 2026 and from 12 March 2026 → 22 March 2026 Which projects will you be targeting? Meta-Wiki, Wikipedia, Commons, Wikidata What languages will you be targeting? ar, en, ms, fr, hi, dag, ur, bn, zh, uz, ary Do you wish to show banners to Logged In users, Anonymous Users or Both? Do you want to target users with a specific number of edits or average monthly? Both What countries will your campaign target? Morocco, Guinea, India, UAE, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Ghana, Singapore, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Niger, Indonesia Banner/Campaign Diet: To be determined by Central Notice admin

What is the purpose of the campaign? How will you measure the success of the campaign?

Description - Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026 is a global photography competition aimed at documenting and sharing the diverse cultural heritage, traditions, and architecture observed during the month of Ramadan on Wikimedia Commons.

Metrics - :

• Collection of hundreds of high-quality images documenting Ramadan traditions, food, and architecture.
• Engagement of contributors from diverse regions, including the Arab world, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
• Documentation of underrepresented cultural heritage and increased visibility on Wikimedia Commons.

What banner(s) will you use? What will be your landing page?

Banners - User:Bonnjalal00/Sandbox/3

Landing Page - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Ramadan_2026

Is this project grant funded? Please provide a link

Type of grant - Rapid Fund

Link to grant - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/Rapid_Fund/Wiki_Loves_Ramadan_2026_(ID:_23542328)

Central Notice admin comments

• @Bonnjalal00: I have quite a flashback on all the problems we had last year with CentralNotice/Request/Wiki Loves Ramadan 2025. In particular, the wiki markup banner proposal while the CentralNotice/Usage guidelines are pretty clear of what we can process. Furthermore, it is unclear which languages you target that have been notified and involved in advance (as of now, English only). I do appreciate the focus on specific countries with local support. — Nonetheless, banner texts and landing pages should be available in the main languages your projects targets. Please provide them as soon as possible. // CC @Ciell and ZI Jony: Best, —DerHexer (Talk) 17:38, 9 February 2026 (UTC)

  @DerHexer: Regarding the Writing Competition, we have opted for a language-based targeting strategy rather than a country-specific one. The goal is to reach all relevant countries using unified banners for each major language (for example, a single Arabic banner targeting all Arabic-speaking countries, and a French banner for French-speaking regions).

  • For Landing Page, The landing pages and participating communities for this track are documented here: Participating communities.
  • For banner Translations, The English version is ready for review. Once the translation infrastructure is created for us, we will promptly mobilize our contributors to provide the necessary localized versions for all targeted languages.
  • For banners code, I only used HTML and CSS (wikitext for links only). and I made sure that it appears good for mobile and computer.

  عبد الإلاه جلال (talk) 18:53, 9 February 2026 (UTC)

  See also: c:Commons:Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026/CentralNotice Regards, ZI Jony ^(Talk) 10:47, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

• See also CentralNotice/Request/Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026. —DerHexer (Talk) 17:40, 9 February 2026 (UTC)

  Don't you think that the 2 banners you are requesting to run at the same time about the same topic on all project is a bit much....? Keep in mind, we only have one banner space and in March, among others, we also have Wiki Loves Folklore. Wiki Loves Africa and a (for limited time) Gendergap banner running. (check the calendar!)

  It would help me if you could be more specific about your targeting: is it really necessary to run the photo competition banner on all projects for instance, and the article writing one also on all projects, *at the same time*? And are all the communities of these projects and languages aware of your proposed Ramadan CN-campaigns @ZI Jony?

  @Bonnjalal00 the code that was shared is not HTML/CSS, maybe you could update the link that was shared? Ciell (talk) 12:45, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

  @Ciell: Thanks for the feedback. I have tried to limit the scope of this request to be as respectful of the banner space as possible:

  I have limited the projects to only four. Specifically, the photo competition will only be shown in few countries and only in few languages. I have also limited the number of languages and projects for the writing competition.

  For scheduling The two banners are set for different dates and will not run for long periods.

  Also the local organizers have already started providing translations. You can see their progress here:

  • • Photo Competition Translations
    • Writing Competition Translations

  Regarding the banner code, I am not sure I understand what you mean by it not being in HTML/CSS. I created the banner using HTML with inline CSS.

  Could you clarify the requirement?

  • Do I need to move the styles to a separate CSS page?
  • Should the banner be created on a special page?
  • Is the issue perhaps that the internal links are still in wikitext format

  I'm happy to update the code once I'm sure what is needed. عبد الإلاه جلال (talk) 17:29, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

  @Ciell, hope @Bonnjalal00 already cleared everything. We will update countries and languages as much as we are getting. Regards, ZI Jony ^(Talk) 19:42, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

  @ZI Jony: last year, there was a limited result in Wikipedia articles, but moreover you only collected 141 new files for Commons from the whole campaign. So you might understand why I am a bit concerned whether the language communities are truly onboard with the campaign.

  Can you please inform the communities in their local Village Pumps and make sure they agree to the effort and it's worth running the CN banner? Please share the links to these discussions here, especially because there are other big campaigns running at the same time, and we only have one banner space.

  Are you also using other ways to inform users of the competition? Ciell (talk) 08:48, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

  @Ciell For clarification, we did not host a Wikimedia Commons photo competition last year. The 2026 campaign marks the first time we are running a dedicated photo contest. عبد الإلاه جلال (talk) 19:36, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

  Even the more reason to consult the local language communities on both banners. Please share the links to these conversations. @Bonnjalal00 @ZI Jony Ciell (talk) 10:29, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

  @Bonnjalal00 this is an example template to start your code from, and an example of what is needed for running a CN banner. Ciell (talk) 08:29, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

  I updated the banner code:

  • WLR Banner Photo Competition
  • WLR Banner Writing Competition

  عبد الإلاه جلال (talk) 19:38, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

• Dear @DerHexer and Ciell:, Apologies for the late reply. I have been quite busy recently, and today I am traveling a long distance.

Thank you for raising your concerns. We understand that there are other major campaigns running during this period. However, as you know, the timing of Ramadan changes every year according to the lunar calendar. Because of that, our campaign dates also shift annually. At the moment, this is still a relatively small campaign, but we are working step by step to improve and expand it each year.

Regarding community discussions, due to time constraints, we are unfortunately unable to open discussions at every Village Pump. Instead, we are requesting the banner to be shown only for communities that have signed up and expressed interest in participating in Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026. For Wikimedia Commons, the banner will be limited to the participating countries only.

For the writing competition translations, we can follow the same method used previously (WLR2025 banner translation workflow via Special:Translate), which allows translations to be handled through the CentralNotice translation system. This approach reduces the workload for CN admins and enables communities to translate directly.

In addition, we already have prepared translations available here:

* https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Ramadan_2026/CentralNotice#Main_banner_text

* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Ramadan_2026/CentralNotice#Main_banner_text

We confirm that:

* The campaign is not fundraising and does not collect personal data.

* The banner will link only to Wikimedia-hosted pages.

* No external scripts or tracking tools will be used.

* We are open to adjusting banner weight, timing, or targeting if needed to avoid conflicts with other major campaigns.

* We truly appreciate your guidance and are happy to cooperate to ensure the campaign complies fully with CentralNotice policies.

Thank you for your consideration. Regards, ZI Jony ^(Talk) 15:10, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

@Ciell and @DerHexer, any update about the CN? Campaign already started. Regards, ZI Jony ^(Talk) 07:20, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

UAE is not listed as a participating country for Wiki Loves Folklore 2026, but the CentralNotice banner is currently being displayed there. As a result, the national organizer has raised a concern, asking why users in the UAE are seeing the Wiki Loves Folklore banner instead of the one for Wiki Loves Ramadan.

Could someone please check the geo-targeting settings for the banner and adjust accordingly? Regards, ZI Jony ^(Talk) 08:39, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

Hi @ZI Jony, please ask the organizer to leave their feedback about the WLF banner at CentralNotice/Request/Wiki Loves Folklore 2026 - and this is exactly why we need to see the local community consensus before running banners... Ciell (talk) 09:10, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

I would like to kindly request that the Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026 banner be made visible to users in the United Arab Emirates. Displaying the banner in the UAE will help increase awareness and participation among the local community and other contributors interested in documenting Ramadan-related knowledge and culture.

Your support in enabling the banner targeting UAE will be greatly appreciated and will contribute to the success of the campaign under the broader mission of the Wikimedia Foundation. Akbarali (talk) 04:11, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Akbarali,

Could you please share with me the communication with the English community in UAE about a banner for WLR? (Arabic or Hindi is not included in the table for targeting, fyi: Wiki_Loves_Ramadan_2026/CentralNotice#Main_banner_text). Ciell (talk) 17:15, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

Hi @ZI Jony,

I hope the silence means you are in conversation with the communities about the banner! If not, please start your conversations as soon as possible. I do see you have improved parts of your campaign (translations, among others!), but Central Notice campaigns should serve the community, not the other way around, and therefore you as initiator and organizer should make sure you have the consensus of the community to undertake your initiative. (ar:قرار بالإجماع) The Ramadan follows the lunar calendar every year, this only means you'll have different conversation partners from other initiatives when it comes to scheduling your campaign. This should not be a problem because you can plan ahead with the lunar calendar in hand, and we had the same problem last year as well.

• Feedback on the landing pages:
  • Writing: The meta page had way too much text for new users. Make a decision on who you want this campaign to be for: new/aspiring Wikipedians, or seasoned users? Make the campaign and outreach fit with the target audience. For newbies: move the section on participation to the top, all of the rest is redundant information. A landing page is not a Wikipedia article, or your project plan. A landing page should give all the basic information a participant should know to be able to participate in one glimpse. Please don't forget to translate the participation guide.
  • Photograph: The Commons landing page is only translated in one other language besides English. Ironically, according to the list of languages you are not targeting the Chinese language, even though you do want to show the banner in Singapore. A small oversight maybe? The landing page would need more translations if you want to go through with this.
• Feedback on the banners: (cc: @Bonnjalal00)
  • Writing: The banner for the writing competition links to the local English page en:Wikipedia:Wiki_Loves_Ramadan_2026. Please make a choice whether you'll have local landing pages for every language, or the one landing page on meta as mentioned in the review above. We can't do both! I would propose to do the latter: from a quick review I think those 16 local pages will serve as better landing page than the Meta page linked in your request. I notice you have (again) used a lot of text in the banner: this will not work. The less text, the better: for instance reduce it to one sentence, 50 characters, no date. For instance "Join the global campaign to tell the world about Ramadan traditions!". Keep it simple.
  • Photograph: same feedback for too much text in the banner, and same alternative proposal for "Join the global campaign to tell the world about Ramadan traditions!" or something with this length. If you want to use one banner for all languages, make sure not only the text is translated, but also the links in the banner include a Special:MyLanguage in the URL so people end up directly at the right language-version.

Final remark: I don't agree to the requested dates and duration, I see both these requests as one WLR initiative. What about showing both banners consecutively for up to 5-7 days? You'll need time for the translations of the Commons pages before we can enable that one anyway, and to get agreement from the communities from the project languages of the writing competition. Ciell (talk) 18:22, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

One more thought: I notice several upload campaigns for WLR have been created on Commons, but these are not easy to find from the main landing page. Can you please simplify this for the participants? Ciell (talk) 18:51, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Ciell:,

Thank you for your feedback. We will try to make changes as much as possible based on your suggestions, but I have a few comments and a question regarding implementation:

• Banner links: We need the banners to target the local landing page of each community (The English link is just an example).
• Commons landing page: The main landing page is not obligated to be translated. It is up to the local organizers to choose to do that or not, because each country has their own local landing page, and the competition is country-based. You can see the participating countries' landing pages here: Commons:Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026/Participating countries.
• Singapore targeting: We provided the languages that the local organizers gave us. They just added the Chinese translation text to the list, so I will update the targeting countries based on it.

I also have a question about the banner configurations: how should I make a link translatable? (and how can I add the Special:MyLanguage to an http link) I followed the standard example of banners, and in it, they only use full URLs rather than wikitext links. عبد الإلاه جلال (talk) 21:05, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

@Bonnjalal00 Ah, all banners should directly go to the local landing pages, gotcha!

• For the writing competition, the list of landing pages on Meta is still empty. Or maybe I should look on a different page?
• For the photograph competition, the list of landing pages on Commons is still empty and the table with participating countries does not include links to the landing pages, only to the uploadcampaigns. I think several of the Commons landing pages don't have a link to the upload campaign yet, and I do think this is necessary to make participation as easy as possible.

Banner configuration:

• A link to a translated page will guide the reader directly to the version in their preferred (interface) language when the string "Special:MyLanguage" is included in the URL. Compare using https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Ramadan_2026 to https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Ramadan_2026 when a language different from English is set by the user. English will always be the default/fall back option when the page is not available in their preferred Mediawiki UI language. This 'special' function works with both internal as external links, but your observation is correct that our banners need the external link format. I can add this option when the individual banner will target a page for a country that requested the banner to be shown in multiple languages.

Ciell (talk) 08:04, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

I have added the landing page links to the table on both Commons and meta. Can you please check them for correctness, @ZI Jony @Bonnjalal00?

• meta/writing comp: Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026/Landing pages
• commons/photographs: c:Commons:Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026/Landing pages

Ciell (talk) 10:36, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

@Ciell The Participating communities page contains all the landing pages, the landing pages that you are looking at is just a guideline under For local organizers menu.

Here is the landing pages for commons and meta:

- meta: m:Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026/Participating communities

- commons: c:Commons:Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026/Participating countries عبد الإلاه جلال (talk) 15:59, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Ciell, Apologies if it felt like I disappeared, that wasn’t the case. I’ve been dealing with some health issues over the past few days and had to go back and forth between doctors and the clinic. That slowed me down a bit.

That said, @Bonnjalal00: and the team are actively working on everything, and progress is ongoing.

Regarding the landing pages:

• Meta (writing competition): I’ve reviewed it again, and structurally it now looks much clearer and more focused.
• Commons (photography): I’ve updated additional information there to improve clarity and make participation easier to navigate.

We’re continuing to refine things based on your feedback, especially around structure and usability. If there’s anything specific you’d like us to prioritize next, please let me know. Thanks again for the careful review. Regards, ZI Jony ^(Talk) 17:16, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the responses both!

@ZI Jony: I hope you are okay again - I myself also had some offline things to attend to last week, so also my apologies for slowing down the process. Have you been in touch with the local communities? I'd love to see the conversation - even if no responses came from your message to them. This can also be seen as consensus.

@Bonnjalal00: thanks, gotcha. Is there also a table that has an overview of the languages per country for the photo competition banner? The banner and the landing pages need translations in all the languages the banners will be targeting. On Commons, the translation tags for multiple of the landing pages have not been activated yet, and your local organizers can't start their translations.

Fyi, these are what the banners will look like:

• WLR Banner Writing Competition
• WLR Banner Photo Competition.

Please review and let me know what you think. Ciell (talk) 19:02, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Ciell:,

Thank you for your work on this. Regarding the banner links you provided, I noticed both point to the photo competition; I believe there might have been a duplication error. I agree that the banners are a bit wide, so I will remove the dates as you suggested to save space.

However, regarding the banner text, it is difficult to change it at this stage. Local organizers have already finalized their translations, and in many cases, they have customized the wording to fit their specific community needs. You can find the current translations here:

• Photo Competition: c:Commons:Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026/CentralNotice
• Writing Competition: m:Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026/CentralNotice (some communities have translated directly within the banner).

Regarding community consensus: I have reached out to local organizers to initiate conversations on their local Wikis, but I have not received responses yet. Is it acceptable for me to start these discussions in English on the local Village Pumps/Wikis if I don't hear back soon?

Finally, for the Commons landing pages, I have informed the local teams that I can enable the translation feature upon request. but, I think I will enable it for all participating countries anyway to ensure everything is ready.عبد الإلاه جلال (talk) 21:45, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

I updated the banners (removed the dates). عبد الإلاه جلال (talk) 21:52, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Bonnjalal00,

Thanks for the changes, I've also implemented them in the previews linked above. Another benefit of not including the dates is that banners and translations without date/year are easier to reuse in following editions of WLR.

I've also added some additional code to support dark mode settings. If you switch to Wikipedia's dark mode, you can see why we want logo's and texts in CN banners to be coded instead of pulled in from Commons as much as possible... we had this problem last year as well, and it would be great if you can get the issue with the image on the left fixed. Please also check the previews on both desktop and mobile device, and in several browsers. Please review them and the links again!

• Photo competition: thanks for the link, but as I understand your competition, all local competitions have their own start and end dates, and there is a landing page per country. This means that for the banner I need to know: 1) first the country, 2) then the languages their local banners need to be available in, 3) and then the dates for their local upload campaign. I need all three to set up the CN campaigns that go with the CN banners. At the moment I can't read which languages should be enabled for which country from your table?
  Fyi, Ghana doesn't have a working landing page yet. Without a proper landing page their banner can't go live.
• Writing competition: I noticed the Arabic and Bangla translation are already available, thanks! I've activated them, but for now let's make sure to agree on the banner text before we share the link to the translation message-group with the other organizers. :)

The conversations with the local communities don't have to be in English! Please hold them in the language of the community members. I (and CN admins in general) can use translation services to check if there were no objections. I think it would be preferred if the local organizers initiate these conversations, but I don't see a problem with you stepping in to move this forward. Ciell (talk) 11:33, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Ciell:,

Thank you for the detailed feedback. I have been working on the banners and the coordination with local teams. Here are the updates:

Banner Technical Updates

• Mobile & Layout: I have updated the banner code to remove the images and decreased the font sizes. The previous version didn't look right on mobile, so this should provide a much cleaner experience across devices.
• Image Hard-coding: Regarding your suggestion about coding logos: do you mean embedding the SVG paths directly into the banner code so they can be styled via CSS? I want to make sure I understand the best practice here to ensure it displays correctly in dark mode.

Photo Competition

• Dates: You can find the specific start and end dates for each local competition here: c:Commons:Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026/Participating countries#Definitely interested to participate.
• Languages: The requested languages per country are listed here: c:Commons:Wiki_Loves_Ramadan_2026/CentralNotice#Text of CentralNotice.
• Question on Multi-language targeting: For countries like Singapore and Malaysia, the organizers provided multiple languages. Is it possible for you to enable multiple languages for a single country, or should I ask them to choose one primary language for the banner?
• Landing Pages: I will update the targeting to exclude any countries (like Ghana) that do not have a functional landing page or translated banner text yet.

Community Consensus

I have reached out to the local organizers. While the process is moving slowly, here are the links to the discussions that have started so far:

• Hulontalo Wikipedia: Discussion link
• Urdu Wikipedia: Discussion link
• Uzbek Wikipedia: Sitenotice link
• Arabic Wikipedia: They have already approved a local notice here. I hope this can be considered community approval to show the banner to Arabic-speaking users on other projects as well.
• Here Also for Moroccan Arabic: here

Best regards, عبد الإلاه جلال (talk) 21:50, 25 February 2026 (UTC)

English Wikipedia: en:Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)#Request_for_community_consensus_–_CentralNotice_for_Wiki_Loves_Ramadan_2026. Regards, ZI Jony ^(Talk) 08:44, 26 February 2026 (UTC)

English Wikipedia watchlist-messages approved. Regards, ZI Jony ^(Talk) 15:44, 27 February 2026 (UTC)

Urdu Wikipedia community already approved the CN banner for Urdu. Fahads1982 (talk) 21:25, 28 February 2026 (UTC)

@Ciell and @DerHexer, there are several communities' approval we have for CentralNotice of Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026. Kindly enable at your earliest convenience for the approved communities. Regards, ZI Jony ^(Talk) 09:52, 1 March 2026 (UTC)

Thanks @ZI Jony! I was already planning to revisit the local discussions and work on the WLR request today. Thanks for the notification! Ciell (talk) 10:31, 1 March 2026 (UTC)

@Ciell, thanks for the note. Please ping me or Bonnjalal00 if any assistance required from our end. Regards, ZI Jony ^(Talk) 16:14, 1 March 2026 (UTC)

This from Yoruba Wikimedians User Group for Yoruba Wikipedia عبد الإلاه جلال (talk) 22:41, 1 March 2026 (UTC)