User talk:BCamarda (WMF)

Overlapping dates for central notice banners

Hello, BCamarda. This is PeakeChes from the English Wikipedia. I was planning to request a central notice banner for 1 January through the 17th ... then I noticed you are requesting one for Wikipedia's 25th anniversary starting on 14 January. So there are four days of overlap. I'm hoping we can find a possible workaround.

The banner I'm proposing is to promote recognition of the value of mentoring in our Wikipedia editing — of either having personal mentors or receiving assistance at the various Wikipedia help venues — in connection with International Mentoring Day on 17 January. This commemoration was begun as an extension of the US National Mentoring Month throughout the month of January, but is now encouraged worldwide on 17 January.

What I'd like to ask you is to agree that both our proposed banners appear on the four days of overlap, with yours on top and mine below, and mine a shorter version of the earlier one. If not, at least International Mentoring Day would have had several weeks of display, but without including the critical day itself and the three immediately preceding.

I have a functional Wikipedia Talk page, so I don't understand why it's redlinked here; but I'll keep an eye on this page to watch for your reply. PeakeChes (talk) 11:09, 7 December 2025 (UTC)

Hi, thanks so much for the message! Can you share what your landing page will be? Or feel free to send over the banner request page if that has already been added. @PeakeChes BCamarda (WMF) (talk) 00:33, 9 December 2025 (UTC)

To be honest, BCamarda, I haven't gotten very far at this point as far as something to show. I'm still trying to understand the request procedure. It's my first time, and far more involved than I expected. Although I have a strong background in instructional design — including for online learning — in addition to editing and writing, I don't have one in HTML and CSS. I was hoping there'd be a tutorial showing someone carrying out all the steps, but it seems not.

Going by your MW title, I think you might be in a position to tell me whether there are editors who might be willing to take a direct role in helping get everything done to complete the request. I can easily create a banner in MS Word to show what I had in mind for them, which is something like this:

— On the left there'd be a colorful graphic showing a somewhat transparent version of the Wikipedia logo with a hand reaching out, as if through the globe, in a gesture of offering help; and all would be framed by a large heart.

— And the text: At the heart of Wikipedia's success: our mentors & Teahouse & Help Desk staff. On International Mentoring Day, 17 January, let's remember with appreciation all they've done for us.

PeakeChes (talk) 12:23, 9 December 2025 (UTC)

@PeakeChes: Hi! So re: the CN request, that is a community process and it might be good to ask on Talk:CentralNotice whether your topic is something that would fit a CentralNotice banner. Typically banners are used for things with specific calls to action, like editing events or in our case celebratory sites/events for Wikipedia's 25th birthday. I'd recommend not worrying about the design too much, and instead focusing on what message you want to communicate to people, the call to action, and which medium would be best to communicate that. Best, RAdimer-WMF (talk) 19:36, 9 December 2025 (UTC)

RAdimer, isn't what I'm proposing as a central notice banner a call to action? That on International Mentoring Day — which definitely seems a "celebratory event"— Wikipedians show appreciation for their mentors and others who provide assistance in the Teahouse and at the Help Desk?

If there's a better way than a banner to get word out in advance to as many as possible, I'd be very grateful to know. PeakeChes (talk) 11:38, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

@PeakeChes: Is there a landing page that the banner would direct people to? Typically, calls to action involve a specific place people are pointed to where they can then do something. And this would likely be best to discuss on Talk:CentralNotice rather than Brooke's talk page. RAdimer-WMF (talk) 19:17, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

Okay, RAdimer, I'll pick up the discussion on Talk:CentralNotice. I came here because I saw that Brooke was listed as the person who'd posted the request for a banner, and I saw no Talk page listed for her — the way I'm familiar with in Wikipedia — only a "Discussion" page. PeakeChes (talk) 11:03, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

Microsite issue

Although I expect the answer is "oops, oh well, too late to fix it", I'm wondering if there's any point in reporting a factual error in the Wikipedia25 site (and, if so, to whom or where).

(In the page about how dedicated Wikipedians are, one example is "a user uploaded this photo of his cat's run-in with static cling", which is false. A user went on Flickr and found a suitably-licensed photo of someone else's cat.)

Remember, part of the ethos of Wikipedia is correcting each other's mistakes. DS (talk) 03:38, 4 February 2026 (UTC)

@DragonflySixtyseven: Responding on Brooke's behalf as she wasn't involved in this part of Wikipedia 25. :-) Thanks for the keen eyes. The original caption here is: "In 2006, a user uploaded this photo of his cat's run-in with static cling that's now used on over a dozen Wikipedias". The "user" there refers to the original Flickr photographer, and he uploaded it to Flickr on September 5, 2006 (to verify, hover over the February date when on desktop).

As you've noted, using "user" in that context is ambiguous. We're going to rewrite the sentence in an upcoming update window, exact date TBD, to make sure there is no additional confusion. Thank you again for the error report! Ed WMF ^[talk] 17:20, 5 February 2026 (UTC)