Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous

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Board of Trustees Approves Closure of Wikinews

Latest comment: 6 months ago13 comments8 people in discussion

Following extended discussions within the Wikimedia movement about the Wikinews long-term sustainability, levels of community activity, and the availability of reliable news coverage on other platforms, the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation has approved the closure of Wikinews.

Following this decision, all Wikinews editions will transition to read-only mode one month after this announcement, on 4 May. From that date onward, pages on Wikinews will remain publicly accessible for reading, reference and dump downloading, but editing and new content creation will no longer be possible.

Further information about the technical transition to read-only mode and the preservation of existing content will be shared in the coming weeks.

We thank all contributors who have participated in Wikinews over the years and helped build a unique experiment in collaborative journalism within the Wikimedia movement, and we understand that some of them might be disappointed by this decision. To our regret, the project wasn’t able to fulfil its promise, and many of its functions were eclipsed by the notable news coverage in Wikipedias. We hope the Wikinews editors will continue contributing to the other Wikimedia projects or free knowledge projects.

Victoria, Affiliate and Community Liaison to the Board, 09:59, 30 March 2026 (UTC)Reply

Pinging editors: @George Ho @Wikiwide @BigKrow @Lofi Gurl, @Dsuke1998AEOS, @Ternera, @Monsieur2137 @Asked42, @Sheminghui.WU, @Koavf, @Michael.C.Wright. @Gryllida, @Heavy Water, @Bddpaux, @Lofi Gurl, @Metropolitan90, @Tduk, @Bawolff, @Microchip08, @RockerballAustralia, @SVTCobra, @Acagastya, @Cromium, @William S. Saturn --Asked42 (talk) 10:13, 30 March 2026 (UTC)Reply

Received, thank you. ~ Sheminghui.WU (talk) 11:25, 30 March 2026 (UTC)Reply

Gutwrenching. Oh well. It was a good run. Lofi Gurl (talk) 12:17, 30 March 2026 (UTC)Reply

Im going to make a Fandom for Wikinews. Thoughts? @Lofi Gurl @Gryllida Don Don 12:22, 30 March 2026 (UTC)Reply

I won't do anything to stop you but if the project can't meet its goals on this platform then I highly doubt it can elsewhere, where articles will get far fewer readers than they will here. I'm convinced the only reason anybody even knows tgis project exists is because its WMF. We had our chance and we blew it, dude. Lofi Gurl (talk) 12:24, 30 March 2026 (UTC)Reply

I guess Miraheze is are only hope.

@Victoria @Lofi Gurl Don Don 12:47, 30 March 2026 (UTC)Reply

How many users from Wikinews do you think will actually migrate somewhere else? I'm thinking it might just be time for me to move on. I'm lowkey extremely pissed that five good articles I wrote last week went stale and unreviewed. It's a waste of fucking time. I'm not getting my hopes up just for the same thing to happen elsewhere. Lofi Gurl (talk) 12:52, 30 March 2026 (UTC)Reply

Then write less. Sorry mate. Five a week is a bit too much for me to even read, not to mention review. I was thinking it would help if on whatever new platform, users could cluster themselves by interests and geographical location; for a decade I have not found any approachable and readily available user from my continent. Gryllida (talk) 02:26, 31 March 2026 (UTC)Reply

☹️☹️☹️ JJLiu112 (talk) 00:24, 18 April 2026 (UTC)Reply

Aww Maroontruths (talk) 20:11, 15 April 2026 (UTC)Reply

Note that migration is a possibility and a link to discussion page is provided above. Gryllida (talk) 12:29, 16 April 2026 (UTC)Reply

wn-reporters.org mail + staying in contact

Latest comment: 7 months ago5 comments3 people in discussion

Pinging those who have access to wn-reporters.org mail @Acagastya (self) @Gryllida @Pi zero (deceased </3) @RockerballAustralia @William S. Saturn @Kitabc12345 @LivelyRatification @Thibauld scelles (not sure what is their username -- @Gryllida -- do you happen to know?) @Bddpaux @JJLiu112 @Cromium @Heavy Water @Asheiou @Michael.C.Wright @Leaderboard.

I have been maintaining wn-reporters.org mail server since @Brian McNeil passed away around July 4, 2020 -- Wow, it's been almost 6 years, that aches my heart. Wikinews was part of my entire college life -- it is going to be 11 years on enwn this May 1, but after Pi zero's death, and writing his obituary, it became very difficult for me to come back here. I will talk about this later. But for now, I would request you all to individually back up your own mailboxes. (I think if you log in via thunderbird, you would see an option to export the mails). I am not pulling the plug on the server yet. So you will have the access to mailboxes for the time being. Though should we move to some other host, we would have to see how we deal with the accredited requests and access to the mailboxes. For that, I will be lurking on Libera Chat, (OFTC, Slashnet, and tilde) on IRC as "acagastya". Additionally, I have my own IRC server irc.firebyagni.net:6667/6697 where I exist as "firebyagni".

Ages ago, I had created a discord server for wikinews, but noone came, apart from @AirSThib. Should anyone want to come, for the old times sake as the wikinews diaspora, please feel free to join here: https://discord.gg/cCEzC8d.

I have had some amazing people who mentored me. I probably won't remember many of the people, but I am forever grateful to this wonderful community. Wikinews was wikinews for me because of pizero and without him, neither would I have been on enwn, nor would I have known anyone of you. @Abhinav619 @ImprovedWikiImprovment @Tom Morris @Chaetodipus @Microchip08 @SVTCobra @Tyrol5 @Cirt @Darkfrog24 @Amgine @Wikiwide @ShakataGaNai @Blood Red Sandman @TUFKAAP @Skenmy @Zanimum @Cspurrier @Hawkeye7 @LauraHale @Crtew @Ezarate @DARIO SEVERI @AlvaroMolina @