MediaWiki talk:Watchlist-messages

Wikipedia has five kinds of top-of-page messages that can be used to convey information or announcements to readers and editors.

The "Sitenotice", found at MediaWiki:Sitenotice, is displayed at the top of all pages for all logged-in users, and for anonymous users if the following message is empty.
MediaWiki:Anonnotice can be used to display information only to anonymous/IP users, not logged-in users. Alternatively, by 'blanking' the anonnotice and replacing it with nothing (not even a space or empty paragraph!), then the sitenotice can be used as a "logged-in users only" notice to display information only to editors. When "Anonnotice" contains nothing, no notice is shown to anonymous users. When it contains "-" it disables the message in favour of Sitenotice. If it contains anything else, it will be rendered to anonymous users instead of the Sitenotice (including a "hide" button).
MediaWiki:Watchlist-messages is displayed at the top of Special:Watchlist for all users who use this feature.
The CentralNotice, found at meta:Special:CentralNotice, is an extension which can display banners at the top of a select group of Wikimedia sites simultaneously.
Geonotice, at Wikipedia:Geonotice, allows location-specific notices – and is a candidate for integration into MediaWiki.

Archives

Archive 1	Archive 2	Archive 3
Archive 4	Archive 5	Archive 6
Archive 7	Archive 8	Archive 9
Archive 10	Archive 11	Archive 12
Archive 13

This page has archives. Sections older than 14 days may be automatically archived by when more than 3 sections are present.

See Wikipedia:Watchlist notices for documentation of how to add, maintain or hide watchlist notices.

March Signpost notice

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

The March edition is now out. ☆ Bri (talk) 03:03, 22 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Done, expiring in seven days (can be shortened if needed/desired, as I see the last issue got a five day notice). Ks0stm ^{(T•C•G•E)} 02:07, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The European Destubathon

The European Destubathon began yesterday and runs throughout April. It is an editing drive to transform stubs into longer articles. Would it be possible to include a watchlist notice for about a week to encourage participation? Perhaps something like:

Editors are invited to take part in The European Destubathon, a writing contest running from 1 to 30 April that aims to transform as many of the 760,000 + stub articles about Europe as possible.

Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 10:14, 2 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This would be better requested at Wikipedia:Geonotice. Step hen 12:31, 2 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The contest is for everybody, not just European editors. My African Destubathon in 2017 had a watchlist notice too. If anything I'd love to see editors who don't usually edit Europe show an interest and help! ♦ Dr. Blofeld 14:03, 2 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Stephen, while the topic focus is Europe there are already international participants. Would a watchlist message be more suitable than one that is geolocated? Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 10:40, 4 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I believe a watchlist notice is more appropriate (it's also less invasive than a Geonotice). The geographic scope of the contest is limited (albeit to an entire continent, which would be difficult to geotarget anyway) but there's no reason it wouldn't be of interest to editors elsewhere and participation is not limited to editors in Europe. I would add it myself but I'm participating so I'm arguably involved. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 11:13, 4 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

You all make good points. Harry, can you post it as my proxy as I’m on mobile for a while. Step hen 12:56, 4 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]