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Hi. You seemed to respond positively to the idea of identifying student editors, but User:RosPost has now asked me “how to tag for students”. Can you tell me whether this mentoring of African contributors is a formal scheme, and where it is documented? The matter of adding a template should be fairly straightforward, but it may be best to consult someone with experience of educational initiatives, maybe someone like User:Ian (Wiki Ed). I want to emphasize that maintaining Wikipedia standards is one of my responsibilities as an admin, and I’m a bit concerned about inexperienced users like Ros trying to “teach” others how to use the encyclopedia and then upbraiding established editors for correcting them when they make mistakes. I hope you don’t share her apparent view that it’s okay for new users to ignore the guidelines. Deb (talk) 09:06, 5 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Deb, the “mentorship scheme” is a project under the auspices of WikiProject Women in Religion. It’s very informal. We’re working with a group of students at Nairobi University in Kenya, to help them write for Wikipedia and improve their English and research skills. It’s not a formal class; it’s more like an ongoing editathon, with a rapid grant attached to it. Many of the conflicts in this situation are due to sensitive cultural issues, which we’re doing our best to manage. No, we don’t think that it’s okay for new users to ignore the guidelines at all; there was some confusion about the purposes of sandboxes, but that’s been cleared up. We mentors tend to be overly protective of our mentees, and to be honest, we’ve had some negative experiences with how they’ve been treated. At any rate, moving forward, we’ll use the suggestion that we add a template, which I’ll create, and ask other editors to be patient as we all continue to learn. Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 02:29, 6 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I think that would be helpful. The standard student template does have an effect on how other contributors react to drafts and should allow them a bit of leeway. Good luck. Deb (talk) 07:49, 6 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, @Deb. Perhaps you didn’t know: Wiki Education only works with students and universities in North America, so Ian wouldn’t be able to help us, anyway. We’ll reach out to him if needed, though. Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 16:01, 6 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I know he only mentors in a specific area, but I don’t see why he wouldn’t be able to advise on how to go about it. But if it’s outside his remit, I’m sure there must be someone else on that side who could do so. Deb (talk) 17:51, 6 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Deb, all the above being said, I wanted to ask you if you could restore the sandbox. We really need to know exactly what happened so that we can correct it and hopefully, prevent it from happening again. You say that we should have our mentees read the policies, which I agree, they should. However, that’s not how new editors learn. They try something, break the policies because they’re unaware of them, and then another helpful editor comes along, corrects them, and cites the policies. That’s what we need to do here. I’m pinging User:RosPost, to bring her into our conversation, as well as User:Rosiestep, to see what she thinks about this and because she’s mentoring us as we mentor others. Thanks, Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 18:48, 6 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Figureskatingfan, thanks for inviting me to the conversation.

1. Training program: It would be helpful to link to your documented training program, as Deb has inquired. I understand you received a grant for it. But I’m recommending that you link to the training program itself, imagining that it’s a different page, maybe a subpage of the grant or Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Religion … a page that documents your training program, training materials/resources, students, outcomes, etc.
2. WikiEdu: This organization has a lot of templates and instructional “handouts” that would probably be helpful either as re-use or modifying in a way that suits your students. See: Category:Wikiedu.org course templates and commons:Category:Wiki Education resources. BTW, I’ve reached out to LiAnna (Wiki Ed) multiple times over the years and she’s always been helpful, even when the question had nothing to do with a student taking a WikiEdu course.
3. Wikipedia Education Program: Are you connected with the m:Wikipedia Education Program that serves the rest of the world? It serves Africa(!), and other continents. You’ll find a lot of camaraderie. They also hold an international conference every so often.
4. Support: IMHO, though, the best place for you and RosPost to ask questions and/or get support related to your Africa student program is in the “WikimediaEducation” Telegram group. It’s robust. You’ll get quick responses. I’ll email you the link. —Rosiestep (talk) 19:49, 6 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Rosiestep, thanks for your helpful tips and tools. We will do our best to put them into place. I got your email to the link and will follow up. Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 23:04, 6 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Christine. I did respond to your original request and listed the things that were problematic about the deleted draft, and I see that you have already started to act on these. As you see, in this edit I gave the user a warning that included references to multiple pages that would have been helpful if they read them, notably Wikipedia:Neutral point of view, Wikipedia:Verifiability, Wikipedia:Conflict of Interest and Wikipedia:Autobiography. I would say that a good starting point is to ensure that your mentees are familiar with these before they start editing. But maybe I am wrong in thinking that you know who they are before they begin? Deb (talk) 20:48, 6 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Deb, I understand all that and we’re working on the items you listed. Of course we know our mentees; what a ridiculous question to ask and it feels borderline insulting. Again, looking at the original draft would help us correct the errors. It’s unreasonable to expect that he start everything over from scratch, not something I think anyone would want to do. Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 23:11, 6 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

What I mean by that is – do they approach you when they hit problems editing on their own, or do you recruit them before you begin their training? It seems quite a reasonable question to me in the absence of other information about the scheme.

However, I feel it’s unreasonable to expect me to restore promotional content. People ask for this all the time, and I generally refuse; I am, however, prepared to e-mail it to you rather than allowing it simply to be re-posted with a few adjustments, because, in this case, there is very little that can be re-used without substantial editing. I would always advise new editors to retain a private copy of their early attempts on another device or platform.

In addition, I will give you a list of the references that were included in the draft.

1. <ref name=”:0″>{{Cite web |date=2024-08-22 |title=Mercy Odondo (Kenya) – SITEI |url=https://www.sitei.org/nominies/mercy-odondo-kenya/ |access-date=2026-03-10 |language=en-GB}}</ref>
2. <ref name=”:1″>{{Cite web |last=Uduak |first=Happiness |date=2025-07-21 |title=Meet Mercy Odondo, the activist shaping gender policy in Kenya. |url=https://thebenchmark.com.ng/meet-mercy-odondo-the-activist-shaping-gender-policy-in-kenya/ |access-date=2026-03-10 |website=thebenchmark.com.ng |language=en-US}}</ref></nowiki>
3. <ref name=”:2″>{{Cite web |title=MERCY ODONDO – Africa Women Summit |url=https://africawomensummit.org/2024/05/17/mercy-odondo/ |access-date=2026-03-11 |language=en-US}}</ref>

The first of these is clearly not independent. Please understand that I am not saying that this individual is not notable. However, poor sourcing is something that causes drafts to be rejected at review, and verifiability is as important as maintaining NPOV. I would advise the editor to find additional independent sources and work from them, not from something that reads like a CV (e.g. reference “:0” above). Deb (talk) 08:03, 7 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

• Is this the mentorship project?
• I strongly recommend shifting this conversation to that talkpage or whatever talkpage is associated with the mentorship project. I base this with respect to transparency regarding the mentorship line of work. This wall of text on Christine’s talkpage is more applicable there than here. There’s also this and this on Deb‘s talkpage. I base this on experience that I had with what became Wikipedia:WikiProject Intertranswiki/OKA, which was originally a group of messages scattered at the founder’s talkpage and here and elsewhere; centralizing the visibility about the OKA work improved things for everyone.
• Another question: Can anyone help the African women editors or is it limited to members of WP:WikiProject Women in Religion and/or Wikipedia:WikiProject Kenyan Circle of Concerned African Women and/or just the grantees? —Rosiestep (talk) 13:55, 7 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

  @Deb, yes if you could email me the sandbox, that would be helpful. Then I would be able to put it on a private Google doc and use the opportunity to teach its creator how to, at the very least, use an encyclopedic tone and better follow policies, which is the point, anyway. I will say it again: this was a sandbox, a place where the editor should have been able to receive feedback and instruction, and then correct their errors, without wasting all this time. I know that I’m not an admin, but I suggest that the next time, you directly communicate with an editor who has broken policies. I’m also concerned that you don’t seem to be open to the serious cultural issues involved.

  @Rosiestep, these are helpful suggestions. In the coming days, I’m going to create a new page dedicated to this mentorship project, with links to centralize this discussion. Yes, we in Women in Religion are mentoring new editors in Kenya via the Circle WikiProject. Yes, we welcome anyone’s assistance. We also mentor others who find us and request our help and mentorship. We’ve found that the most effective way to train and retain new editors is in the a community setting, which honors Kenyan and African cultures. Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 18:16, 8 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

  @Christine, of course I did communicate with the editor, on his/her Talk page, giving the reason for deletion along with a standard warning that referred him/her to the relevant policies. You are aware of this, so I don’t understand where you think I strayed from normal practice. Practising in the sandbox is all very well, but not when it includes highly promotional language. The responsibility for providing feedback and instruction to individual new users does not rest with individual administrators. I will email you the offending content. There is no need for you to reply. Deb (talk) 07:51, 9 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Hello to all interested parties: I have spent a great deal of time following the suggestions in the above discussion; see here: Wikipedia:WikiProject Kenyan Circle of Concerned African Women/Mentorship program. I suggest that all mentees in the program add the template to their talk pages and to the articles and bios they work on. I would also ask that going forward, all discussion occur on the new subpage’s talk page. Pinging User:Wikedits2024, User:RosPost, User:Dzingle1, User:Rosiestep. I’m not pinging the above administrator involved because it’s clear they don’t any more response. Hopefully, this is the end of this conflict. Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 20:37, 12 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you so much Christine for creating the template. Hope it works. Wikedits2024 (talk) 08:46, 14 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Christina, I had a look a look at the references to McNamara 1996 in Monegundis, and most of them seem to be to McNamara’s translation of Gregory of Tours’ life of Monegundis. Would you be able to identify which is which? For example in one sentence McNamara states that “her husband had enough to support her in a life of service with a handful of followers”^[1] and that “turning with contempt from the world and spurning the company of her husband, she devoted all her time to God alone, placing all her faith in Him, pouring out prayers for her own sins and those of the people”.^[2] the first quote is McNamara’s own words (from page 53) and the second is from her translation of Gregory of Tours.

TSventon (talk) 21:55, 8 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@TSventon, thanks for those catches. I’m usually much better with the sourcing, so I’ll take care of those items straight away. Best, Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 22:19, 8 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. Presumably McNamara 1996 can be split into Introduction by McNamara pp 1–15, Monegund, Widow and Recluse of Tours (d. 570) by McNamara pp 51–53 and Monegund, a Widow and Recluse of Tours in Gaul by Gregory of Tours, translated by McNamara, pp 53–59. TSventon (talk) 02:52, 9 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@TSventon, I have now finished switching the refs to their correct citations. When I use the McNamara source again, I will follow this technique. We’re always learning! Thanks, Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 18:28, 10 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you again, it looks good now, it will be interesting to see how it gets edited while on main page. TSventon (talk) 03:02, 11 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@TSventon, yup ain’t that the truth. It will probably get some scrutiny, since neglected topics, especially bios about women throughout history, tend to be scrutinized heavily. Please help with that when it gets to the main page. Thank you! Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 03:15, 11 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I will try to keep an eye on the page, hopefully any edits will be improvements. Just for fun, I found a Latin edition of the vita at https://www.google.com/books/edition/Scriptores_rerum_merovingicarum_Gregorii/OHw_AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=P736 . TSventon (talk) 21:55, 11 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Very cool. One of the regrets of my life is that I never learned Latin. Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 22:33, 11 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

My own grasp of Latin is very limited, but Google translate can be helpful, also Wiktionary for individual words. (And it’s fun.) I found an additional secondary source via Google books and added it to the talk page. (It has some footnotes in Latin.) TSventon (talk) 15:11, 14 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

 — Amakuru (talk) 00:03, 12 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

You are invited to participate in the Destubathon of the Americas, a contest/editathon which will run from May 1 to May 31. The goal is to destub as many of our 475,000+ stubs for the Americas (from Alaska down to Chile) as possible. A good chance to have fun in expanding many of our old stale stubs and win up to £2000 ($2680) in Amazon vouchers for expanding stub articles. Sign up in the Contestants/participants section on the contest page if interested. Even if not interested in prizes you are still warmly welcome to participate in it as an editathon! Hopefully we can achieve something significant in the month of May together! ♦ Dr. Blofeld 16:57, 15 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

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Remember that any content promoted after 28 April but before the start of Round 3 can be claimed in Round 3. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, feel free to review one of the nominations listed on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:49, 29 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Women in Red | May 2026, Vol 12, Issue 5, Nos 358, 359, 370, 371, 372 Online events: New: Countries starting with G and H | Women’s scientific works | Religion and Spirituality Continuing (year-long initiatives): #1day1woman | Sports Announcements from other communities: Contest: Destubathon of the Americas Tip of the month: Struggling to find scientific works to write about? Start with review articles or textbooks, which may highlight influential studies, theories or methods by women. Other ways to participate: Become a member. You can always opt-out of notifications. Join the conversations on our talkpage. Help us plan future events and add any general ideas on developing the project. Follow us on social media: Instagram | Pinterest

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Good article nominations | June 2026 Backlog Drive
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Women in Red | June 2026, Vol 12, Issue 6, Nos 358, 359, 373, 374, 375 Online events: New: LGBTQ+ women | Alphabet run: Countries starting with I, J, K and L Article improvement campaign: Orphaned women Continuing (year-long initiatives): #1day1woman | Sports Announcements, tips, participation… Announcements from other communities: Eiffel women Tip of the month: Consider contributing to two of our monthly events at once, and improve coverage of LGBTQ+ women by de-orphaning their articles. Other ways to participate: Become a member. You can always opt-out of notifications. Join the conversations on our talkpage. Help us plan future events and add any general ideas on developing the project. Follow us on social media: Instagram & Pinterest

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I know what a big fan you are of Yuna Kim, so I wanted to let you know that I just finished a page one rewrite of Figure skating at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Women’s singles if you want to check it out. Bgsu98 (Talk) 20:02, 9 June 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Bgsu98, hey pal! Nice to hear from you. Looks good, as is typical for your stuff. I see that you used a lot of the same sources used in Kim’s bio. You’re welcome! 😉

Hope all is good. I haven’t been focusing on figure skating the last couple of months, but on my female saints instead. I’ll get back to skating soon, though. I’m going to Skate America because it’s relatively close to me, and Nationals in Salt Lake City for the same reason. I’m also going to Edmonton for WikiConference North America. Hope the start of your summer is going well. Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 23:18, 9 June 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I will also be going to Salt Lake City! Bgsu98 (Talk) 23:21, 9 June 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Oh good. We should meet up again. I’m not going to try and set up a formal meet-up like I tried to do in St. Louis. It’s way too much to try to do. I also don’t think I’m going to attend the Boitano lounge, either; it’s kind of a waste of money. Although last year, I rode in the elevator with John Nicks and his small entourage. He asked me where I was from, and when I answered, “Moscow, Idaho,” he said, “That’s probably much different from the Moscow where I grew up.” I said, “I don’t know, since I’ve never been in Moscow, Russia, before. But we have a saying in Moscow, ID: There are no cows in Moscow, although there really are.” They all got the joke! That was a fun memory. Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 23:36, 9 June 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Guild of Copy Editors June 2026 Newsletter Hello and welcome to the June 2026 newsletter, a quarterly-ish digest of Guild activities since April. Election news: Nominations for the mid-year coordinator election ends at 23:59 on 15 June. Voting will last from 00:00 on 16 June to 23:59 on 30 June. Results will be announced on the election page. April Blitz: 18 of the 21 editors who signed up for the April 2026 Copy Editing Blitz copy edited 122,993 words in 56 articles. Barnstars awarded are here. May Drive: 34 of the 66 editors who signed up for the May 2026 Backlog Elimination Drive copy edited 543,972 words in 211 articles. Barnstars awarded are here. June Blitz: Our June 2026 Copy Editing Blitz will start on 14 June and finish on 30 June. Barnstars awarded will be posted here. Progress report: As of 22:40, 11 June 2025 (UTC), GOCE copyeditors have completed 132 requests since 1 January, and the backlog stands at 1,691 articles. Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn’t be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators. To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

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