Temporary accounts are now live on the English Wikipedia, after having already been rolled out on more than one thousand other wikis. Edits by logged-out users will no longer display an IP address, instead displaying an "account" name, like "~2025-01234-78". See the February 27 and October 20 issues of the Signpost for more information. Discussion about the newly-deployed feature continues in a Village Pump thread.

The process for the December 2025 ArbCom elections has begun, with the Arbitration Committee looking to seat nine members for the upcoming term. The nomination process for candidates has already begun and will continue until 11 November — see the 20 October issue for more. — S, O

On the Wikimedia-l mailing list, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees member Victoria Doronina posted a public apology for an email she had sent — also on Wikimedia-l — in early October. This email regarded Ravan Al-Taie and Lane Rasberry, two candidates who the Board had removed from the slate for the 2025 elections before the start of the community voting period. In the post, Doronina said "I would like to apologise to Ravan and Lane for any harm I may have caused"; she also announced her decision to "immediately suspend [herself] from most of the Board activities until the end of the year, in coordination with Board officers".

See both the Special report and Interview sections from our previous issue for further context on the elections and the October incident in question. — B

In a joint post on Diff, the Wikimania Steering Committee, the 2027 Core Organizing Team and the Wikimedia Foundation announced that Wikimania 2027 will be held in Santiago, Chile, likely in August, with the exact dates being subject to confirmation of the venues within the next year. This will be the third Wikimania ever hosted in Latin America, following the ones in Buenos Aires (2009) and Mexico City (2015).

The Core Organizing Team (COT) will be composed of members from Chile and the region, with active support from Wikimedia Chile and active editors in Spanish-language Wikimedia projects. — S, O

As announced on the Wikimedia-l mailing list by WMF spokesperson Manavpreet Kaur, the Foundation has opened a new cycle for appointments for three different community bodies: the Affiliations Committee (AffCom), the Ombuds commission (OmbCom), and the Case Review Committee of the Trust & Safety team (CRC).

The AffCom advises the WMF Board of Trustees on and provides support for the official recognition of chapters, thematic organizations and user groups around the world. The OmbCom, on behalf of the BoT, investigates complaints about infringements of several key policies on any Wikimedia project. Finally, the CRC reviews appeals for eligible Trust & Safety office actions.

Applications for each of these committees have opened on October 30, and can be submitted until December 11, with two conversation hours being currently scheduled for November 5 and November 26. Learn more about how to apply for the appointments on the Meta page. — S, O

See related content in this issue's Wikicup report.

The 2025 WikiCup has just concluded, as the scores for the tournament's final round have been reported by its joint hosts: Cwmhiraeth, Epicgenius, Frostly, Guerillero and Lee Vilenski. Here are the top 10 finishers:

1. BeanieFan11: 1604 points
2. Gog the Mild: 1075
3. Arconning: 860
4. History6042: 804
5. Sammi Brie: 635
6. TheDoctorWho: 386
7. AirshipJungleman29: 373
8. Thebiguglyalien: 362
9. Pokelego999: 306
10. Reconrabbit: 293

Congratulations to each of these editors, and everyone else who participated in the contest! — B

• Administrator elections: Administrator elections are scheduled for December 2025.
• New criteria for speedy deletion: Two new CSDs – "abandoned user subpages of non-contributors" (U6), and "excessively unrelated non-draft subpages by non-contributors" (U7) (replacing "misuse of Wikipedia as a web host" (U5)) – were adopted after Request for Comment.
• New administrators: The Signpost welcomes the English Wikipedia's newest administrators, Chaotic Enby and Rjjiii.
• Articles for Improvement: This week's Article for Improvement is Crop (beginning 10 November) followed by Kidnapping (beginning 17 November). Please be bold in helping improve these articles!