Wikipedia:Mercat Cross
Walcome tae the Mercat Cross! This is the airt tae tauk aboot the technical wirkins o the Wikipedia.
- sco: Please help translate to your language.
- en: Requests for the bot flag should be made on this page. This wiki uses the standard bot policy, and allows global bots and automatic approval of certain types of bots. Other bots should apply below, and then request access from a steward if there is no objection.
Annual review of the Universal Code of Conduct and Enforcement Guidelines
[edit soorce]I am writing to you to let you know the annual review period for the Universal Code of Conduct and Enforcement Guidelines is open now. You can make suggestions for changes through 9 February 2026. This is the first step of several to be taken for the annual review. Read more information and find a conversation to join on the UCoC page on Meta.
The Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC. This annual review was planned and implemented by the U4C. For more information and the responsibilities of the U4C, you may review the U4C Charter.
Please share this information with other members in your community wherever else might be appropriate.
-- In cooperation with the U4C, Keegan (WMF) (talk)
21:01, 19 Januar 2026 (UTC)
Bot flag
[edit soorce]Hallo! A first noticed the Scots Wikipedia aboot a year ago, while A wis in Scotland. Recently, A've stertit editin on scowiki an gettin better acquaint wi hou the wiki works. While daein thae edits, A noticed a wheen recurring maintenance issues that could be handled mair easily wi simple automation. Tae help wi thae routine, low-risk tasks, A'm proponin BZPN bot. The full description o whit the bot daes (an disnae dae), alang wi its limits an configuration, is set oot at User:BZPN/Bot. For transparency, the bot's source code is publicly available here. I'm happy tae adapt the bot’s behaviour based on community feedback. Thanks for yer time. Pingin @CiphriusKane here for visibility, as the maist active admin on sco.wiki recently. BZPN (tauk) 21:58, 30 Januar 2026 (UTC)
- Fit is the soorce fur the "lexical analysis"? Pairt o the issue wi the wiki wis fur ower a tenyeir fowks wis eesin bots ti dae leiteral owersettins aat hid nae regaird fur Scots grammar, an fae the editin o yers aat a'v seen ye'v shawn the same signs an the first twa dynamic tasks leuk awfa lik it'd be daein the same hing. As fur the walcomin an non-Scots wairnin, fit een taks priority? We'r nae aafa keen ti be walcomin vandals an fowks jist here ti "correct grammar" CiphriusKane (tauk) 09:55, 31 Januar 2026 (UTC)
- Aye, cheers for raisin thae concerns - they're quite fair. A'll switch tae English for clarity on the technical bits. About "lexical analysis": there is no AI, no machine learning, and no automatic translation involved at all. The "lexical analysis" is strictly dictionary-based: the bot compares tokens against a static wordlist (e.g. dictionary.txt), which is part of the public source code (which I will update soon because I am constantly improving it). Based on these wordlists, the bot assesses whether the article is en-only, en-heavy or Scots. Anyone is free to inspect it, suggest changes, or improve it. If the dictionary is wrong, the bot is wrong - nothing is hidden or heuristic. Regarding dynamic tasks, I'm very aware of problems with literal grammar/typo ("Scotsification") bots. That's exactly why my bot does not generate Scots, does not rewrite sentences, and it does not apply replacements unless they are explicitly and manually approved. All word and header replacements live in User:BZPN/Whitelist.json and only run if the entry is explicitly listed, the match conditions are exact and the community has agreed to add it. No whitelist entry = no change. Welcomes on the other hand are only triggered after a first constructive content edit. The bot detects whether a user's first edit is a vandalism (e.g. has vulgarisms, blanking, special characters, etc.), and based on this, either welcomes the user or ignores them (because the BZPN bot is not an anti-vandal bot, so it doesn't revert edits). If the first edit is in English, the bot assumes GF and inserts both a welcome and a warning. In short: the bot is deliberately conservative, transparent, and designed to avoid repeating the mistakes of earlier bots. If there are specific safeguards you’d want added, I’m happy to discuss and adjust them. Ta again for the questions. BZPN (tauk) 13:35, 31 Januar 2026 (UTC)
- An fit's the soorce o the initial whitelist? Is it the DSL, the OSD, the Luath Learner? Nae ivery dictionair oot there is o the same quality CiphriusKane (tauk) 07:35, 2 Februar 2026 (UTC)
- Aye, A think there's still a wee bit o confusion here, sae A'll spell it oot as plainly as a can. The dictionary an the whitelist are twa completely separate things. Dictionary (dictionary.txt) is a static, read-only wordlist that the bot uses only for classification. It disnae replace words, disnae rewrite text, disnae touch grammar. It simply checks if tokens in an article exists in the Scots wordlist, tae judge whether the text is en-only, en-heavy, or Scots. That's it. Example:
fowk = people. - The dictionary wis originally built by me manually, by readin an checkin existin articles on scowiki, an collectin words actually used thair. It's no tied tae ony single published dictionary. It is fully configurable, an can be adapted tae ony variety or orthography o Scots that the community decides it want tae reflect. If a word isnae in the dictionary, the bot just treats it as non-Scots. Nae substitution ever happens here. Whitelist on the other hand is a separate, optional mechanism for explicitly approved replacements only. If an entry isnae on the whitelist, the bot will never mak a change. The dictionary is not consulted at aw for whitelist actions. The goal o the whitelist is simple: standardisation, not translation. It exists tae ensure consistent, agreed-upon terminology for technical an structural elements o the wiki - no for content text. For example, the whitelist micht include fixed headers like "==See also==" → "==See forbye==". This isnae aboot stylistic preference or inventin Scots; it's aboot avoidin a mix o English an Scots in standard interface-like headers. Thae replacements are predictable, limited in scope, an identical every time. Nae whitelist entry = nae change. Nae community agreement = nae entry. The whitelist disnae interact wi the dictionary at aw, an it disnae apply tae article prose. It's a controlled tool for consistency, nae mair. Sae tae be absolutely clear: the bot never automatically converts English tae Scots. As for sources: baith the dictionary an the whitelist are open, public, an editable via the GitHub repository. Onybody is welcome tae review, challenge, improve, or propose changes. If the dictionary is wrang, the bot’s wrang - an that's precisely why it is transparent. BZPN (tauk) 08:20, 2 Februar 2026 (UTC)
- Okay, sae it's biggit manually, aat wis aa a wis wintin ti ken. Wid the bot be able ti check/compare page history as weel gif it fins a airticle aat's maistlins Inglis? Gif it canna aat's fair eneuch, kin aye dae it manually insteid. A leukit inti haein a bot ti coonterack the constant Inglifyin o airticles fur a while sae a'm nae oppont ti iss CiphriusKane (tauk) 08:53, 2 Februar 2026 (UTC)
- Aye, that's the kind o thing a meant. The bot could be extended tae generate reports only - listin airticles that are maistly English based on the existin dictionary check, limited tae e.g. ae report per day wi aboot 50 pages, an excluding ony that already hae
{{Fix Scots}}or{{No Scots}}; gif that soonds useful, gie me till the end o the week an A'll prototype it sae ye can see exactly hou it behaves, an gif no, that's fair eneuch an it can be left at that. Thank ye. BZPN (tauk) 10:13, 2 Februar 2026 (UTC)
- Aye, that's the kind o thing a meant. The bot could be extended tae generate reports only - listin airticles that are maistly English based on the existin dictionary check, limited tae e.g. ae report per day wi aboot 50 pages, an excluding ony that already hae
- Okay, sae it's biggit manually, aat wis aa a wis wintin ti ken. Wid the bot be able ti check/compare page history as weel gif it fins a airticle aat's maistlins Inglis? Gif it canna aat's fair eneuch, kin aye dae it manually insteid. A leukit inti haein a bot ti coonterack the constant Inglifyin o airticles fur a while sae a'm nae oppont ti iss CiphriusKane (tauk) 08:53, 2 Februar 2026 (UTC)
- Aye, A think there's still a wee bit o confusion here, sae A'll spell it oot as plainly as a can. The dictionary an the whitelist are twa completely separate things. Dictionary (dictionary.txt) is a static, read-only wordlist that the bot uses only for classification. It disnae replace words, disnae rewrite text, disnae touch grammar. It simply checks if tokens in an article exists in the Scots wordlist, tae judge whether the text is en-only, en-heavy, or Scots. That's it. Example:
- An fit's the soorce o the initial whitelist? Is it the DSL, the OSD, the Luath Learner? Nae ivery dictionair oot there is o the same quality CiphriusKane (tauk) 07:35, 2 Februar 2026 (UTC)
- Aye, cheers for raisin thae concerns - they're quite fair. A'll switch tae English for clarity on the technical bits. About "lexical analysis": there is no AI, no machine learning, and no automatic translation involved at all. The "lexical analysis" is strictly dictionary-based: the bot compares tokens against a static wordlist (e.g. dictionary.txt), which is part of the public source code (which I will update soon because I am constantly improving it). Based on these wordlists, the bot assesses whether the article is en-only, en-heavy or Scots. Anyone is free to inspect it, suggest changes, or improve it. If the dictionary is wrong, the bot is wrong - nothing is hidden or heuristic. Regarding dynamic tasks, I'm very aware of problems with literal grammar/typo ("Scotsification") bots. That's exactly why my bot does not generate Scots, does not rewrite sentences, and it does not apply replacements unless they are explicitly and manually approved. All word and header replacements live in User:BZPN/Whitelist.json and only run if the entry is explicitly listed, the match conditions are exact and the community has agreed to add it. No whitelist entry = no change. Welcomes on the other hand are only triggered after a first constructive content edit. The bot detects whether a user's first edit is a vandalism (e.g. has vulgarisms, blanking, special characters, etc.), and based on this, either welcomes the user or ignores them (because the BZPN bot is not an anti-vandal bot, so it doesn't revert edits). If the first edit is in English, the bot assumes GF and inserts both a welcome and a warning. In short: the bot is deliberately conservative, transparent, and designed to avoid repeating the mistakes of earlier bots. If there are specific safeguards you’d want added, I’m happy to discuss and adjust them. Ta again for the questions. BZPN (tauk) 13:35, 31 Januar 2026 (UTC)
- @CiphriusKane: the bot is ready fur initial testin. A've implemented the report feature tae list airticles that are maistly English. It's worth mentionin that the bot can make mistakes, but only errors would be due tae missing words in the dictionary or airticles wi irregular header names/wikitext issues. BZPN (tauk) 13:42, 7 Februar 2026 (UTC)
- A'v seen the testin an the latest roond o reports wis mair accurate nor it wis at furst an fand a heap ae historical vandalism as weel, sae a'm happy fur it ti keep makkin the reports. Nae seein ony issue wi lettin the bot dae a trial rin fur the ither tasks as weel CiphriusKane (tauk) 11:32, 8 Februar 2026 (UTC)
@CiphriusKane: thanks for the feedback an for monitorin the reports. The bot has nou completed a 4-day supervised test period. A'm pleased tae say the behaviour wis stable an predictable. There were nae significant mistakes during the test period. Based on observations from recent chynges (i.e. vandalism), A've slightly refined the detection filters tae reduce false positives. The recent reports hae already been used by the bot for maintenance taggin. As clarified earlier, ony classification errors can only stem frae missing entries in the static dictionary or irregular wikitext/header structures. Unless there are objections, A intend tae request a permanent bot flag on Meta based on this test period. Of course, A remain happy tae adjust thresholds or safeguards if the community feels it necessary. BZPN (tauk) 11:14, 12 Februar 2026 (UTC)
- @BZPN: A thocht ye seyed it widna be daein owersettins, sae foo come a'm seein bot-lik owersettins in recent changes? CiphriusKane (tauk) 23:51, 13 Februar 2026 (UTC)
- Aye, thae edits are nae connected tae the bot at aw. They come fae ma personal on-wiki gadget: Uiser:BZPN/ScotsCheck, which A put thegither yestreen for ma workflow. It isnae a bot task, an it disnae rin automatically. It disnae translate onything. It simply gies me a popup interface tae apply manual whitelist entries, instead o typin or copyin them by haund in the code. Ye're welcome tae read the description an test it yersel if ye like :). Also, the bot itsel has been inactive for twa days nou, waitin for the flag. BZPN (tauk) 23:59, 13 Februar 2026 (UTC)
- Except the whitelist isna appruived yet an seems gey seemlir ti fit fowks wis daein last tenyeir. Fir exemple it seys aat "ay" means "always", except iss is wrang, an seys aat the Scots fur based is "basit", excep basit means summat else entirely, amang ither hings. An kin ye explain the block on enwiki? A shid hae chackit aat afore giein appruival CiphriusKane (tauk) 00:08, 14 Februar 2026 (UTC)
- Aye, thae edits are nae connected tae the bot at aw. They come fae ma personal on-wiki gadget: Uiser:BZPN/ScotsCheck, which A put thegither yestreen for ma workflow. It isnae a bot task, an it disnae rin automatically. It disnae translate onything. It simply gies me a popup interface tae apply manual whitelist entries, instead o typin or copyin them by haund in the code. Ye're welcome tae read the description an test it yersel if ye like :). Also, the bot itsel has been inactive for twa days nou, waitin for the flag. BZPN (tauk) 23:59, 13 Februar 2026 (UTC)
Nae duin - BZPN his decidit ti lea the wiki CiphriusKane (tauk) 18:01, 14 Februar 2026 (UTC)
(in Inglis) Wiki Loves Folklore running until 31st March
[edit soorce](in Inglis) Apologies for the English message. If there are keen photographers here, I just wanted to let you know about Wiki Loves Folklore. Wiki Loves Folklore is a photographic competition that celebrates our intangible cultural heritage. So if you have photos of a festival, a dance, a traditional food or anything else relating to Scotland's cultural heritage, you can upload them through the link above.
All 4 nations of the UK are taking part so if you have pics from Wales, England or Northern Ireland (organised by Wikimedia Community Ireland), we'd love those too! You can upload them through the relevant nation pages (follow the links from the name above) Gemma Coleman (WMUK) (tauk) 09:07, 25 Februar 2026 (UTC)
Join the sixth Ukraine’s Cultural Diplomacy Month on Wikipedia!
[edit soorce]
Please help translate to your language
Dear Wikipedians!
Wikimedia Ukraine, in cooperation with the MFA of Ukraine and Ukrainian Institute, has launched the sixth edition of writing challenge "Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month", which lasts from 1st April until 30th April 2026.
The initiative aims to promote knowledge about Ukrainian culture abroad by creating and improving Wikipedia articles in multiple languages. This year marks the sixth edition of the campaign, which will focus on contemporary culture, making today’s artistic voices and practices more visible to international audiences.
🧩How to participate?
Choose an article from the suggested list → Write an article in your language, or improve an existing one according to the rules → Add your contribution to the contest page and calculate your points → Win prizes and receive a certificate of participation → Become a promoter of truthful knowledge about Ukraine.
🧩Check our main page for more information.
If you are interested in coordinating long-term community engagement for the campaign and becoming a local ambassador, we would love to hear from you! Please let us know your interest.
If not, then we encourage you to translate the landing page of the contest and banner into your own language.
Also, we set up a banner to notify users of the possibility to participate in this challenge!
OlesiaLukaniuk (WMUA) (talk) 04:35, 1 April 2026 (UTC)
Action Required: Update templates/modules for electoral maps (Migrating from P1846 to P14226)
[edit soorce]Hello everyone,
This is a notice regarding an ongoing data migration on Wikidata that may affect your election-related templates and Lua modules (such as Module:Itemgroup/list).
The Change:
Currently, many templates pull electoral maps from Wikidata using the property P1846, combined with the qualifier P180: Q19571328.
We are migrating this data (across roughly 4,000 items) to a newly created, dedicated property: P14226.
What You Need To Do:
To ensure your templates and infoboxes do not break or lose their maps, please update your local code to fetch data from P14226 instead of the old P1846 + P180 structure. A list of pages was generated using Wikimedia Global Search.
Deadline:
We are temporarily retaining the old data on P1846 to allow for a smooth transition. However, to complete the data cleanup on Wikidata, the old P1846 statements will be removed after May 1, 2026. Please update your modules and templates before this date to prevent any disruption to your wiki's election articles.
Let us know if you have any questions or need assistance with the query logic. Thank you for your help! ZI Jony using MediaWiki message delivery (tauk) 17:11, 3 Apryle 2026 (UTC)