User talk:Balon Greyjoy

The Signpost: 13 July 2026

• News and notes: An exclusive club
  Wikipedia Co-Founder Larry Sanger gets a community ban for canvassing.

• In the media: Battle for a soul – who won?
  Commissars, winners and losers, blocks or bans, a Wiki red card, social engineering on wikis, and Swift action!

• Opinion: We need to innovate with Wikimedia decision-making
  Rules we can actually read, trust and change!

• Recent research: LLMs and NPOV, 20 years of user blocks, Esperanto and Volapük Wikipedias
  And other research findings.

• News from Diff: How to host Wikicurious in your own community
  The Wikicurious team shares their approach to Wiki-event organizing.

• Community view: CUNY Newmark Wikimedian-in-Residence Quarterly Brief – April to June 2026
  Quarterly update on the activities of the City University of New York's Wikimedian-in-Residence, Richard Knipel.

• Special report: Wikipedia escapes Category 1 designation under the UK Online Safety Act – for now
  A possible future recategorization by the UK Government remains an existential threat to Wikipedia.

• On the bright side: Fatherhood, weather, and diplomacy
  Father's Day, Canada Day, and the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence.

• Op-ed: A Layup Easy Proposal for Wikimedia at 25: Spend 25% of Donations on the Community
  If strategy priority 1.1 is supporting the community, can we not increase the support to the community? Increasing grantmaking to 25% of the budget would be a move toward equality in the movement.

• Traffic report: The grass was greener, the light was brighter
  We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of World Cup.

• Comix: schnozzed
  on lollerskates

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:21, 13 July 2026 (UTC)

Articles for Creation backlog drive

Hello Balon Greyjoy:

WikiProject Articles for creation is holding a month long Backlog Drive in August!
The goal of this drive is to reduce the backlog of unreviewed drafts to less than a month of outstanding reviews from the current 3+ months. Bonus points will be given for reviewing drafts that have been waiting more than 30 days. The drive is running from 1 August 2026 through 31 August 2026.

You may find Category:AfC pending submissions by age or other categories and sorting helpful.

Barnstars will be given out as awards at the end of the drive.
There is a backlog of over 5000 pages, so start reviewing drafts. We're looking forward to your help! MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:36, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

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The Downlink Volume 4, Issue 6

	The Downlink	The WikiProject Spaceflight Newsletter
		2026 1 — 30 June

Volume 4 — Issue 6
Spaceflight Project • Project discussion • Members • Assessment • Open tasks • Popular pages • The Downlink
In the News On 7 June, Tianwen-2 performed a successful orbital insertion around 469219 Kamoʻoalewa; this is the first mission to the quasi-satellite SMILE, the joint heliophysics mission between the ESA and CAS, achieved its final orbital position on 20 June.
Article of the month Expedition 24 A last-quarter crescent moon above Earth's horizon is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 24 crew member. Expedition 24 was the 24th long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Expedition 24 initially had two planned spacewalks, one Russian and one American Extra-vehicular Activity (EVA). The U.S. EVA was re-planned and a second U.S. EVA was added.	Image of the month NASA spacecraft comparison This graphic, created c. 1964, compares the relative sizes of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft (right, bottom-to-top). Each successive craft is larger and has a greater crew capacity than the previous; additionally, while the Mercury and Gemini craft are fairly similar, the Apollo craft (actually two craft, the Apollo command and service module and Apollo Lunar Module) is substantially different: the reentry module is more conical, and has a much large thruster. These changes, and the lunar lander, are present because Apollo was the first crewed missions to the moon, with the changes necessary to ensure that the crew could return to Earth alive. A similar pattern can be found in the comparison of the launch vehicles on the left: while the Mercury (Atlas-D) and Gemini (Titan II) vehicles are similar in size, differing primarily in height, the Apollo vehicle, the Saturn V, is significantly larger, both for the need to transport the CSM and LEM, but also in order to get to the Moon in the first place.
Members New Members: LonghairSpaceHistoryGuy (8 June) Jake11223344 (23 June) DragonPowerZ (23 June) Number of active members: 232. Total number of members: 463. June Launches All times stated here are in UTC. See a current list Here. Long March 12B — 2 Qianfan satellites (1 Jun. at 08:40:00) (success) H3-30S — various (12 Jun. at 00:53:59) (success) Long March 3B/E — Shijian-31 (16 Jun. at 09:45:00) (success)	Article Statistics This data reflects values from 30 June 2026. Spaceflight articles by quality and importance Quality Importance Top High Mid Low NA ??? Total FA 6 30 15 8 59 FL 3 4 4 11 FM 124 124 A 1 2 1 4 GA 12 26 34 62 3 137 B 18 78 200 246 10 552 C 41 171 617 906 1 80 1,816 Start 15 133 1,024 2,734 513 4,419 Stub 5 192 1,974 338 2,509 List 11 117 112 246 1 50 537 Category 1,283 1,283 Disambig 47 47 File 276 276 Portal 54 54 Project 108 108 Redirect 2 42 144 1,259 1,447 Template 534 534 Other 1 36 37 Assessed 104 565 2,242 6,326 3,723 994 13,954 Unassessed 7 112 119 Total 104 565 2,242 6,333 3,723 1,106 14,073 Monthly Changes Since May 2026, there are one more Mid-importance, 12 more Low-importance, ten fewer NA-importance, and six more Unknown-importance articles, for a total of nine new articles. There are also four more GA-class, seven more B-class, five more C-class, five more Start-class, three more Stub-class articles, and two more lists.
Discuss & propose changes to The Downlink at The Downlink talk page. To unsubscribe from the newsletter remove your name from the Mailing list. Newsletter contributors: Ships&Space

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:07, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

The Signpost: 2 August 2026

• In the media: Union drive, most prolific editor make headlines
  AI's impact on Wikipedia, World Cup editing, and encyclopedia's place in public life.

• News and notes: Foundation rejects voluntary recognition of union, proposed board eligibility rules sharply restrict candidates
  Further: harassment allegations at Wikimania, and new RfC for Abstract Wikipedia.

• WikiConference: "Kurier, Signpost, wikipress: You can be a Wikimedia journalist" - Wikimania presentation by User:Noé Recap
  A recap of Noé Gasparini's Wikimania 2026 presentation on the variety of wikipress outlets

• In focus: Is Larry Sanger the co-founder of Wikipedia?
  A look over the years.

• Arbitration report: Think, and not just about content
  ArbCom continues business.

• News from Diff: Meet the Wikimedians of the Year 2026!
  Wikimedians of the Year 2026 announced at Wikimania 2026 - Paris

• On the bright side: The beautiful game
  2026 Men's FIFA World Cup, Wikimania music, and wikipress.

• Traffic report: Odyssey and Oyarzabal
  To take you in the sun to (Ithaca), to show you the World Cup, it's the time of the season for editing!

• Comix: Well-spotted
  You dasherdly—dash–dash−dash-dash!

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:12, 2 August 2026 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 August 2026

• News and notes: Union process progresses, unanswered questions about Littler Mendelson remain
  And Raju Narisetti leaves WMF board after nine years.

• In the media: Wikipedia editors save Sam Altman's life
  Can AI do that? Meanwhile, Ruwiki gives porn the shaft, and has Grokipedia ghosted?

• Recent research: Women in blue? Wikipedia's gender gap reverses in some areas
  And other new research findings.

• Discussion report: Again and Again
  The community comes to consensus.

• Traffic report: Look out, here comes the Spider-Man!
  Plus The Odyssey and varied topics caught in his web.

• Humour: Her tastes, her Wikimania, her upcoming tour... Baby Globe reveals everything
  A short (parody) interview with Baby Globe via the French wikipress outlet, Regards sur l’Actualité du mouvement Wikimédia (RAW).

• On the bright side: The great outdoors
  Blue Angels, Indigenous Peoples' Day, and the Perseids meteor shower.

• Opinion: Are we embarrassed yet?
  One editor wants to find out more about a Department of Justice investigation of Wikipedia and its editors.

• Special report: Paris Syndrome: Labor Strife, AI Anxiety, and a Leadership Test at Wikimania 2026
  Notes from a delightful Wikimania and the ugly week that followed.

• Comix: WP:FAOWN
  "Explaining civilly" probably should go both ways...

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:19, 24 August 2026 (UTC)

New pages patrol September 2026 Backlog drive

September 2026 Backlog Drive | New pages patrol
On 1 September 2026, a one-month backlog drive for new pages patrol will begin at a particularly important time for NPP. The backlog has now passed 30,000 unreviewed articles, a level that has been described in current NPP discussions as exceptionally high and potentially difficult to overcome through normal reviewing alone. Backlog drives are one of the few measures that have historically produced a noticeable reduction in the backlog, so the participation of as many active patrollers as possible will matter this month. If you can review during September, please make articles your priority. Every article that is reviewed is a meaningful reduction in the backlog. With the queue at its current size, even a relatively small increase in the number of articles each patroller reviews can add up to a substantial difference over the course of the month. This is a hybrid drive, so redirect reviewing is still included. Redirects can be a useful way for newer patrollers to get comfortable with NPP and can help people build up to reviewing articles. However, the main goal of this drive is to tackle the article backlog, and experienced patrollers are particularly encouraged to spend as much of their available reviewing time on articles as they can. Barnstars will be awarded based on the number of articles and redirects patrolled. Each article review will earn 1 point, while each redirect review will earn 0.2 points. Streak awards will be given out based on consistently hitting point thresholds for each week of the drive. Barnstars will also be granted for re-reviewing articles previously reviewed by other patrollers during the drive. If you have been thinking about doing more NPP, this is an especially good month to jump in. Whether you can review a few pages or hundreds, every review helps. And if you are already an active patroller, please consider whether you can put in some additional time during September to help bring the backlog back under control. Interested in taking part? Sign up here.
You're receiving this message because you are a new page patroller. To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:49, 24 August 2026 (UTC)

The Downlink Volume 4, Issue 7

	The Downlink	The WikiProject Spaceflight Newsletter
		2026 1 — 31 July

Volume 4 — Issue 7
Spaceflight Project • Project discussion • Members • Assessment • Open tasks • Popular pages • The Downlink
In the News On the 2 and 5 July, Tianwen-2 imaged 469219 Kamoʻoalewa and Hayabusa2 imaged 98943 Torifune, respectively. While the latter was a flyby, Tianwen-2 rendezvoused with Kamoʻoalewa on 4 July following orbital insertion at ~20 kilometres (12 mi); it is planned to return samples from the Apollo asteroid. The Swift boost mission was launched on 3 July. This was the final launch of the Pegasus XL, and consequently the end of air-launch-to-orbit worldwide as of the time of writing. China became the second country to achieve the recovery of a booster with the maiden flight of the Long March 10B on 10 July. On 18 July, Vikram-1 was successfully launched, carrying multiple objects to LEO; built and launched by Skyroot Aerospace, it is India's first commercial rocket.
Article of the month Night Glider mode The ISS in 2001 showing solar panels. Night Glider mode (or "XVV Night Glider mode") is one of the procedures for orienting the solar arrays on the International Space Station. Normally the photovoltaic solar arrays of the space station track the sun. However, one of the main causes of orbital decay on the space station is that the area of the solar arrays, brushing against the thin residual atmosphere at orbital altitude, results in a small amount of aerodynamic drag. The drag can be lowered by orienting the solar arrays in "sun slicer" mode, where they fly edge-on to the orbital direction, rather than tracking the sun, however, this orientation reduces the power produced. The "night glider" mode is a hybrid orientation, where the solar arrays track the sun during the period when the space station is illuminated, are rotated edge-on to the orbital direction when it enters in the Earth's shadow, and then are returned to their tracking position when the station re-enters sunlight. This reduces the average drag on the station's solar arrays by about 30 percent, with no reduction in power.	Image of the month Buzz Aldrin and Apollo 11 Lunar Lander Taken by Neil Armstrong, this image shows Buzz Aldrin removing the passive seismometer, part of the Passive Seismic Experiment Package (PSEP), from the lander. Like all experimental instruments, the PSEP was stored in the lander's Scientific Equipment (SEQ) bay; on Apollo 11, it was stored along with the Laser Ranging Retroreflector (LRRR). Initially, NASA planned a full array of experiments for all Apollo missions, but the uncertainty of the first lunar landing led to only these two experiments being conducted. This first package was called the Early Apollo Surface Experiments Package (EASEP); later missions carried the full Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP).
Members New Members: Leaf.Sheap (2 July) KyloRen2017 (6 July) ToadalChaos (22 July) Number of active members: 206. Total number of members: 466. July Launches All times stated here are in UTC. See a current list here. Pegasus XL — Swift boost mission (3 Jul. at 04:24:00) (success Long March 10B — Hulianwang Jishu Shiyan (10 Jul. at 04:15:00) (success) Vikram-1 — SCOPE, SOLARAS S3 (18 Jul. at 06:35:30) (success)	Article Statistics This data reflects values from 31 July 2026. Spaceflight articles by quality and importance Quality Importance Top High Mid Low NA ??? Total FA 6 30 15 8 59 FL 3 4 4 11 FM 124 124 A 1 2 1 4 GA 12 26 34 62 3 137 B 18 79 202 247 10 556 C 42 173 617 914 1 88 1,835 Start 14 133 1,024 2,742 517 4,430 Stub 5 192 1,971 339 2,507 List 11 117 110 248 1 50 537 Category 1,291 1,291 Disambig 47 47 File 276 276 Portal 54 54 Project 109 109 Redirect 2 44 147 1,257 1,450 Template 535 535 Other 1 43 44 Assessed 104 568 2,244 6,345 3,738 1,007 14,006 Unassessed 4 109 113 Total 104 568 2,244 6,349 3,738 1,116 14,119 Monthly Changes Since June 2026, there are three more High-importance, two more Mid-importance, thirteen more Low-importance, five more NA-importance, and ten more Unknown-importance articles, for a total of 46 new articles. There are also four more B-class, nineteen more C-class, eleven more Start-class, and two more Stub-class articles.
Discuss & propose changes to The Downlink at The Downlink talk page. To unsubscribe from the newsletter remove your name from the Mailing list. Newsletter contributors: Ships&Space

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:08, 30 August 2026 (UTC)