Administrators' newsletter – December 2025
News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2025).
Administrator changes
CheckUser changes
Technical news
- Starting on November 4, the IP addresses of logged-out editors are no longer being publicly displayed. Instead, they will have a temporary account associated with their edits.
- Administrators will now find that Special:MergeHistory is now significantly more flexible about what it can merge. It can now merge sections taken from the middle of the history of the source (rather than only the start) and insert revisions anywhere in the history of the destination page (rather than only the start). T382958
Miscellaneous
- The December 2025 administrator elections are scheduled from Nov 25 – Dec 15.
- An Articles for Creation backlog drive is happening in December 2025, with over 1,000 drafts awaiting review from the past two months. In addition to AfC participants, all administrators and new page patrollers can help review using the Yet Another AFC Helper Script, which can be enabled in the Gadgets settings. Sign up here to participate!
Wishing you a positive outlook for the new year, 2026
Happy New Year!
Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year snowman}} to people's talk pages with a friendly message.
- @Iggy the Swan: Thanks, I wish the same to you! Mattythewhite (talk) 13:19, 1 January 2026 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – January 2026
News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2025).
Administrator changes
CheckUser changes
Oversight changes
Guideline and policy news
- All general sanctions imposed by the community may now be enforced at the Arbitration Enforcement noticeboard (WP:AE) as a result of a recent RfC.
- Due to the result of a recent RFC, the administrator recall process is amended to extend the deadline for a re-request for adminship to 30 days or the next administrator election, whichever is later.
- Changes to the Access to Temporary Account IP Addresses Policy's disclosure rules include broadening the consecutive-blocks exception to cover all admin actions and removing the requirement to revision-delete permissible disclosures once they become unnecessary (instead requiring only their removal). See WP:TAIVDISCLOSE for more information.
Arbitration
- Following the 2025 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been elected to the Arbitration Committee: Aoidh, Asilvering, Girth Summit, Guerillero, HJ Mitchell, HouseBlaster, Izno, Sdrqaz, SilverLocust.
- The arbitration case Pbsouthwood has been suspended.
Tony Adams
Hi, please don't revert an entire edit simply because you dispute one item. I've restored mine other than the Christian name bit, which I will research further Billsmith60 (talk) 17:38, 10 January 2026 (UTC)
- @Billsmith60: Thanks for looking into it further, but I can confirm that Adams' birth name was Tony Alexander Adams, see here (registration may be required). I would note also this comment at the article's talk page, in which an unregistered user stated that Adams himself confirms in his autobiography that his first name is Tony. I don't have a copy of the book myself, but I'm willing to assume good faith with what they state. The writer for the Independent likely assumed that Wikipedia was wrong with Tonyn and took it upon himself to write Anthony. Mattythewhite (talk) 18:27, 10 January 2026 (UTC)
Paul Gascoigne
Hi Matty - I removed the section that stated Gateshead is in County Durham - It is not - Geographically, never has been, it was administered by County Durham back in the early 1800's - But has been it's own borough since the mid 1800's - I should know, I've lived here near all my life, and I'm chatting to you whilst sitting in my house in Gateshead.
It appears to me that the person who input that erroneous piece of information has had particular motivations to do so - Trying to link Gateshead to being part of Durham during Gazza's lifetime is a complete lie and fabrication.
Your own Wikipedia article on Gateshead (Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateshead) indicates that Gateshead became it's own County Borough in 1888:
"Historically part of County Durham, under the Local Government Act 1888 the town was made a county borough, meaning it was administered independently of the county council."
Even that is incorrect however as it has never been regarded as County Durham by anyone living in Gateshead, it has however been ADMINISTERED from there until 1880s as the article says.
So what on Earth is that contributor trying to do saying that Gateshead is part of County Durham - It is not & the last time it was ADMINISTERED by CD was in the 1800's.
It is a ridiculous edit, a lie and obvious attempt by someone with particular motivations to tie Gazza to another part of the world - I think you can probably imagine the type of...red and white liar with motivations to do so.
Dunston, by the way, where Gazza is from is near the banks of the Tyne and you can see St James's Park from his parents house that he bought them on Dunston bank, it is a stones throw from Newcastle, it is the best part of a half hour away from Durham, having to travel down the A1 for about 20 miles.
Anyway, Durham is completely incorrect, Gateshead is it's own borough, has been for well over a century, Gazza was born nowhere near Durham, that piece of information is totally incorrect and needs removing - It's an infuriating and obvious lie. ~2026-23019-0 (talk) 19:02, 11 January 2026 (UTC)
Nomination of Chris Dickinson (footballer) for deletion
The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Chris Dickinson (footballer) until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.
Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article until the discussion has finished.All my warmest wishes, ItsKesha (talk) 23:19, 16 January 2026 (UTC)