Latest Edition of The Signpost: Key Highlights for Wikipedia Editors

The latest edition of The Signpost dropped on November 28, 2025, and it’s packed with updates that matter to anyone who edits Wikipedia. If you’ve ever spent hours refining an article, debating policy on a talk page, or fixing vandalism at 2 a.m., this is the newsletter you need to read. It’s not just a summary-it’s a pulse check on the health of the world’s largest free encyclopedia.

What’s New in the WikiWorld

This month, The Signpost reported a 17% drop in new editor sign-ups compared to the same period last year. That’s not a surprise to long-time contributors, but it’s still worrying. The number of active editors-those making five or more edits per month-has hovered around 70,000 since early 2024. The community is aging. Newcomers are fewer, and many of those who do join leave within three months. Why? The barrier to entry is higher than ever. Complex policies, hostile edit wars, and automated bots that reject well-intentioned edits without explanation are driving people away.

One bright spot? The mobile app. More than 40% of edits now come from smartphones and tablets. That’s up from 25% in 2022. The Wikimedia Foundation rolled out a simplified edit interface for iOS and Android this fall, and early feedback is positive. First-time editors using the app are 30% more likely to make a second edit than those who start on desktop.

Policy Changes That Hit Hard

Two major policy updates went live this month. The first is the revised Neutral Point of View guideline. For years, editors have argued over whether “both sides” of a controversial topic should always be presented equally. The new guidance says: no. If a claim is fringe, unsupported by reliable sources, or promoted by bad-faith actors, it doesn’t get equal space. This change was pushed through after a months-long discussion on the Village Pump, with over 1,200 comments. It’s already being applied to articles on climate change denial, election fraud theories, and medical misinformation.

The second change is stricter enforcement of Conflict of Interest rules. Organizations, PR firms, and politicians who try to edit their own pages now face automatic blocks if detected. A new tool called COI Watch scans edits for patterns tied to known corporate accounts, paid editors, or institutional IPs. In the first week, 89 accounts were blocked. Some were legitimate researchers-mistakes happen-but most were trying to whitewash corporate histories or bury negative coverage.

Featured Articles and New Tools

This month’s featured article is “The 1980 Winter Olympics: The Forgotten Ice Hockey Miracle”. It’s a deep dive into the U.S. team’s underdog win, based on newly declassified FBI files and interviews with surviving players. The article took 14 months to develop, with contributions from 47 editors across 12 countries. It’s now the most-read article in the sports category.

Wikipedia’s new Article Health Dashboard is rolling out to all editors. It gives you a color-coded snapshot of your articles: green for well-sourced and stable, yellow for needing citations, red for flagged for neutrality or vandalism. You can sort your watchlist by health score now, so you know where to focus. It’s not perfect-sometimes it flags good articles that use obscure but valid sources-but it’s already helping reduce edit wars.

Community Spotlight: The Quiet Heroes

One of the most moving pieces in this edition profiles a 72-year-old retired librarian from rural Ohio who edits Wikipedia under the username “BookWorm42.” She spends two hours a day fixing typos, adding citations to articles on local history, and translating short entries into Spanish for Spanish-speaking readers. She’s made over 12,000 edits. No awards. No recognition. Just quiet, consistent work. Her story isn’t unique. There are thousands like her-people who don’t seek fame, but who keep Wikipedia alive.

Another highlight: the rise of the “WikiTeams.” These are small groups of editors who meet weekly on Discord or Telegram to collaborate on underdeveloped topics. One team focused on Indigenous languages in Canada added 120 new articles in just six weeks. Another is building a database of African women scientists, many of whom were never documented before. These grassroots efforts are where Wikipedia’s future is being built-not in boardrooms, but in chat rooms.

What’s Coming Next

Early next year, Wikipedia will launch a new AI-assisted editing tool called WikiSuggest. It doesn’t write articles for you. Instead, it reads your draft and suggests: missing citations, biased language, or sections that need expansion. It’s trained only on Wikipedia’s own edit history and community-approved content. No corporate data. No external models. The tool is being tested by 5,000 volunteer editors right now. If it passes, it’ll go live to everyone in February.

There’s also a push to improve accessibility. Wikipedia’s text-to-speech feature is getting a major upgrade. It now supports 32 languages, including several Indigenous languages like Navajo and Quechua. Voice navigation for screen readers is also being redesigned based on feedback from visually impaired users.

Why This Matters

The Signpost isn’t just news. It’s a lifeline. It tells you who’s fighting for accuracy, who’s pushing for inclusion, and where the real battles are being fought-not in headlines, but in edit histories and talk page threads. It reminds you that Wikipedia isn’t a static database. It’s a living, breathing community of people who care enough to show up, day after day, to fix what’s broken.

If you edit Wikipedia, you’re part of that. Even if you only fix one typo a week. Even if you only add one citation. You’re keeping the lights on.