Wikipedia banner approval: How community decisions shape site visibility

When you see a banner on Wikipedia—asking for donations, promoting a campaign, or warning about an outage—it didn’t just pop up by accident. These banners go through a formal Wikipedia banner approval, a community-driven process where volunteers review and vote on what messages appear on the main page. Also known as banner policy review, it’s one of the few times the public sees the inner workings of Wikipedia’s governance. Unlike corporate websites that push ads or alerts without consent, Wikipedia’s banners are debated, revised, and approved by editors who’ve spent years understanding the site’s values. This isn’t about marketing. It’s about trust.

Behind every banner is a Wikipedia policy, a set of community-written rules that guide how the encyclopedia operates. Also known as community guidelines, these aren’t imposed by the Wikimedia Foundation—they’re built from years of discussion on talk pages, mailing lists, and village pumps. Banner requests must follow strict criteria: they need to be relevant to Wikipedia’s mission, non-commercial, and backed by consensus. A donation banner? Approved. A corporate promo? Rejected. Even well-intentioned campaigns, like those promoting new tools or events, get scrutinized for tone, timing, and impact on reader experience. This system relies on community governance, a decentralized model where active editors make decisions through open debate, not top-down orders. Also known as consensus-based editing, it’s what keeps Wikipedia from becoming a corporate platform. Volunteers don’t get paid, but they care deeply about what the site represents. That’s why banners aren’t just design choices—they’re reflections of collective values.

These approvals happen in plain sight. Anyone can join the conversation, read past decisions, or even submit a request. The process isn’t perfect—sometimes it’s slow, sometimes it’s noisy—but it’s transparent. You can trace every banner back to a discussion, a vote, or a policy update. This is how Wikipedia stays true to its roots: open, accountable, and shaped by the people who use it most. Below, you’ll find real examples of how banners were proposed, challenged, and approved. You’ll also see how related tools, like the Wikipedia banner approval workflow, tie into larger efforts to keep the site reliable, inclusive, and free from external influence.