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Wikipedia:Geonotice

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A geonotice is a notice on Special:Watchlist that is displayed only to users who are physically located in some subset of the Earth. The configuration page of geonotices is on Wikipedia:Geonotice/list.json. View the active geonotices and the regions they cover on Wikipedia:Geonotice/Map.

The purpose of geonotices is to announce events that would be of great interest to people in a specific region, but that would not be interesting to most of our readers. The use of targeted messages allows us to scale our communication better; rather than flooding people with multiple messages or avoiding messages entirely, we can display messages only to the people who are most likely to find them useful.

Example uses for targeted messages are: to announce upcoming Wikipedia meetups and local events, for local chapter activities and to advertise mailing lists focused on geographical areas.

Geonotices requested here are only displayed on the watchlist on the English Wikipedia. If you want to target users of all Wikimedia Foundation wikis in a particular geographical area, you can go to meta:CentralNotice to request a geotargeted banner.

No data or personal information is gathered from users to make this notice possible, nor does this notice share any user's personal information with outsiders.

Technical details

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Geonotices are a type of watchlist notice, a type of top of page message similar to a MediaWiki:Sitenotice, MediaWiki:Anonnotice or MediaWiki:Watchlist-messages notice.

The current implementation works by loading the user's latitude and longitude from geoiplookup.wikimedia.org and using a small bit of JavaScript (Geonotice-core.js and Geonotice-list.js) to determine whether or not to display a notice to the user. The location detection is IP address-based, using a lookup system described at wikitech:Geolocation. Currently, MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition specifies the geonotices to be listed at MediaWiki:Gadget-geonotice-list.js (IAdmin-protected), which is turn is updated automatically by User:MusikBot II by synchronizing from Wikipedia:Geonotice/list.json (Sysop-protected).

The "hide" button that is displayed with each message will persistently dismiss that particular message. You can also disable all Geonotices by disabling the Geonotice gadget in your preferences. Geonotices will also be hidden if you have opted to hide all watchlist notices.

Geonotices are currently a candidate to be integrated into MediaWiki proper. One significant open question is how best to allow users to specify the locations of interest for a message. Right now, the location range must be hard-coded in JavaScript itself.

Guidelines

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Create request

To propose a geonotice, simply create a new section under the § Requests section, using the boilerplate text below, and keep following the instructions in this section: 

=== [[Related page name (e.g. meetup page)]] ===
<syntaxhighlight lang="json">
"begin" : "18 September 2019 00:00 UTC",
"end" : "25 September 2019 00:00 UTC",
"corners" : [[45, -90], [52, -100]], 
"text" : "Replace this with your message. You can add [[Wikipedia:Meetup|Wikilinks]] or [https://en.wikipedia.org external links]."
</syntaxhighlight>

'''Discussion'''
* ''User requesting:'' ~~~~

Locations

Try to be as specific as possible when specifying a location. For example, a Washington, D.C. meetup should not be advertised to all users in the United States. Please note that location detection is not flawless: boundaries vary, and IP-based geolocation is inherently imprecise.

Providing exact geographic coordinates makes things much easier. The required format is: [ [latitude, longitude], [latitude, longitude] ] This format defines a bounding box. To help identify bounding boxes, the Flickr API provides a useful reference database (for example: British Columbia). If unsure, select a central point and extend the box one or two degrees in all directions. You can also generate a bounding box using tools like norbertrenner.de/osm/bbox.html: simply navigate to the desired area, click "Draw" in the top left, outline your box, and copy the coordinates shown next to "overpass ql."

For country-wide geonotices, you can target an entire country directly using a country code, such as: "country": "US" instead of specifying "corners":. The geonotice tool follows ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes, which is usually more reliable.

Messages

Messages should be one or two sentences in length, and they should not contain any flashy text or images. It is a good idea to provide at least two options, in case one is deemed inappropriate.

Messages exceeding four sentences are deemed too large, except in cases where the sentences are short. Geonotices should always be used with the understanding that some of the intended audience will be excluded and that some unintended people will be included. As such, the message should be written in a way that would be suitable for display to all users. For example, write "The New York City Wikipedia Meetup will be on August 12" rather than "Hello resident of Long Island...".

Remember to link the event signup page (where appropriate) in the notice - and please use a wikilink (to Wikipedia, Meta, etc) rather than a URL. External URLs do not always work reliably.

Date range

Try to post your request at least five days (preferably seven to ten days) in advance. It may take a while for requests to be handled.

Notify Geonotice maintainers

In case there is no feedback in a few days after posting the request, ask User:Redrose64, User:L235, User:the wub, or an administrator to take a look.

Requests

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Add new requests to the top of this list. Please include coordinates where possible, as this will speed up processing. Note that this page is quite low-traffic - if you've had no response after a day or two, or if it's urgent, please poke the administrators.

Wikipedia:Meetup/San Diego/February 2026

[edit]
  "begin" : "18 January 08:00 UTC",
  "end" : "8 February 00:30 UTC",
  "corners" : [[33.429, -116.082], [32.524, -117.6]], [[San Diego County]]
  "text" : "Everyone is invited to join other Wikimedians at '''[[Wikipedia:Meetup/San Diego/February 2026|a salon]]''' in Rancho San Diego, California."

Discussion

Event:Meetup/Seattle/Wikipedia 25 – Wikipedia Day 2026

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"begin" : "05 January 2026 00:00 UTC",
"end" : "18 January 2026 00:00 UTC",
"corners" : [[47.4394, -122.095551], [47.773647, -122.432694]], <!--DublinCore from boundingbox.klokantech.com: westlimit=-122.432694; southlimit=47.4394; eastlimit=-122.095551; northlimit=47.773647-->
"text" : "Join us at our [[Event:Meetup/Seattle/Wikipedia 25 – Wikipedia Day 2026|Seattle Wikipedia Day / 25th anniversary of Wikipedia]] edit-a-thon at the [[Capitol Hill Branch Library]] on Saturday, January 17, from 1:00–5:00pm PT for improving [[WP:WikiProject Seattle|WikiProject Seattle]] articles."

Discussion

As an admin, I will add this to Wikipedia:Geonotice/list.json myself.

  • User requesting: 22:51, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

Event:Wikipedia 25 in Portland, Oregon

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"begin" : "5 January 2026 00:00 UTC",
"end" : "19 January 2026 00:00 UTC",
"corners" : [[43.7, -124.82], [46.29, -120.39]],
"text" : "Celebrate '''[[Event:Wikipedia 25 in Portland, Oregon|Wikipedia's 25th anniversary in Portland, Oregon]]''', by joining your fellow Wikimedians for a social meetup at a local café. Sign up now!"

Discussion

Event:Wikipedia_25th_Birthday_Bay_Area

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  "begin" : "12 January 2026 00:00 UTC",
  "end" : "23 January 2026 23:59 UTC",
  "corners" : [[38.85,-120.5], [36.6, -123.5]], 
  "text" : "[[Event:Wikipedia_25th_Birthday_Bay_Area|Join]] Wikipedians in the Bay Area on January 24th to celebrate Wikipedia's 25th birthday with cake, crafts, talks and an editathon! All editors and friends of Wikipedia are welcome."

Discussion

 Done the wub "?!" 21:21, 24 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Event:Meetup/Chicago/Wikipedia_25:_Wikipedia_Day_2026

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  "begin" : "23 December 2025 00:00 UTC",
  "end" : "17 January 2026 23:59 UTC",
  "corners" : [ [ 41.5006, -88.3981 ], [ 42.491, -87.2911 ] ],
  "text" : "All Chicago Wikipedians are welcome at our '''[[Event:Meetup/Chicago/Wikipedia_25:_Wikipedia_Day_2026|celebration of Wikipedia's 25th birthday]]''' at Logan Square's Hairpin Arts Center. Join fellow Wikipedians for cake, activities like lightning talks, and more!"

Discussion

 Done the wub "?!" 21:21, 24 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

m:Event:Wikipedia 25/Manila

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  "begin" : "17 December 2025 06:00 UTC",
  "end" : "18 January 2026 07:00 UTC",
  "corners" : [[15.3, 120.5], [14.0, 121.7]]
  "text" : "Wikipedians in and around [[Metro Manila]] are invited to join a '''[[m:Event:Wikipedia 25/Manila|25th Wikipedia Day]]''' celebration in Quezon City. There will be an edit-a-thon, food, and a birthday cake."

Discussion

 Done the wub "?!" 00:35, 18 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Meetup/San Diego/January 2026

[edit]
  "begin" : "15 December 04:00 UTC",
  "end" : "17 January 23:00 UTC",
  "corners" : [[32.7, -121.5], [35.2, -114.1]]
  "text" : "Everyone is invited to come to a post '''[[Wikipedia:Meetup/San Diego/January 2026|Wikipedia Day edit-a-thon]]''' in the neighborhood where Wikipedia was born, Pacific Beach, San Diego, California. Cake available at the edit-a-thon while supplies last."

Discussion

 Done the wub "?!" 15:41, 27 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Previous requests

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