Wikipedia talk:Teahouse

Assistance for new editors

The Teahouse is frequently semi-protected, meaning the Teahouse pages cannot be edited by unregistered users (users with temporary accounts), as well as accounts that are not confirmed or autoconfirmed (accounts that are at least 4 days old with at least 10 edits on English Wikipedia).

However, you can still get direct assistance on your talk page. ; a volunteer will reply to you there shortly. Alternatively, you can contact an experienced editor by visiting your homepage and clicking "Ask your mentor a question about editing".

There are currently 1 user(s) asking for help via the {{Help me}} template:

On Mechanics of editing

Now I can't edit on the Teahouse page. This is what I wanted to add:

On one talk page, I have no problem, but on another I had the same problem that I still have on content pages. I guess I'll quit en.wikipedia.org editing.Kdammers (talk) 21:37, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

Review my page I have submitted.

I need help reviewing my page which is in pending review. Jkcantu (talk) 02:23, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

Jkcantu This page is for discussion about the operation of the Teahouse, it is not the Teahouse itself, which is at WP:TEAHOUSE; I will say, though, that Draft:Oluwafikayomi is submitted and pending. Asking for a review does not speed the entirely volunteer driven process, where people do what they can, when they can. Please be patient. 331dot (talk) 08:23, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

Ah okay, thank you. I will be patient. Jkcantu (talk) 15:36, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

I was wondering the best approach to merge 2 articles (1 being subset of the other)

So, I am studying this subject within Hinduisim about different temples.

And I am particularly interested to learn more about the Venkateswara Temple in Tirumala. And I came across a subset of this article in the name of Legend of "Tirumala".

Question: What's the best way to merge these two articles (I think A2 is a small subset of A1):

Article 1: Venkateswara Temple, Tirumala

Article 2: Talk:Legend of Tirumala MethodsUser (talk) 17:26, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

MethodsUser This page is for discussion about the operation of the Teahouse, it is not the Teahouse itself, which is at WP:TEAHOUSE. 331dot (talk) 17:35, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

Ooops sorry. New to this system, still learning. Thank you for your gudiance. MethodsUser (talk) 03:12, 8 June 2026 (UTC)

Be mindful of LTA/CB885

Regular Teahouse answerers, please be mindful of the information at Wikipedia:Long-term abuse/ChronicleBooks885. Every time this user comes back I see people take the bait even though the signs are very obvious; be mindful and when this user appears, ignore them and hat their questions. Athanelar (talk) 20:00, 12 June 2026 (UTC)

@Athanelar What are the signs? How can you tell them from your typical newcomer? ^{In solidarity,} 🏳️‍🌈JohnLaurens333 (They/them • Ping me!) 05:44, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

@JohnLaurens333, the signs are described at the LTA page. You can also read through some of the past SPI cases to get a feel for them. —In solidarity with Wiki Workers United · ClaudineChionh (she/her · talk · email) 05:49, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

In brief, with registered accounts you're looking for a username like WordWordNumbers, WordWordWordNumbers, or occasionally just Wordwordword

With both registered accounts and TAs, their questions (both here and at the Teahouse) have a lot of recurring themes. There's the generic "I'm new, how can I contribute", the comparative questions "What is the difference between x and y" (usually asked at the refdesk, and usually the comparison is nonsense; like what's the difference between laptops and books) "Which is more reliable, x or y" (e.g., public libraries or Wikipedia), and questions relating to the difference between TAs and IPs and whether Wikimedia will ever go back to IPs.

As of late, they also have a habit of specifying that their questions should be answered "in your own words" (i.e., without linking them to project pages containing the answer)

They also generally never use less than 2 accounts at a time, sometimes up to 4 or 5. So if you suddenly see a string of this sort of question appear on the TH in quick succession from similarly-named accounts and a TA or two, that's a surefire tell. If you see them, hat their questions, keep an eye on the teahouse for a bit to hat any questions by other accounts, and report all the accounts to the SPI page for CB885. Checkusers normally find a couple of sleepers, and then sometimes they come back and do it again in a day or two, sometimes they'll be gone for a couple of weeks. Athanelar (talk) 06:14, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

What does "hat" their questions mean? SomeoneDreaming (talk) 16:08, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

@SomeoneDreaming See WP:Reference_desk/Science#Relations_between_Scientology_and_Science for a recent example. Basically, you WP:CLOSE the discussion started by a LTA rather than just revert their original edit. Mike Turnbull (talk) 16:46, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

@Athanelar Got it. I had already read the LTA page and was still unsure of how to tell them from newcomers, but this was very helpful, thank you. ^{In solidarity,} 🏳️‍🌈JohnLaurens333 (They/them • Ping me!) 16:18, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

I've just undone their latest effort. Mike Turnbull (talk) 10:23, 14 June 2026 (UTC)

Are they the same person who keeps asking "What if everyone on Wikipedia was a Checkuser?" or is that someone else? ^{In solidarity,} 🏳️‍🌈JohnLaurens333 (They/them • Ping me!) 15:34, 14 June 2026 (UTC)

That's them, yes. Athanelar (talk) 15:55, 14 June 2026 (UTC)

Lol I saw this immediately after taking the bait myself. Thanks for hatting. cyberdog958^Talk 03:52, 17 June 2026 (UTC)

Not sure how much effort goes into getting an llm to spin up a few paragraphs. CMD (talk) 04:42, 17 June 2026 (UTC)

I recommend Teahouse hosts who are unsure about whether they can spot this one apply for WP:TAIV. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 05:18, 17 June 2026 (UTC)

Not eligible for TAIV yet, so checking my ability to spot them by hand: this one? how do administrators know that someone is vandalizing a page? M kuhner (talk) 18:16, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Not one of their typical questions, the typing style has errors that are unusual for them, and there's no other accounts at the same time, nor any similar questions asked at other venues, so I'd say not them this time. Athanelar (talk) 08:38, 23 June 2026 (UTC)

Oversight

Hi folks, I'm really alarmed at the huge oversights we've had to do in here recently, where lots of editors interacted with content that should have immediately been removed. So let me make a PSA. If you see any of the following:

• a phone number
• a personal address
• an email
• something that links to another wikipedian's off-wiki identity
• any personal information at all for anyone <16 (and yes, "I'm 15" counts)

please immediately email WP:OS. You can do that super easily by going to Special:EmailUser/Oversight. We oversight this stuff in nearly every case. If you're unsure, send it in. We'll tell you if it's not OSable. Act on the presumption that people posting to the Teahouse do not realize that they are releasing their personally identifiable information to the entire internet forever. Send it in.

Also, if you spot:

• credible threats of harm to others
• intent to self-harm

please immediately email WP:EMERGENCY and oversight. The best way to email emergency is through Special:EmailUser/Emergency (this ensures it gets through spam filters).

You can also use the new incident reporting system. If it's available to you (it's not yet out to 100% of editors yet, I don't think), you will see a "report" button if you click on the three dots at the end of someone's talk page message (where you click to thank someone). You can directly report a comment to OS and Emergency this way. Again, if you're contacting us about threats of harm, contact both the WMF and the OS team.

Thanks everyone. In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 20:28, 23 June 2026 (UTC)

@Asilvering Can you link to a page describing the incident reporting feature? Is that a beta feature, and does it work on desktop and mobile or just desktop?

Another question: if a young user states something like their town or US state, and if they do it in multiple places, I assume it should still be reported? There's a young user I've been interacting with who is on an extended break right now, and they have stated their hometown on multiple talk pages and guestbooks over multiple weeks. It's been around for a while, should I still report it, and should I detail every page they stated this information on?

Sorry, these are things I'm sure I should know already. Thank you so much for your help. ^{In solidarity,} 🏳️‍🌈JohnLaurens333 ^{(They/them • Talk • Contribs)} 04:20, 25 June 2026 (UTC)

mw:Incident Reporting System. For the young user, it depends on how young they are. But yes, please send it in (the worst thing that can happen is we say "no need for OS here, thanks"). In solidarity, asilvering (talk) 04:30, 25 June 2026 (UTC)

@Asilvering: What is the proper protocol for a young user who creates a draft about themselves that contains personal information, like their name and birth date/year? As an AfC reviewer I see quite a lot of these, mostly either entirely unsourced or citing Scratch, TikTok, and the like. Should these be reported so they can be suppressed, or just speedy deleted? If speedy deleted, under what criteria? Thanks. ^{In solidarity,} 🏳️‍🌈JohnLaurens333 ^{(They/them • Talk • Contribs)} 20:37, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

You should also send these to the oversight team through email. Tagging for speedy deletion is likely to just draw attention to the page. CoconutOctopus talk 20:45, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

Got it, thank you! ^{In solidarity,} 🏳️‍🌈JohnLaurens333 ^{(They/them • Talk • Contribs)} 20:47, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

Can we archive the top thread, now that this user is blocked? I feel bad for this young fella, there's no need to leave that thread any longer for everyone to read the crash-out. I don't recall how long it takes for them to automatically get archived but folks keep replying to it and I assume that'll drag it on longer. MediaKyle (talk) 13:37, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

 Done —In solidarity with Wiki Workers United · ClaudineChionh (she/her · talk · email) 13:49, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

SuggestBot instructions

I saw that the page at User:SuggestBot said "To get a single set of suggestions…using WikiProjects you are interested in, go to the Teahouse's SuggestBot page, click on Get suggestions, and follow the instructions." When I went to the SuggestBot page at Wikipedia:Teahouse/Suggestions, and clicked on the "Get suggestions" button, I expected to see instructions for how to fill out the template, such as an example of what to enter into the "|category1=" field, in comments within the text box. I didn't see the "notice" style pop-up, because I was looking within the text box. The notice-style pop-up is also a bit awkward on my screen - I have to scroll around it to see the instructions. It may be helpful to simplify this approach? Dreamyshade (talk) 23:46, 23 June 2026 (UTC)

reappearance of old problem

The guy that rabbits on about the Rodfellows movie, remember them? WP:Teahouse § Someone added a movie in "41st Golden Raspberry Awards", a movie that dosen't have its own article on Wikipedia and has no reference looks like a repeat performance. I don't know if the TA posting the question is the problem editor, or the named account they are complaining about, or perhaps both. Very new accounts in both cases. Could someone check? M kuhner (talk) 18:50, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

Well this does seem like it might be ~2026-29101-67 based purely on TAIPV data. Same country per geolocation data, and on a common range (a /22). I would recommend filing an SPI if behavioral evidence matches. 45dogs (they/them) (talk page) (contributions) 00:20, 27 June 2026 (UTC)

Filed. I've gone from suspicious to certain about the TA in the last few hours. M kuhner (talk) 02:38, 27 June 2026 (UTC)