State of Wikipedia report for March 2025
The Wikipedia Chaos Index sits at 65 to begin the month, a decrease of 8% from February. This decline is primarily due to a sharp decline in new pages created on Wikipedia; however, with an increase in wait times and an incredibly high number of AfC submissions, this means a lot of pages are awaiting to be patrolled and approved, delaying (and discouraging) creation of new pages to be added to the queue.
Editing overall slowed down very slightly in February, following typical trends we see on Wikipedia after the new year.
Wikipedia’s copyright policies can make it challenging for anyone to upload a photo to the platform, due to their restrictive rules and requirements for licensing any image, video, or graphic used on the platform. This is why actor photos range from ridiculously out-of-date event photos – or more commonly, why most photos of non-political professionals are completely random (and often, unprofessional).
However, there is a new group of editors attempting to rectify this; WikiPortraits, a group of volunteer photographers who’ve begun attending professional events with press credentials, in order to identify and photograph subjects who either don’t have a picture on their Wikipedia page, or have a wildly outdated one.
From Succession actor Jeremy Strong to the historic buildings that host the Sundance festival each year, the project has already uploaded hundreds of new photographs of actors and celebrities (for a look at some of their highlights, check out their studio page).Though their focus has been narrow, it is an intriguing development that could lead to other similar projects in the future to focus on the many other living subjects with embarrassing and/or outdated (or non-existent) photos on Wikipedia.
