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    Apparent student project on fish articles, uploading tons of copyvios to Commons

    It seems like just today, a ton of student editors have been publishing edits to fish articles (see here for apparent confirmation it's a student project [though most edits have been directly in mainspace]). Their edits have been OK on the balance, but they've also been uploading a ton of files to Commons with no or fake licenses (I've tagged a bunch of the ones with fake licenses which you can see in my Commons contribs, while the ones with no licenses have been auto-tagged on Commons). @Ian (Wiki Ed) et al, any chance you can help with this? I have no idea what the scale of this is since I've just run across a few pages while going through CS1 errors. Jay8g [V•T•E] 08:13, 15 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

    Here are the users I've come across so far:
    Jay8g [V•T•E] 08:35, 15 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Found the same thing while patrolling, and initially filed an SPI for it (Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Kynadine). Most contributions I ran across seem okay, but a couple involved superimposing numbers instead of putting refs (eg [1] instead of the actual format used for citations). 45dogs (they/them) (talk page) 10:13, 15 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    More users have been listed at c:COM:AN#Student_editing_project_about_fish_on_enWP_leading_to_mass_copyvio_uploads_on_Commons. Also:
    Jay8g [V•T•E] 08:11, 16 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    This isn't a class we're supporting, but if you're able to get any information about the school or instructor, we'd be happy to try to help them. --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:08, 17 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    @LiAnna (Wiki Ed): It might be UC Davis based on a similar unofficial project last year, but frustratingly, none of this year's students are responding to talk page messages here or on Commons. Jay8g [V•T•E] 00:08, 18 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    You would think responding to talk messages would be a requirement for participating in these kind of projects Trade (talk) 01:17, 19 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    From what I'm seeing from checking a few talk pages, the students are getting welcome templates on Wikipedia and COM:AN notifications on Commons. Neither of those really suggest that they're expected to provide a response.
    As I said on a similar case in 2023 (where it took us three years to stop one teacher's runaway twice-yearly lesson plan), I think we need a boilerplate talk page notice for this kind of obvious, undeclared mass student editing problem (Hello, you appear to be part of a school project which isn't following Wikipedia guidelines for educational projects, and which is causing students to break some Wikipedia policies. Please direct your teacher to WP:BADEDU.), linking to an essay which lets their teacher know that they've overlooked something big in their lesson plan and showing how they can open a conversation with us. If every apparent student gets that template, somebody will pass the link on to the teacher. Belbury (talk) 11:20, 19 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    We may want a less derogatory shortcut. CMD (talk) 13:03, 19 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Yikes sorry my bad, I investigated that SPI and I guess I must have gotten distracted and never added notes. @LiAnna (Wiki Ed), I'm about 90% confident that's UC Davis. -- asilvering (talk) 11:32, 19 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    I think we found the instructor at UC Davis; we're reaching out to them to try to get them to do it with us so we can provide guidance to hopefully avoid this problem in the future; it looks like we reached out last year but didn't hear back, so hopefully we will this time. --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:06, 19 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    @LiAnna (Wiki Ed): If/when you get in touch with them, can we get a full list of the student accounts? I'm concerned we've missed some and we still need to get rid of their copyvio Commons uploads. Jay8g [V•T•E] 05:51, 20 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Well, the person we though it was answered and it wasn't them! But they pointed us to the correct instructor, thankfully. The instructor is wrapping up the assignment for this term, but has agreed to work with us in the future so hopefully this problem won't reappear. We've asked them to either come here and post the list of usernames or email them to us and we will post them here. --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:55, 20 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    @LiAnna (Wiki Ed): Any updates on this? Jay8g [V•T•E] 07:16, 2 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    The instructor hasn't replied to our request about usernames, but we'll ping again! --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 23:22, 2 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    @LiAnna (Wiki Ed): Just checking in again, since it has been quite a while with no response (and I don't want to leave copyvio images hanging around on Commons if there are any we didn't find). Jay8g [V•T•E] 00:40, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    We still haven't heard back, sorry, but we will ping again! --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:35, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Hi WP:EDU, I'm a student from this class. Here's a more-or-less complete list of pages and usernames from this year:
    Orange spotted filefish (User:Sebssubmarine25), Gibbonsia montereyensis (Special:Contributions/~2025-34175-81), Bluntsnout smooth-head (Special:Contributions/~2025-33537-06), Ammodytes hexapterus (User:GrovesEdits), Oryzias dancena (User:Momentaryuse), Gastromyzon ornaticauda (User:Oswaltius Dogwinkleson), Mugilogobius cavifrons (User:Wfp-mg), Pseudoplatystoma corruscans (User:Quailmses), Myrichthys colubrinus (User:Colubrinuseel), Danionella cerebrum (User:Butterspedia), Pseudobatos prahli (User:P.prahli), Silver spinyfin (User:AMANDi08), Eumecichthys (User:NKM697), Aplocheilus parvus (User:M.banana.dm), Chromis limbaughi (User:Ttuguita), Tactostoma (User:Fishyfishy24), Pacific nurse shark (User:FishermanWilly), Six-banded distichodus (User:Bluefish28), Notolabrus gymnogenis (User:M!nn0W17), Gilled lungfish (Special:Contributions/~2025-36161-32), Lake Chala tilapia (User:B00merFi$h), Blue acara (User:BrieSteele1), Acanthemblemaria crockeri (User:Blenny123456!!), Cuban dogfish (User:DogfishLover0w0), Cyclothone atraria (User:Twothreepeanutbutter), Pictichromis diadema (User:Cdkettlehake), Biwa trout (User:Caseyf0312), Canthigaster capistrata (User:GreenShirt7), Gilded triggerfish (User:Vacabird21), Amur sturgeon (User:Zonuu), Longfin smelt (User:DahriusB), Hydrolagus melanophasma (User:Gho$t$hark), Torrent sculpin (User:HeyHachi), Atlantic sixgill shark (User:Cowshark12345), Reticulated swellshark (User:GWsharklover), Paddlenose chimaera (User:ChickenJuicepoo), Astyanax apiaka (User:Dxzhu814), Thymallus baicalensis (User:SamGeogeMcM), Deepsea skate (User:Finnysharkin), Mirapinna (User:Byevra), Tule perch (User:BlueFish2025), Apteronotus rostratus (User:Rhodopsin1001), Glaucosoma hebraicum (User:Gibbs Nelo), Mountain sucker (User:Offishal fish), Japanese gissu (User:Glgrundstrom), Surfperch (User:RoundSe404), Cigar wrasse (User:TheSpookyTimes), Dasyatis marmorata (User:Hagfishgang), Indonesian shortfin eel (User:Literary snake), Polypterus endlicherii (User:BuckyIrving), Orangemouth lizardfish (User:Lemurrat), Pinktail triggerfish (User:Wildyackson), Ruby seadragon (User:Seabottle1), Black Sea salmon (User:Einayim), Marcusenius macrolepidotus (User:Jadencat), California lizardfish (User:NinjaGraiten), Tropical gar (User:Jamonkus), Minckley's cichlid (User:Athena0036), Pseudobatos buthi (User:Abababab123412), Black ghost knifefish (User:BettaHugger), Blue tiger piranha (User:Cook in cookie), Sigmops bathyphilus (User:DontDrinkTheTapWater), Dracula fish (User:FishClass), Mene maculata (User:SakiBees), Labeobarbus somereni (User:Jiggingjessie), Ophiclinops varius (User:StarfishPaperWriter), Oxyporhamphus micropterus (User:FishOwl21), Longhorn sculpin (User:Longhorn Sculpin), Mediterranean rainbow wrasse (User:GoletaGirl123), Golden julie (User:GoldenFishy62), Emblemaria piratica (User:Wh0pp), Smalltooth stingray (User:LaCabanedeLou!), Abantennarius drombus (User:Fishfanatic120), Agamyxis pectinifrons (User:OKTJGojiGuy), Mordacia lapicida (User:Deerlife4), Northern clingfish (User:KatelinRausch), Omul (User:Snow.civil), Chlorurus bowersi (User:Lingcodlover123), Neotrygon orientalis (User:Katwholikesfish), Paedocypris progenetica (User:Fortheloveoffish), Maltese skate (User:PuddleEnjoyer), Common ponyfish (User:Fishwiki12), Flying gurnard (User:Kynadine), Large kelpfish (User:Lfriker), Clown featherback (User:Parkourprincess), Ploughfish (User:ShiitakeMushroom26), Hingemouth (User:Pansorgii), Psenes arafurensis (User:Leokoeh356), Schizopygopsis przewalskii (User:Lilikoi8), Hawaiian butterflyfish (User:Lelizabethm), Western spotted gummy shark (User:Mackennaweems), Vieja melanurus (User:Small cheeky apple), Stiphodon elegans (User:554blu883), Herichthys carpintis (User:Benthicfeeder), Ember parrotfish (User:Medharaj), Acanthogobius flavimanus (User:Yellow small fish), Photostomias guernei (User:Fuzzynood),Myxine circifrons (User:Mikmley), Sinocyclocheilus (User:Cheetah's inbox), Small-eyed rabbitfish (User:Npomp), Messmate pipefish (User:Piercethemagnet), Bigscale logperch (User:Olivesparkles), Halichoeres sanchezi (User:Fishluvr), Axillary wrasse (User:Flowersquirrels), Allegheny pearl dace (User:Daceforeverandalways), Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum (User:Threespinestickleback84), Ablabys taenianotus (Special:Contributions/~2025-33557-46), Pseudoliparis amblystomopsis (User:Potatosac789), Cape elephantfish (Special:Contributions/~2025-32977-75 and also User:TurdusMigratoriusRegia), Velvet dogfish (User:Cicada'sbug), Arroyo chub (User:The Fruman), Anatolichthys anatoliae (User:Ilovemycat333), Brazilian sharpnose shark (User:Samwise42velociraptor), Redeye bass (User:Gregory Mouse), Giant wrymouth (User:Lalal777), Polynesian longfinned eel (User:BeSoForEel), Pit sculpin (User:Sgfish98), Anableps dowii (User:Asethm), Gerres cinereus (User:Teamyellowfin), Eidinemacheilus smithi (User:Yzjzth), Penang betta (User:Temperate grasslands), Malabar danio (User:Silverwolf575), Schindleria praematura (User:Ymoja), Aenigmachanna gollum (User:Vpaulino862), Jensen's skate (User:Acipenserhandler), Onychostoma macrolepis (User:GXrabbit), Cyprinus rubrofuscus (User:Yb368), Blenniella bilitonensis (User:Zpickus), Neoglyphidodon melas (User:Oliveinmoon), King snake eel (User:SrfNrd322), McCloud River redband trout (User:Riversmaiden), Pacific bonito (User:Pacificbonito), Northern lampfish (User:Fisharesocoool)
    Many pages could probably benefit from a once-over by experienced editors, as most if not all of us were new to Wikipedia editing. Fishuserlist (talk) 00:32, 24 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

    Banners heads-up

    Just a heads-up that Wiki Education is requesting a series of banners running January 5-9, 2026, ahead of the upcoming spring term, for logged-out Wikipedia readers geotargeted to a list of college towns in the United States (think Oxford, MS; Morgantown, WV; Missoula, MT; Chico, CA; Clemson, SC; etc.). These banners are designed to encourage college instructors who might be interested in teaching with Wikipedia to do so through our program, so we can provide support for them (hopefully heading off some of the problems that have been brought here recently with unaffiliated instructors). We'll test if this works, and we may do more in the future. Since they will also reach some non-university-affiliated people in the town as well, we'll add a link to Help:Introduction as a general editing encouragement as well. Let me know if you have any questions! --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 00:16, 9 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

    I think this is potentially a good thing, with one note of caution. It needs to be very clear to instructors reading the banners that the invitation is, indeed, to work with Wiki Ed, not just to use Wikipedia for their class without working with you. There needs to be no room for misunderstanding that point. --Tryptofish (talk) 00:34, 9 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks so much, Tryptofish. This is a very good point, and we'll make sure to draw that clear line for people. --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:43, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

    Some oversight needed for Assas University project

    As noted by Assas CHEUNG in WP:SUP#Assas University, Business English assignment 2025–26, there is a new project which involves students reviewing DYK submissions. I think everybody is acting in good faith here, and introducing new editors to the DYK process is certainly a laudable goal. There has been, however, some friction generated between the students and the DYK old-timers, which I was asked off-wiki to investigate in my capacity as an admin.

    I am only slightly familiar with how these educational projects are supposed to run, and stepping in with my admin tools seems like it would be a gross overstep at this point. Perhaps the best thing would be if somebody who is better versed in the process could take a look at WT:DYK#New users reviewing articles and lend some words of wisdom, support, guidance, etc? Thanks. RoySmith (talk) 16:12, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

    Pinging @Mathilde Louis WMFr: in case Wikimedia France can help! --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:42, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    I'm the supervisor project, and I thought that the DYK process was the best way to let students familiarise themselves with how the 'pedia works. I'm sorry it seems to have ruffled some feathers, but I hope the old-timers will be kind enough not to WP:BITE. My students have been briefed on the rules and have been asked to check out the criteria, policies and guidelines. They were specifically told not to plagiarise (which regrettably some students believe does not include LLM generated material), most likely due to their perceived inadequacies in English despite the fact that the vast majority of them should be at least B1. Moreover, as we know, the WP system is labyrinthine and this has proven somewhat tricky for newbies. My peeps were given instructions on naming protocol and to tag their usepages with {{Assas person}}, both rules which most of them seem to be respecting. It's true that an influx of 100+ newbies may tend to overwhelm any project area, and maybe DYK isn't a good place to start. Nevertheless, it would be great if any able-bodied seamen would check out their contributions, which may be in their respective sandboxes or in draft space. Assas CHEUNG (talk) 18:38, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    @Assas CHEUNG Every single draft submitted by one of your students has been declined, often due to serious LLM usage, essay-like writing with synth, or simple notability issues. It's causing extra unneeded work for us volunteer reviewers.
    Directing your students to write new drafts and submit for review is probably the worse starting point, considering how difficult it is to write a new article and the backlog of unreviewed drafts we have. Why couldn't you have given them simpler tasks like improving existing articles?
    Why should us volunteer editors have to put in the effort to clean up the mess your students have made? qcne (talk) 18:45, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    I understand, but the resources currently available to support such a project on en.WP doesn't seem too adapted/adaptable or is obsolete. This is the Education Noticeboard after all, so any suggestions on how to do so would be extremely helpful, in particular how one would define and evaluate (quantify and measure) a pedagogical project on the basis of article improvement. Assas CHEUNG (talk) 19:40, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    We've now got one of your students verbally abusing editors. I would highly recommend you shut down this project before any further disruption to the project occurs, @Assas CHEUNG. There is a reason why WikiEdu exists. I don't want to take this to ANI for sanctions, but. qcne (talk) 21:38, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Let's not go off the deep end here. There are some legitimate problems to be resolved here, but one disruptive participant does not automatically mean the entire project should be banned. RoySmith (talk) 21:58, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Oh god, not more. Between this and the other disruption I would support bringing it up at ANI. To be clear I don't support shutting the whole thing down but I would like to see action actually taken to curb this editing that is wasting our time. Chorchapu (talk | edits) 22:00, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    I think the right question to be asked is this: can you, as the instructor, take responsibility for the behaviour and content of all 100 editors?
    We've had some really nice and productive conversations with your students, and also less productive and downright hostile ones. We're certainly not asking for perfection here, but frankly, your attitude seems to be that you recognise there is a mess, that other people should clean up after it, and you aren't responsible for it because WikiEd doesn't allow you to do precisely what you want (for a reason, perhaps?). You are right that feathers have been ruffled but it has been ruffled primarily because of the attitude, not (just) because of the fact that you are running a far too ambitious course. We will and have been clear (and if you have been a 20 year Wikipedian you will know) that we will not give deference to student editors causing problems; if this becomes meatpuppetry at DYK or AfD or disruptive at AfC or whatever, ANI is the appropriate venue, and if students make personal attacks or otherwise disrupt the project, sanctions will be handed out. This is an unsatisfactory outcome for all concerned. I know it is very late over in France, but I would urge you if you truly want this course to succeed to put at least as much effort as us volunteers are into fixing the problem and educating your students. Fermiboson (talk) 22:07, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    As a current freshmen at college, I would like to express a genuine amount of bafflement at the thought that 100 juniors are unable to write one accepted article. Sure, I am experienced now, but my first edits to Wikipedia as an 8th grader (14-15 years old) was a draft article accepted through AfC (USCGC Jackson). I am a naval architect major, and my most advanced English class was a high school AP class.
    I have spoken to a WikiEdu class in person, and with the AfC drafts I have seen, it appears that all of the students treat this as another essay assignment. While some fill it in with LLM usage, others still have a personal tone that would not fly in any of my college essays, let alone an inappropriate tone for encyclopedic articles. Do the students not understand the difference between an essay and an encyclopedic article? Should more work be done to introduce new writers/students to what is encyclopedic tone? Do these students know other volunteers spend their time reviewing their articles and LLM prose, not just their professor? GGOTCC 22:22, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    I completely agree with you. Such assignments need more introduction than usual, and preferably strong, in-class enforcement of on-wiki rules and misbehaviour. Chorchapu (talk | edits) 22:26, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    @Assas CHEUNG Multiple people have given you valid feedback and you have brushed it off with no real apology. When you make an assignment, the burden is on you as an instructor to make sure you actually understand the platform for the assignment and can make it proceed relatively smoothly. It's become extremely clear that you haven't done your job. Is Wikipedia complicated? Yes, but it's on you to understand it before you assign its use to others.
    The defensiveness and borderline insults at others are a really ugly look from you. Don't burden others and blame others for your mistakes. grapesurgeon (talk) 23:47, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    For those confused by all the intertwining discussions, I have made a "hub" at User:Chorchapu/Assas hub. Feel free to edit the page or add any pages I've missed. Chorchapu (talk | edits) 19:44, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    It would save us all having to watch 5 different discussion on the topic. Assas CHEUNG (talk) 19:53, 12 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

    I have given instruction to pull the project. Maybe we can adjourn elsewhere for a post mortem about my faulty briefing? --Assas CHEUNG (talk) 00:17, 13 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

    Biology (?) course

    Hi WikiEd, just a heads-up that there's a confused student over on the Teahouse: [1]. I think I've given them the advice that you would, including suggesting they ask their teacher to reach out to you (or me and I'll get the information to you guys), but in case anything was missed or this is a course you already know about it seemed useful to link to here :) Meadowlark (talk) 06:13, 15 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

    allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:ENB