Where to Ask Questions or Meet the Wikidata Community

Wikidata's community is reachable through several official channels, and the right one depends on what you need. For general questions and discussion, use Project chat. For real-time conversation, join the Telegram groups or the live IRC chat. For a structured overview of community resources and starter guides, start at the Community Portal. If you prefer in-person or online events, check the Wikidata events listings. Creating a user account is recommended before posting, since it lets you follow replies and edit pages.

Start with the Community Portal

The Community Portal is the hub the main page points to for a "complete starters' guide." It collects:

• Introductory material for new contributors
• Links to ongoing projects and WikiProjects
• Pointers to the discussion and help channels listed below

If you are unsure where to go, the Community Portal is the intended first stop.

Ask questions on Project chat

Project chat is the main on-wiki discussion space. Use it for:

• Questions about how Wikidata works
• Proposals and community discussions
• Requests for help with editing or data modeling

Because it is a wiki page, replies are threaded and archived, so you can read past discussions before posting. This is the best option when you want a searchable, persistent answer.

Join real-time chat: Telegram and IRC

For faster back-and-forth, the main page lists two live options:

Use these when you need an answer quickly or want to talk something through. For decisions that should be recorded, follow up on Project chat.

Attend a Wikidata event

Wikidata events are listed from the main page and the community portal. These range from online sessions to meetups. A current example from the main page:

• Wikidata Query Service Days 2026, October 17–23 — an online event focused on the migration of the Wikidata Query Service from Blazegraph to QLever, aimed at helping the community, tool maintainers, and data reusers adapt their queries and tools to the new endpoint. The session program is published in advance.

Events are useful if you want guided introductions, want to meet other editors, or need to keep up with changes that affect your tools and queries.

Create an account first

The main page explicitly suggests creating a user account as part of getting involved. An account lets you:

• Post and reply on Project chat and other discussion pages
• Track pages you care about
• Build a contribution history

You can read everything without an account, but contributing to discussions generally works better once you are logged in.

Which channel should you pick?

• Need a documented, searchable answer → Project chat
• Need a fast reply → Telegram or IRC
• New and want a guided path → Community Portal
• Want to learn from others or follow technical changes → Wikidata events
• Planning to participate regularly → create a user account, then join a WikiProject related to your interest

All of these channels are listed on the Wikidata main page and Community Portal, so you can move between them as your needs change.