This story is about how the Wikipedia Community helped Wikipedian SWinxy and I go to events in New York City. As a newly re-elected WikiNYC board member, it is my responsibility to respond to my constituents’ requests.

SWinxy is one such Wikimedia community member. As the Engagement Chair, I jumped at his first request: “I want to go to this with you but tickets are $500 each.” The event was the Status Summit . I knew there had to be a better way for my photog friend to get into the event. As a Status super fan, I was also embarrassed that I hadn’t heard of the event. I emailed the organizers immediately. Then forgot. Because life.

Then SWinxy reached out to me on Discord yet again. His message seemed defeated. Confession: I am bad at checking my Wikimedia email inbox. But there it was: a code to get into the event from the helpful Summit organizing committee. We were in! And we both passed Discord messages back and forth: we were so excited at all of the possibilities.…