66 presences by invitation, a Splash at 13, and a Wave that reads better

September 16, 2026 continued the same human thread as the previous days: all new presences arrived by invitation. After 31 presences by invitation, a Splash at 10, and better chosen doors, the Wave regained a little momentum in numbers, without changing countries, but with 66 more Free Humans.

We went from 11,714 to 11,780 Free Humans, still in 100 countries. The last presence in the record is #11780 Mike (South Africa), arrived at 21:02 UTC. A day like this doesn't necessarily make a new border flash on the Wave map, but it makes what already exists denser, more alive, harder to reduce to a simple counter.

The day's work also focused a lot on how to see this movement: messages better protected when they pass through the operator, translations to respond better, graphs that finally tell the day's progression, and a band of names that keeps better track of arrivals. It's discreet, but very concrete: when the Wave grows, everyone must be able to read it without fighting the screen.

UTC day of September 16	Result
Free Humans at start	11,714
Free Humans at end	11,780
New presences	66
Arrivals by invitation	66
People who invited at least one person	9
Countries represented at end	100
Energies sent during the day	2,138
People who sent at least one energy	211

India carries the day, the map keeps its 100 countries

No new country was added today: we remain present in 100 countries. But the map is not just a collection of lit countries. It also shows the places where the idea circulates more, where someone invites, then someone else takes their place.

In the detailed presences of the day, India very clearly carries the movement with 42 arrivals. Nigeria adds 9, South Africa 7, then come Malaysia, Niger and Kenya. The general figures can be found on the Wave in numbers, but the Chronicle keeps above all this: 9 different people invited at least someone, and these 9 doors were enough to bring in 66 new presences.

New presences detailed by country	Result
India	42
Nigeria	9
South Africa	7
Malaysia	3
Niger	2
Kenya	1

Since 71 presences by invitation, a Splash at 13, and twenty open doors to the media, the rhythm changes from one day to the next, but the logic remains clear: the Wave advances from person to person. Sometimes it gains a country, sometimes it gains thickness. Today, it mainly gained thickness.

The Splash brought together 13 people again

The Splash took place from 18:00 to 19:00 UTC. Every day at 18:00 UTC, for one hour, members invite at the same time, to experience the rise in numbers together; it is not a meeting or a video conference, no one speaks, there is nothing to prepare, one can just watch, and the one you miss comes back the next day. On Sunday, it's the Grand Splash.

At the peak of the hour, 13 people were present at the same time on the Splash page. During this hour, 24 invitation links were opened, 4 new presences arrived, 132 energies were sent, and no support was received.

Congratulations, for the invitations during the hour, to #6201 Sidi Abdoul Raouf (Niger), and congratulations also, for the Splash energies, to #10326 Isah Umar (Nigeria), #10451 Hamza Muhammad Lawan (Nigeria) and #6974 Abdulkarim Iliyasu (Nigeria). Thirteen people at the same time, 4 arrivals during the hour, 132 gestures of energy: the appointment keeps that simplicity I like, a common hour without microphone, without stage, without speeches.

Invitations, energies and support

Thank you, for the invitations of September 16, to #4623 modu amsami3 (Nigeria), with 2 direct invitations, to #6201 Sidi Abdoul Raouf (Niger), with 2, and to #10938 Pero (Nigeria), with 2. Since the opening, #805 Chizo1germany (Germany) reaches 3,696 direct invitations, #2029 Nura USMAN MUSA (Nigeria) has 186, and #869 Ibrahim Sani (Nigeria) 170.

Energies reached 2,138 gestures during the day, sent by 211 different people. Nigeria accounts for 1,436, the Philippines 470, and India 97. Since the opening, the cumulative total reaches 71,135 energies.

Thank you, for the day's energies, to #10212 RICHARD (Philippines), with 470 energies, to #10326 Isah Umar (Nigeria), with 281, and to #10451 Hamza Muhammad Lawan (Nigeria), with 162. Since the opening, #9125 Adamu Bello (Nigeria) reaches 6,080 energies, #10326 Isah Umar (Nigeria) 3,262, and #10212 RICHARD (Philippines) 2,912.

On the support side, two gestures of $5 are recorded since the opening: mine, in Belgium, and that of #79 Oddur Tom (Australia). The Support the project page remains open for those who want to help FreeWillWave hold on and continue.

Better guarded messages, more honest graphs, better organized names

The first improvement of the day concerns message threads with the operator. I had noticed a problem simple to state, but annoying: member messages disappeared after reading, but exchanges with the admin followed the same rule. This meant that useful correspondence could disappear a week after reading, in both directions. Now, threads with the admin are no longer erased by this automatic purge. What had already left does not come back, and two cases remain deliberately possible: a member can take back an unread message, and account deletion keeps its effect.

This decision also changes the sentence displayed to the person. Saying "erased 7 days after reading" in a thread that no longer follows this rule would have been false. The site now displays an adapted sentence when the admin is in the conversation. It's a small text detail, but it's exactly the kind of detail that avoids promising one thing while the site does another.

I also added two translation aids reserved for the admin. Under a received bubble, a button allows translating the message into the reading language. In the composer, "In their language" replaces the draft with a version translated into the language of the last message received from this member, with a fallback to the declared language if there is no text message yet. The reason is very concrete: the language a person declares and the language in which they write are not always the same. The goal is not to look nice, but to respond better, with fewer misunderstandings.

On the Wave map, another flaw was obvious: the "today" graph looked flat. When adding about fifty Free Humans on a base of more than 11,700, a curve drawn from zero crushes the whole day against the top of the image. The graph now adapts its floor when all the evolution happens in the upper part of the scale. And as one correction sometimes reveals the next, the graduations that repeated "11.7k" several times now display whole numbers when it's more readable. There, I admit, the pleasure is simple: when the curve finally shows what happened, we breathe better.

The band of names under the map has also been reworked. It mixed arrivals and energies poorly: two lists stuck one after the other, then cut too early, which could make a recent arrival disappear before it was even seen. Now, events are merged according to their time, in a single chronology. The band also listens to its own event feed, instead of depending on the doors planned for the page title. Finally, when a tab returns after being hidden, the caught-up events resume their place in order instead of placing themselves in front of everyone.

During the Splash, a very lively detail appeared: at a high rate of energies, the 14 dots can fill up very quickly, and an arrival — yet rarer — can leave almost immediately. The last two arrivals are now protected in the band's cut; only a more recent arrival replaces them. The first attempt was not perfect: the band came out too yellow, because a cut arrived too early before it could keep what it had to keep. It's corrected. And it's almost a good definition of a day of building: see what's wrong, understand why, then make the Wave a little fairer for the person watching it.

A day that makes the Wave more readable

September 16 adds 66 new presences, all by invitation, 2,138 energies, a Splash at 13 people at the same time, and several improvements that make FreeWillWave clearer on a daily basis. The map remains at 100 countries, but it continues to fill up, and this filling becomes more visible.

Since 73 presences by invitation, a Sunday Grand Splash, and a letter that echoes back, we can see the pattern of these days: humans invite, others take their place, the Splash gives a common hour, and the site learns to better show what happens. It's not a big spectacular scene. It's patient building, with numbers, gestures, corrections, and from time to time a curve that finally starts telling the truth again.

The next step can come through an invitation, an energy, the Splash, The Wave, the experience film, support, or a remark sent via Send an idea or a remark. Nothing is forced. But every free gesture adds a presence, a trace, or an improvement to this Wave that becomes, day after day, easier to see and simpler to pass on.