Across:

• 1: It sheds some light on a situation
• 5: Provides Americans and Northern Irish with a pension (abbr.)
• 8: Also known as the dwarf buffalo!
• 9: Lambast, search for gold, or like more than one gender
• 10: Useful for editors opposed to 12-across
• 12: Shortcut for a powerful group of editors often criticized as opaque
• 13: Shortcut to WP:AfD's "put up or shut up"
• 16: Prevents ropes on a ship from slip slidin' away
• 20: Shortcut that should not be confused with 12-across
• 21: Circlejerk?
• 22: Shortcut for communication via edit summary
• 23: 2013 film Star ____ into Darkness

Down:

• 1: NBA team once home to Kobe and Magic
• 2: Shortcut whose sisters include WP:POPCORN and formerly WP:MORDOR
• 3: Shortcut; alludes to the sysop's sceptre
• 4: The Earwig's is from hell
• 5: Cowboy's accessory for horse direction
• 6: It's on Simon & Garfunkel's shopping list, along with parsley and thyme
• 7: Shortcut whose sister is WP:AN3
• 11: In Minecraft, it creeps out the creepers
• 13: Shortcut: they rake in tens of thousands of views a day
• 14: The first step is to not do any
• 15: They cage the lungs
• 17: 12-across up
• 18: "It's just a number, it's just a number, it's just a number..."; or, shortcut to the senescent brigade
• 19: Shortcut to Wikipedia's preeminent hookers