 | These are notes I wrote for my own reference. You can use it if you're not me, but it's not in any way official policy, guidelines, or even an essay. |
The purpose of these notes is to outline what to do to develop as an editor.
Best wishes from your past self, — RTao (talk • contribs) 20:07, 15 August 2024 (UTC)
Overview
editScope
editWikipedia is offered in many languages; each language is a separate project run by its own community. The Wikimedia Foundation provides technical and legal support and some governance. Everything from this point applies to the English Wikipedia.
Constitution
editRead and reread the WP:5P. Remember the five pillars: encyclopedia, NPOV, free content, civility, no firm rules. Editors are here to create content for readers; everything else is secondary (but often important). If you understand and agree with the core purpose and are reasonably able and aligned, just be bold and edit.
Technical
editWikipedia runs on MediaWiki software. Many technical concepts apply to any wiki using MediaWiki.
Wikipedia is very big. You don't need to learn everything at once; you can learn topics as they come up by looking them up (usually in WP: namespace). But to get into "serious" editing, you need to spend time and effort. Look things up in Wikipedia:Glossary.
Content
editThere are no instructions for the actual work of writing; use your own ability and judgement. Policies and guidelines are just that; they aren't a how-to guide.
Surprisingly, there is no core policy on what content an article should contain, i.e. nothing analogous to WP:N within the article. Use own judgement on relevancy; keep in mind the goal of writing an encyclopedia, but Wikipedia is sui generis. Mergers and splits are always available later. Keep in mind WP:DUE, which is policy.
Vandalism
editRedirects
editRead WP:R and WP:RCAT. Should you create it? Browse WP:TMR for reasons. Browse WP:RFDO and WP:RFD for discussions.
Creation: create a new page "FROM TITLE" with #REDIRECT [[TO TITLE]]. (If you forget, use Visual Editor). At this time, also consider categorization; refer to WP:TMR#List of redirects by function.
Citations
editA good deal of Wikipedia citations, including most template citations, are CS1. Nifty feature regarding date formatting:
Citation Style 1 and 2 templates, including this template, automatically render dates in all date parameters (such as |date=, |publication-date=, |access-date=, |archive-date=, etc.) except for |orig-date= in the style specified by the article's or template.
The relevant policy is MOS:DATEUNIFY.
Also recall For no date, or "undated", use
|date=n.d..
Comments: better to have an incomplete, imperfect citation (e.g. bare URL) than nothing because it makes the content verifiable. Someone else can add other details (e.g. author name) later.[1]
The actual function of the <ref> tag is just to move the enclosed text to the references section and create a number-in-bracket link to it. Any text can be placed inside it, e.g. explanatory footnotes (but use {{notetag}} instead).
Read WP:SFN.
List-defined references (WP:LDR) promote consolidation. However, they require editing in more than one section when adding new source and can't be edited in Visual Editor currently (if it is in a template like {{reflist}}).