 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
Wikipedia is a global project intended to produce complete encyclopedias in all languages. The English Wikipedia is just one part of this project that aims to create a worldwide-readable encyclopedia in the English language. Wikipedias in different languages are just means of information presentation and user communication. The language used does not give any advantage to any territorial, ethnical, cultural or religious group; language determines only the form, not the content of articles.
Prevalence of opinion
editThe process of creating content on Wikipedia is regulated by Wikipedia's most fundamental rules, the five pillars. One of these pillars is the requirement of a neutral point of view. This requirement means that if some opinion dominates in some geographical, religious, national or other scope, it is not a reason to state this opinion as the sole truth. Moreover, if the support for this opinion is internationally uncommon, then it should not be presented as primary in Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia's policy on minority opinions similarly requires less substantial presentation of viewpoints not supported by the global scientific community, even if in some countries these points of view are official or majority-supported.
The international nature of Wikipedia means that in general it does not matter what group some opinion is associated with. Wikipedia does not balance opposing opinions, and if there are two conflicting points of view on a subject, while sources for one of them are common and the other has barely any sources at all, that second opinion should, and will, receive less significant presentation on Wikipedia. Wikipedia's primary definition of truth is the ability to verify a position because it is presented in reliable sources.
Legal requirements
editIt is possible that some Wikipedia articles contain information that is not legal to publicly display in some jurisdictions. Some of that content would still be compliant with internal Wikipedia policies, while some of it would not. The fact that some information is illegal in some country is not by itself a sufficient reason to delete such information. The sole exception is when it is the United States law that requires deletion, and that is only because the United States is the jurisdiction in which the Wikimedia Foundation is registered.
Furthermore, since Wikipedia's goal is creating a freely (as in "free speech") distributable encyclopedia, special attention must be paid to copyrights. Contributors to Wikipedia are expected to respect copyright laws.
Sources
editIt may be easier for English Wikipedia editors to find and check sources if these sources use English as their language. Additionally, such sources are more convenient for English-speaking readers. However, reliability of sources is language-independent. That some source is in a language other than English is not sufficient basis to reject that source.
Due weight
editWikipedia should provide information on aspects of any topic based on the significance of these aspects. An aspect's association with some state, territorial, or ethnic community is not sufficient reason to insist on covering this aspect more substantially.
A special case is when a certain aspect is directly related to the language of this Wikipedia. For example, when describing the etymology of terms, preference should be given to the language this Wikipedia is written in.