Use the {{citation needed}} template to request a citation at the end of a sentence or paragraph. Simply insert the template at the end of the sentence or paragraph by adding {{citation needed}} so it looks like this:[citation needed] Resist the urge to insert this template into multiple sentences in the same article. Instead, use the {{not verified}} template at the top of the appropriate page or section.
Maintaining a general spirit of collegiality and mutual understanding, and remembering that all Wikipedians have a fundamental love of knowledge, helps Wikipedia to run more smoothly. In other words, be nice to your fellow Wikipedians at all times.
The Community bulletin board (aka WP:CBB) is a terrific way to let your newly created Portal, WikiProject, etc., be known to the community, including at the Community Portal. It's also a great way to recruit fellow editors. If you post a notice there, please follow these guidelines:
- Use present tense.
- Bold the main link.
- Keep it short and sweet, news style.
- Use pulldates (one week) by inserting them into a hidden comment like this: <!-- Pulldate: July 3 -->
Or just follow the instructions on the page, which will be visible when you edit it.
You can also submit WikiProject and similar news to the relevant section of the Wikipedia Signpost.
Are you thinking of creating an article on a band you know? First, check to see if there is already an article for the band. Next, remember that Wikipedia has certain music notability requirements that bands should meet in order to have their own article. Some of these include being featured in multiple non-trivial published works or winning a major music award, such as a Grammy, Juno or Mercury Music Award. A band need not meet all of these criteria, but it should meet at least one of them.
If an article has a number of tasks to be handled that are community consensus, you may insert {{todo}} (including the four curly braces) at the top of the article's talk page, and edit it to make the tasks more visible to the public.
The Manual of Style (abbreviated as MoS or MOS) is the style guide for all Wikipedia articles. Its goal is to make using Wikipedia easier and more intuitive by promoting clarity and cohesion. Style and formatting should be consistent within an article based on the MOS.
The shortcut to the main MOS guideline page is WP:MOS. To add the MOS template to your user or talk page, place {{style}} on there.
Any suggestions for improvement or changes to the MOS guideline begins with discussion and consensus at the MOS talk page.
Would you like to get more involved, find some new friends, or just lend a helping hand? The Welcoming Committee is a great way to contribute. There are no requirements for membership (other than the fact that you must be extra nice to newcomers) and it's wikifun!
Many people know that if someone reverts an article more than three times in 24 hours (3RR), they may be blocked to prevent edit warring. But did you know that:
- Although reverts on different articles do not count towards the limit, different reverts on the same article do count. So if you revert Paragraph A twice and Paragraph B twice in 24 hours, you have made four reverts and may be blocked.
- If you revert three times, wait for 24 hours and start reverting again, you may be blocked for 'gaming' the rule. The three-revert rule is an electric fence, not an entitlement.
- Although you cannot be blocked for repeatedly reverting vandalism, many Wikipedians mistake edits for vandalism when they are not. For example, edits that do not respect the neutral point of view policy are not vandalism.
The easiest way to avoid being blocked for reverting is to revert as little as possible and discuss with your fellow editors instead. Some editors limit themselves to one or no reverts a day. Select categories on Wikipedia are limited to 1RR (one revert rule). Those articles will have an edit notice to apprise you of their special status. For 1RR you may only revert one edit in the entire category per 24-hours.
Neologisms are words and terms that have recently been "coined" and generally do not appear in any dictionary. Avoid using neologisms when creating articles on Wikipedia unless they are part of the subject being covered and need to be explained; in such a case, be sure to define the new words! Neologisms include words made up on the spot and these should never be used in a Wikipedia article. Wikipedia relies on established English to explain its subjects. It is important that every word in Wikipedia can be understood by those who read it. This ensures that Wikipedia always conveys accessible and meaningful knowledge.
Edit warring is bad, especially when idea exchange has stopped and is replaced by reverting edits. Not good, as it disrupts Wikipedia and wastes resources. Wikipedia's main resource is the time and effort that you and other Wikipedians devote to contributions. Edit warring is like a game of tic-tac-toe: once you know how to play, nobody ever wins. Edit warring is worse, though, because it can go on indefinitely and can get you banned.
The solution? Chill out and relax. Go edit somewhere else on Wikipedia for a few days; Wikipedia has millions of nice and quiet pages to work on. Meanwhile, you may think of a solution that everyone will be happy with which you can bring to the talk page. When you come back, stay calm and keep your involvement in the dispute on the talk page. Others who refuse to do so will answer for it eventually.
Building consensus is the Wikipedia way of resolving disputes, as continued discussion brings new possibilities and positive solutions to light. Think "What if we..."
You can jump to the search box from anywhere on a page, which is especially useful on long articles, so you do not have to scroll up to get to it. To do this, press ⇧ Shift+Alt+F (this works on most systems). The F stands for "find" or "focus".
For a search box in which the cursor is already focused, use www
When a link in Wikipedia leads to nowhere, it is displayed in red to alert our editors that it requires attention. A red link can mean one of two things:
- The link is broken and no longer leads to an article (perhaps because the underlying article was deleted). In such a case, the link needs to be removed or renamed to point to an existing article.
- A new article is needed. When a Wikipedian writes an article, it is common practice to linkify key topics pertinent to an understanding of the subject, even if those topics don't have an article on Wikipedia yet. This has two applications:
- From within an article, such a link prepares the article to be fully supported. At any time, a Wikipedian may independently write an article on the linked-to subject, and when this happens, there's already a link ready and waiting for it. The red link also gives readers the opportunity to click on it to create the needed article on the spot.
- In topic lists, it is useful to include every topic on the subject you can possibly find or think of. When they are turned into links, the list immediately shows where the gaps in Wikipedia's coverage for that subject are, since all of the topics missing articles will show up in red. Such lists are useful tools in developing subject areas on Wikipedia, as they show where work is needed most.
Would you like to lend a helping hand, or just get more involved? The Today's articles for improvement (TAFI) project is a great way to contribute. This project identifies and collaborates upon underdeveloped articles that require improvement.
There are no requirements for membership (other than the fact that you must be extra nice to newcomers) and it is wikifun!
When using math in an article, there are two different types of markup that one can use. It is important to be consistent throughout an article and use the same type of markup. If a formula appears all on the same line, it would be better to use HTML than LaTeX, because L∞ looks better in line than does; however it's generally a bad idea to attempt to render in HTML.
While it is important to remain civil to all users, please remember that new users may not be familiar with Wikiquette. So if you encounter a mistake by a new user please do not bite the newbie.
This is an oldie but goodie, that for sure works in Firefox...
Visit Conveniently searching Wikipedia, and follow the instructions for your browser. It's a bookmarklet that sits on your toolbar, and which serves as a Wikipedia search button that you can activate from any web page. The next time you want to look something up on Wikipedia while browsing a web-page, highlight the term and then click on your new bookmarklet.
Wikipedia is currently fighting a war on vandalism. Wikipedia is vandalized many thousands of times per day, with most of these occurrences corrected within minutes or even seconds. This requires many volunteers in an organized effort to repair this damage. The Wikipedians on the front lines of this battle are the members of Wikipedia's intrepid Counter-Vandalism Unit (CVU). The CVU has developed specialized tools, procedures, and initiatives for fighting vandalism on Wikipedia. You can be of great service to Wikipedia by joining the CVU.
Many article titles are disambiguated with parenthetic qualifiers, like this: [[Self (psychology)]]. But when you want to include such a link in the body of an article, this would look rather awkward. So all you have to do is use the "pipe trick", like this: [[Self (psychology)|]]. Notice the "|" character stuck in there at the end of the link? That makes the link look like this: Self, without having to type the name of the link after the pipe!
This trick also works with namespaces, so that [[Wikipedia:Tip of the day|]] (again notice the pipe character) displays like this: Tip of the day.
Ten things you may not know about Wikipedia is a list of insights about Wikipedia specifically targeted at people who have limited or no prior experience with the project (such as journalists, new editors, and new readers).
These explanations should not surprise experienced editors but will hopefully help the rest of the world to shape an informed opinion of our work.
Using the Wikipedia text editor:
- Click on "Advanced" at the top of the editing box
- Click on
icon - Add data into cells, rows or columns
- Provide an edit summary and save your work
Another box will appear allowing you to set up the number of rows and columns and style of the table.
Using the Visual Editor:
- Click on "Insert" near the top of the page
- Click on "Table"
- Click on each cell or drag across multiple cells
- Merge, add or delete cells as needed
- Click on "Properties" to assign properties to cells, rows, or columns
- Insert data into cells, rows or columns
- Provide an edit summary and save your work
If you would like to display the Wikipedia tip of the day on your User page, here is how:
Edit your User page and insert one or more of the following bolded strings (including the four curly braces), preview your edit, and when it looks right, save it.
To see a visual display of the below templates check out the Tip of the Day Display template gallery.
- {{totd}} – the main userspace version of the tip of the day template, with border, centered in the middle of the page. Complete with inspirational light bulb. Border color can be custom modified.
- {{totd b}} – a more compact version of the above template. Useful for columns.
- {{totd3}} – a purple box version, useful for displaying the tip in columns.
- {{totd-random}} – this is the tip of the moment template, which automatically displays a different tip every time you enter a page it is on. If it doesn't update, try clearing your browser cache.
- {{totd-tomorrow}} – this shows tomorrow's tip, and is used by Wikipedia tipsters to make sure that the tips are up-to-date and corrected before they go live.
- {{tip of the day}} – the borderless version, with light bulb.
- {{tip of the day with h3 heading}} – the tip in heading/paragraph format (No light bulb).
- {{totd2}} – the borderless version used on Wikipedia's Help page (which already has its own borders). (No light bulb).
- {{totd CP}} – like the help page version, but with a box and light bulb. Spans the whole field (screen or column) that it is in.
- {{totd-static}} – like the totd version but the date is static. You have to manually change the date. Good for testing purposes.
To have the current day's tip and tomorrow's tip show up at the bottom of your talk page, below the last message, paste this code anywhere on your talk page (preferably at the top):
<ref>{{totd}}</br>{{right|{{today cell}}{{spaces|5}}}}{{totd-tomorrow}}</ref>
Sometimes Wikipedians sound like they are speaking in a foreign language, even when they are not. This is because Wikipedians have created a great number of specialized terms (jargon) pertaining to Wikipedia and the activity of Wikipedians. Fortunately, being the encyclopedists that they are, they have also created a Wikipedia Glossary to explain these terms.
Remember, actual encyclopedia articles should be written in jargon-free language which is readily understandable without specific knowledge of the Wikipedia project.
Do you need more search power? You wish to leave no stone unturned?
AutoWikiBrowser includes a tool called Database Scanner that searches Wikipedia offline from your hard disk. It returns a simple unformatted single-column list of pages that match your criteria.
It is in AWB's tool menu. To use the scanner, first download the Wikipedia Database and unzip it. No login is required to use the tool, so you do not need to be a registered AWB user. Database Scanner supports regular expressions (regex) and it supports two search fields that it uses at the same time: one for searching titles and one for searching page content.
It may take over 20 minutes for a search to finish, so the best approach may be to change to another window and forget about the search for a while, though it can be fun (and enlightening) to watch the titles as they appear on the list (and look some up while you are waiting). Database Scanner also has a filter feature to further refine the list of results.
Internet forums and e-mails are not considered reliable sources and should not be used as sources for references in Wikipedia articles. They can however be included as external links. What is the difference? A source or reference is cited to verify the facts in the article. External links point to locations outside of Wikipedia where users can learn more about the subject, or where to see an example of what the article is about.
The Wikipedia in brief page provides a concise explanation of the online encyclopedia's purpose.
Wikipedia aims to be a neutral compilation of verifiable, established facts.
This basic information is valuable to everyone: readers, editors, journalists and the general public.
And of course, it's a baker's dozen...
- Create a user account (how and why)
- Please sign your name on talk pages
- Look before you leap (check for existing articles before you create one on that topic)
- How to start a new article
- How to make links to articles
- How to insert a picture into an article
- Where on the page to put images
- A better wiki editor: wikEd
- Check your work before you save, using Preview
- Automatic edit summary reminder
- How to move/rename a page
- Redirects
- How to display daily tips on your userpage
If you know even more important tips than these, please come to Tip of the day and add them to our tip collection. Enlighten us with your wisdom, and make Wikipedia a better place for everyone.
And without further ado, here they are:
- Jump to the search box with ⇧ Shift+Alt+F
- Use your browser's toolbar to navigate Wikipedia
- Use your watchlist
- Super-customize your account with gadgets
- Work faster using keyboard shortcuts
- Navigate faster using Wikipedia shortcuts
- Search and replace while editing an article
- Edit Wikipedia faster with AutoWikiBrowser
- Templates
- User scripts
If you know more powerful tips or tricks than these, please visit Tip of the day and add them to our tip collection.
With its own link at the top of every page, your user page is as accessible as Wikipedia's Main Page. Because of this, it is your customizable Wikipedia navigation hub. Just place your favorite Wikipedia and external reference links on your user page, and you can access them instantly anytime you want from anywhere on Wikipedia.
For more ideas on how to customize your user page, see Wikipedia's User Page Design Center. There's also a help department there too.
Wikipedia search is much more powerful than most people know! There are several tips and pages such as Help:Searching which explains some of these features, but the documentation at mw:Help:CirrusSearch is the most complete.
The Quick directory is a handy directory of key pages throughout Wikipedia, with emphasis on interaction between members of the community.
Topics covered include:
- Bureaucracy
- Dispute resolution
- For power users
- Learning the wiki way
- The best of Wikipedia
- The worst of Wikipedia
- Wikilove and appreciation
- Wikipedia laughs
Category links don't work like other links. Instead, they go invisible and put the page in the category specified. For example, if you write a message that says I think [[Category:Living people]] would be appropriate", it will appear as "I think would be appropriate" and the talk page you wrote the message on will be added to the Living people category. The link disappeared!
Sometimes it is useful to provide links to categories, such for listing categories on portals, or when you are discussing categories.
To make category links work like normal links, add a colon after the opening brackets. Then "I think [[:Category:Living people]] would be appropriate", appears as "I think Category:Living people would be appropriate".
You can also use {{cl}}, but this is less common.