Wikipedia:Update/1/Content policy changes, 2014

4th Quarter 2014


  • Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons
    • In WP:BLP#Non-article space, added: "For example, it would be appropriate to begin a discussion by stating This link has serious allegations about subject; should we summarize this someplace in the article?"


3rd Quarter 2014

  • Wikipedia:Article titles
    • In WP:TITLE#Article title format, changed: "Comply with WP:INITS." to: "Format names of persons as reliable sources do: When deciding whether to use middle names, or initials, follow the guidelines at WP:Middle names, which means using the form most commonly used by reliable sources (e.g., John F. Kennedy, J. P. Morgan, F. Scott Fitzgerald), with few if any exceptions. See also WP:CONCISE above."
    • In WP:TITLE#Special characters, added: "However, avoid combining diacritical marks, which are difficult to type and interfere with adjacent characters.". Changed: "Characters resembling quotes or accent marks (avoid them): The characters ʻ ʾ ʿ ᾿ ῾ ‘ ’ “ ” c, and also combining diacritical marks with a "space" character, should generally not be used in page titles. A common exception is the apostrophe ' (e.g. Anthony d'Offay), which should, however, be used sparingly (e.g. Shia instead of Shi'a)." to: "'Quotation marks (avoid them): Double ("...") and single quotation marks ('...'), as well as variations such as typographic quotation marks (“...”), typographic apostrophes (), "low-high" quotation marks („...“), guillemets («...»), grave and acute accents or backticks (`...´) and <q> HTML tags (<q>...</q>) should be avoided in titles. Exceptions can be made when they are part of the proper title (e.g. "A" Is for Alibi) or required by orthography ("Weird Al" Yankovic)."




2nd Quarter 2014






1st Quarter 2014

  • Wikipedia:Article titles
    • In WP:TITLE#Disambiguation, added: [It is not always possible to use the exact title that may be desired for an article, as that title may have other meanings ...]. "Sometimes, this requires a change in the variety of English used; for instance, Lift is a disambiguation page with no primary topic, so we choose elevator as the name of the lifting device.
    • In (renamed) WP:TITLE#Using minor details to naturally disambiguate articles, added: "Special care should be taken for names translated from other languages and even more so for transliterated titles; there is often no standardized format for the English name of the subject, so minor details are often not enough to disambiguate in such cases. ¶ Certain applications of this policy are often heavily debated; in certain instances, this form of disambiguation may not be sufficient if one article is far more of a primary topic than the other. For instance, an album entitled JESUS would probably have its article located at JESUS (album), with JESUS continuing to be a redirect to Jesus. If the album or other possible uses were deemed by editors to be reasonably likely search results for "JESUS", consensus among editors would determine whether or not JESUS would be the location for the album article, a redirect to Jesus, a disambiguation page, or a redirect to the existing disambiguation page Jesus (disambiguation)."



  • Wikipedia:Verifiability
    • In WP:V#Burden of evidence, added: [Any material lacking a reliable source directly supporting it may be removed] "and should not be replaced without an inline citation to a reliable source." Changed: "The burden of evidence" [lies with the editor who adds or restores material] to: "The burden of identifying a reliable source". Added: [any editor who later removes the material has an obligation to articulate specific problems that would justify its exclusion from Wikipedia] "(e.g., undue emphasis on a minor point, unencyclopedic content, etc.)."