Wikipedia talk:Purpose

Other statements of Wikipedia's purposes, aims or goals

(in no particular order, should be ordered, do it later)

1. Wikipedia:Wikipedia in brief. Wikipedia aims to be a neutral compilation of verifiable, established facts.
2. Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. The aim of Wikipedia is to produce a neutral, reliably sourced encyclopedia.
3. Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia, a high-quality encyclopedia.
4. Wikipedia:Libel. The goal of Wikipedia is to create an encyclopedic information source adhering to a neutral point of view, with all information being referenced through the citation of reliable published sources, so as to maintain a standard of verifiability.
5. Wikipedia:Credibility. Credibility is one of Wikipedia's goals.
6. Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia. Wikipedia's goal is to compile the sum of all human knowledge into a Web-based, free content encyclopedia.
7. User:Alan Liefting/Essays/The sum of all human knowledge. Jimmy Wales wants Wikipedia to be the sum of human knowledge.
8. Wikipedia:Advice for parents. Wikipedia aims to offer "the sum of all human knowledge" in a format which is legal to copy, modify and redistribute (copyleft, as we call it) to all, at no cost.
9. Wikipedia:Free speech. Wikipedia is dedicated to expanding access to the sum of human knowledge.
10. http://slashdot.org/story/04/07/28/1351230/Wikipedia-Founder-Jimmy-Wales-Responds "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing."
11. Wikipedia:A Hybrid of Political Doctrine and Encyclopedic Collaboration the goal of disseminating the sum of human knowledge to every person on Earth.
12. Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2008_December_7#Has_Wikipedia_spread_the_sum_of_human_knowledge.3F

Wikipedia contains summaries of knowledge from various people. Some Wikipedia entries are more detailed than others, but generally speaking Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that provides actual facts and information. YuliaBest (talk) 04:42, 14 September 2018 (UTC)

Knowledge?

But what is knowledge, and how do definitions of knowledge constrain the aim of the project? --SmokeyJoe (talk) 08:24, 11 September 2011 (UTC)

Good question. Why is knowledge good? If Wikipedia wants knowledge because knowledge is good, would it also by extension want whatever good comes of knowledge? What if there is knowledge that is bad, or knowledge that is good, but that Wikipedia does not want? Does Wikipedia want knowledge for its own sake, and not because it is good? Is is there implication that the particular kind of knowledge that Wikipedia wants just so happens to be the knowledge that is good? Am I overthinking this? Is policy based on only practical considerations? Is there no such lofty underlying principle? Also, this page needs clarification. There's a huge discrepancy between "a comprehensive collection of all of the knowledge in the world" and "the largest encyclopedia in history". Wikipedia is already the largest encyclopedia, but it is far from all knowledge, and indeed, policy would preclude it from ever being so. Benjamin (talk) 23:34, 24 November 2017 (UTC)

User:Moxy, please discuss. Benjamin (talk) 07:41, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

"The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally."--Moxy (talk) 13

19, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

Isn't there a contradiction between Jimbo's stated goal of collecting "all human knowledge", and the rather narrower prescription of policy? Benjamin (talk) 14:44, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

Who we do project at Wikipedia

Prince Pandit (talk) 18:12, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

Great page

Moxy, it seems to be largely your work. I wish I'd found it sooner.

But it seems many others do find it. Great work. Andrewa (talk) 21:01, 18 September 2018 (UTC)

☺--Moxy (talk) 03:29, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

What's all the chatter about? Xccgf (talk) 08:28, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

Adeguate accessibility to contents is part of the purpose

Purpose: ok, we are here to build an encyclopedia, but why are we writing an encyclopedia? We are writing it to be read. I believe that we should better stress here the fact that we are not just collecting content but we are also taking care about accessibility. For example the Wikimedia Foundation Mission is "to collect and develop educational content [...] and to disseminate it effectively and globally". The part about "disseminate it effectively" is missing here and it would explains why we chose to make the content freely available (WP:5P3) and why we are taking care about techincal accessibility (WP:WPACCESS, WP:LENGTH), incoming links (WP:R#KEEP), etc. Can we mention it? – Basilicofresco (msg) 17:17, 24 August 2019 (UTC)

Clarification

First & foremost I love Wikipedia & often use it as a reference resource. However, since its purpose is to educate & there is an edit function, why do my short, simple edits get deleted & me reprimanded/restricted when I'm adding factual information that can be publicly documented on various Internet sites? Thank You. Angelsings1111 (talk) 18:52, 11 November 2020 (UTC)

of all of?

That word has nestled 2 ofs and heres why? I see that below the image with caption.2404:8000:1005:9517:B1FE:7FD0:D68:E7EA (talk) 16:14, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

Wording is correct. - UtherSRG (talk) 16:47, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

Relation to IAR

In my mind, WP:IAR is the strongest possible validation of Wikipedia:Purpose, because it suggests that all other policies and guidelines should be understood in light of this purpose and potentially ignored if they inhibit this purpose. The purpose listed there is "improving or maintaining Wikipedia". I'm not sure how it should be mentioned in this page, but I think it should be mentioned in some way. Daask (talk) 15:45, 30 October 2024 (UTC)