User:Wolfkeeper/What wikipedia Is

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.

This article is being written, and is intended to form policy. The policy is intended to supercede other policies, such as Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a dictionary, which would be marked as essays and kept for historical and reference purposes. The idea for this policy came from the French policy at fr:Wikipédia:Wikipédia est une encyclopédie, and started as a translation..

Wikipedia is an encyclopedic reference work which incorporates elements of general encyclopedias, specialized encyclopedias and almanacs. Wikipedia has universal scope, and must contain a summary of all human knowledge. Wikipedia is composed of articles that each contain a summary of human knowledge on their given topic.

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia

Wikipedia is both a general encyclopedia and a specialized encyclopedia. It is composed of both general articles and scholarly articles. If a particular aspect becomes disproportionate to the rest of the article, it can be made into an independent article covering the details, and be summarized in the main article. There is no maximum or minimum size for an article, mergers or divisions of items to be by consensus among the contributors.

Lists

Wikipedia is also an almanac, items such lists or chronologies may be eligible. Articles should generally not be mere collections of external links, internal links, images, books, etc.. Even in articles on very general topics, it is preferable to include links to each article within a structured text.

Texts and Quotes

Text and quotes (primary sources) may be part of an article for illustrative purposes if they are not too large. If their place is in side projects: Wikisource for texts and Wikiquote intended to build a collection of quotations and aphorisms.

The quotations in articles in Wikipedia must always be used in the main development section (illustrating a point of view, for example).

Each article must have a specific topic

The title of an article will rarely uniquely identify the subject of the article, and so it should be defined at the beginning of the introduction.

Wikipedia is not a dictionary- encyclopedia articles focus on things or concepts, not words or phrases that designate them. This does not forbid etymological or linguistic aspects within the article, but the purpose of an article is not to enumerate the various possible different meanings of the title word or phrase.

There is a related project, Wiktionary that welcomes articles on a word or phrase itself.

Each article presents a summary of its subject

Each article presents the established knowledge on a subject, which must be verifiable. A neutral point of view is required, and thus each article should contain a representative coverage of all relevant perspectives of the topic. The knowledge should summarized, and the criterion that determines the place to give information or a point of view is its relevance according to the relevant literature.

For example in an article of history or a historical aspect, it is the opinion of competent historians on the subject that must be exposed. Neutrality comes next: when historians discuss some points, Wikipedia should not take sides with one or another point of view. The views of victims' associations, governments, political parties, etc.., may be of quite marginal relevance in this type of article.

A biography must develop, above all, aspects of personality that make her famous.

Wikipedia is here to report information, not to create it. In particular Wikipedia is not here to speak for itself.

Article balance

Wikipedia is here to to reflect as closely as possible the current state of knowledge (understood here in the sense of cultural heritage of the humanity). There is no reason to censor voices critical of the consensus, but there is no reason to give them an importance out of proportion to their visibility outside of Wikipedia.

Eligibility of topics

The eligibility of topics are defined by the community. The information must be verifiable in sources reliable.

Wikipedia is not designed to accommodate only what is "academic" or "cultural". Commercial topics are allowed, but they should be approached from a non promotional point of view.

Laws

The Wikipedia is constrained by the laws of the location of the Wikipedia's servers, but also has its own policies, guidelines and principles.

Rules

The Wikipedia has its own rules. These are also edited by the wiki editing model.

Principles

The Wikipedia follows the principles of the Wikipedia:Five pillars.