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Wikipedia:Update/1/Content policy changes during November 2008

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  • WP:Biographies of living persons
    • After "Remove any contentious material about living persons", added: "... or that relies upon self-published sources (unless written by the subject of the BLP; see below)".
    • Removed "These principles apply to biographical material about living persons found anywhere in Wikipedia, including user and talk pages." (Applicability to talk pages is still mentioned in the introduction and in WP:BLP#Non-article space.)
    • "there is no reasonable doubt as to who wrote it" changed to "there is no reasonable doubt that the subject actually authored it"
    • After "the name of a private individual has not been widely disseminated or has been intentionally concealed (such as in certain court cases", added "or occupations)"
    • After "if a {{WPBiography}} template is present, you can add living=yes to the template parameters.", added: "On pages with multiple WikiProject templates, the message can be added by adding the code |blp=yes to the {{WikiProjectBannerShell}} template."
    • After "{{BLPsources}} may be used on BLP pages needing better sourcing", added: "with {{BLPunsourced}} for those BLPs having no sources at all."
    • Added link to Category:User essays on BLP



  • WP:Neutral point of view
    • Added, along with an example: "In attributing competing views, it is necessary to ensure that the attribution adequately reflects the relative levels of support for those views, and that it does not give a false impression of parity."
    • Added "wikilinks" to: "Wikipedia aims to present competing views in proportion to their representation in reliable sources on the subject. This applies not only to article text, but to images, wikilinks, external links, categories, and all other material as well."



  • WP:Non-free content criteria
    • After "Non-free content is used only if its presence would significantly increase readers' understanding of the topic," added: "and its omission would be detrimental to that understanding."


  • WP:Verifiability
    • WP:V#Self-published sources changed to WP:V#Self-published and other questionable sources
    • Added: "Just because a source is not self-published does not automatically make it reliable."
    • Changed to: "Any contentious claims the source has made about third parties should not be repeated in Wikipedia, unless those claims have also been discussed by a reliable source." "Articles" became "in Wikipedia", and "published by reliable sources" became "discussed by a reliable source."
    • Changed: "Questionable sources, and most self-published sources, may only be used as sources about themselves, and then only if" to "Self-published or questionable sources may be used as sources of information about themselves, especially in articles about themselves, without the requirement that they be published experts in the field, so long as", and removed one of the conditions: "it is not contentious"
    • In the same section, changed "relevant to the notability of the subject being discussed" to "relevant to the notability of the subject of the article"
    • Same section, added a condition: "the source in question has been mentioned specifically in relation to the article's subject by an independent, reliable source"


  • WP:What Wikipedia is not
    • Removed redirect from WP:Obituary
    • Changed "preference" to "orientation" in: "User pages that move beyond broad expressions of sexual orientation are unacceptable."
    • Added: "when a cited quotation contains words which may be offensive, it should not be censored."
    • "These guidelines apply to Wikipedia discussions and forums." changed to "The following policies apply to Wikipedia's governance and processes."
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