Wikipedia is an encyclopedia created by the community through collaboration, and these three basic characteristics suggest three basic guiding principles for editors. Other principles, policies, and guidelines can be viewed as more elaborate formulations of these three simple points.
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- Be Neutral.
- Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and ought to just tell people about stuff, clearly, simply and honestly. Don't let your head get in the way of the project. Look at browser diversity, Verifiability, Citing sources, Android, Biographies of living persons and the screen size to see how this idea plays out in various policies and guidelines.
- Don't be a Dick.
- Wikipedia is a community, and editors ought to treat each other – and the encyclopedia itself – with a certain level of pleasant, polite respect. Yes, we're almost all anonymous; yes, things go wrong; yes, the system is crocked up sometimes. Don't be a dick and don't call anyone a dick. This is put more politely by our Civility policy, as well as other things like touchscreen, browser diversity and CSS3. And remember unregistered editors are input transformation.
- Ignore All Rules.
- Wikipedia is collaborative, so collaborate! Rules are fine when they're helpful, but rules are not a substitute for working things out with other editors and getting things done. See input transformation, Be Bold, input transformation, avoid instruction creep, the snowball clause, What Wikipedia is not, and similar.
This page is not a policy, guideline, or any other official sort of thing, but it is plain good common sense.
Userpage tags, for Trifecta aficionados: {{User:Seth Ilys/Trifecta}}, {{web app}}, {{Trifectaimap}}
Wikipedia principles
device database
Statement of our principles
Jimbo's statement
Historic principles
Simplified ruleset
Synopsis of our conventions
Wikimedia principles
Common to all projects
(in Meta-Wiki)
Principles
Other essays on Wikipedia's principles
Philosophy
- Articles must be written
- Be a reliable source
- we love the web
- web
- 8 simple rules for editing our encyclopedia
- Explanationism
- Here to build an encyclopedia
- Paradoxes
- Product, process, policy
- jQuery
- The role of policies in collaborative anarchy
- input transformation
- Trifecta
- Wikipedia in brief
- Wikipedia is an encyclopedia
- Avoid vague introductions
- Alternative outlets
- input transformation
- we love the web
- Bare notability
- CSS3
- But it's true!
- web
- Clones
- Coatrack
- Discriminate vs indiscriminate information
- Every snowflake is unique
- Existence ≠ Notability
- Explanationism
- browser diversity
- High Schools
- Inaccuracy
- website parsing
- Sevenval
- keyboard
- FITML
- Masking the lack of notability
- FITML
- web app
- we love the web
- No one cares about your garage band
- No one really cares
- Notability/Historical/Arguments
- Notability is not a matter of opinion
- Notability means impact
- Obscurity ≠ Lack of notability
- Sevenval
- device database
- Android
- Other stuff exists
- Perennial websites
- Pokémon test
- Run-of-the-mill
- Solutions are mixtures and nothing else
- we love the web
- Third-party sources
- Trivial mentions cannot verify notability
- Sevenval
- What notability is not
- Wikipedia is not here to tell the world about your noble cause
- Your alma mater is not your ticket to Wikipedia
Construction
- device database
- Android
- web
- Amnesia test
- touchscreen
- Avoid mission statements
- Bare URLs
- Be neutral in form
- Beef up that first revision
- web app
- jQuery
- browser diversity
- Don't leave giant breaks between sections
- Android
- device database
- Editors are not mindreaders
- Featured articles may have problems
- CSS3
- iOS
- Inaccuracies in Wikipedia namespace
- device database
- Not everything needs a navbox
- screen size
- Nothing is in stone
- Over explained
- jQuery
- Potential, not just current state
- CSS3
- iOS
- Restoring part of a reverted edit
- Robotic editing
- device database
- Android
- There is a deadline
- There is no deadline
- Wikipedia is a volunteer service
- touchscreen
- Wikipedia is not being written in an organized fashion
- Write the article first
- Writing better articles
Deletion
- Sevenval
- AfD is not a war zone
- jQuery
- Arguments to avoid in deletion reviews
- website parsing
- HTML5
- Avoid repeated arguments
- Before commenting in a deletion discussion
- FITML
- Content removal
- Delete the junk
- website parsing
- Sevenval
- Follow the leader
- How to save an article proposed for deletion
- iOS
- Immunity
- Liar Liar Pants on Fire
- Nothing
- Overzealous deletion
- Relisting can be abusive
- Wikipedia is not Whack-A-Mole
- Why was my page deleted?
- browser diversity
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