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.
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This page in a nutshell: There is nothing wrong with occasionally doing other things than writing the encyclopedia, and the community spirit is a positive thing.
Some people think that user categories that serve no real collaborative purpose, games, images of Wikipedians, WikiLove pages, et cetera, need to be deleted because they are not useful when building the encyclopedia. They often cite pages such as WP:MYSPACE and WP:ENC.
Some of the rationales for keeping such pages is that, more than just an encyclopedia, Wikipedia is a community. A community likes to have fun at times, and, at other times, it's 100% serious. Such pages are helpful in helping users feel better when contributing to the encyclopedia. Just because it's a page that isn't serious doesn't mean it hurts the community. In fact, it very often helps by taking away the stress.
“
Anything that builds a spirit of friendliness and co-operation and helps people get to know each other as human beings seems to me a good thing.
The community is dependent on the encyclopedia. This page wouldn't be here if Wikipedia wasn't. Alternatively, it would be here, but the site would likely be called "Wikiblog."
The encyclopedia is dependent on the community. It is impossible to change consensus, discuss designs, and figure out neutrality if there's no way for editors to talk amongst themselves.
Therefore, community and encyclopedia are inexorably intertwined on Wikipedia. Without the encyclopedia, the community would not exist, and without the community, the breadth of the encyclopedia would not exist. Without community, we'd not only become our competition—we'd also become less accurate.
Practical reasons for communityedit
Beneficial canvassingedit
Usually it's a bad idea to canvass, but there's actually such a thing as good canvassing when it comes to improving the site—mainly when it deals with behind-the-scenes maintenance. For example, if it weren't for one user bringing articles for creation's backlog to the attention of other members of the community who had never heard of it before (like many users before they saw a user make a post about it), the massive backlogs would never have been cleaned up.
Editing interestsedit
Category-populating userboxes are one of the user-friendly ways of pulling together the huge amount of editors on the site in hopes of finding those with similar interests to help edit the lower-traffic areas of the site. Walk down any given street and it's unlikely you'll find many people interested in the Napoleonic Wars. You might even try posting a classified ad in the local newspaper in vain. However, drop by our interest category and magically, you have a huge pool of editors who are more than likely willing to help research some changes for an article on the subject.
Human reasons for communityedit
Although subject interest categories and userboxes have overt functional purposes, some simply seem to have no purpose whatsoever. After all, why on earth, would someone need to know that someone is flirtatious or that someone prefers editing in a sauna in order to improve an article on astronomy? Simple: they serve to remind us that when even the most heated debates can take place in content disputes, Wikipedia is still in the real world, and that the person with whom you are arguing is actually a person—not just some text on a screen.
A parallel: road rageedit
A similar phenomenon exists with road rage: people seem to be more likely to get angrily frustrated when stuck in traffic when compared to a being in a long line at the grocery store. Both environments are expected to always be plagued with the same problems (e.g., long waits, slow progress, annoying children), yet there's something qualitatively different about being in an environment where you see primarily tail lights (or, as most people call them, idiots) versus being in an environment where you are primarily face-to-face with another human being.
Arguably, the same dichotomy exists on Wikipedia. We're primarily text-based in our interactions, and editing is done by following in the footsteps of those that have come before you. Editors rarely see the faces of other editors, and even more rarely do they ever enjoy the luxury of voice-to-voice or face-to-face contact. Essentially, editing consists largely of staring at tail lights. Consequently, this may cause more heated debates on controversial topics and may account for increased personal attacks and other ad hominem arguments, including allegations of cabalism. After all, it's easy to picture an evil, shadowy cabal when the only real images you are able to form of its members are just that—faceless shadows.
Casting light on the shadowedit
In order to humanize the otherwise shadowy and mysterious creatures that edit Wikipedia (i.e., you), it is necessary to bring them into human light. As a result, much of the purpose of some of the more subjectively "pointless" areas of Wikipedia actually play an invaluable role: they serve to remind us that the person on the other end of any passionate debate or edit war is, like you, a human. They serve to show us that no matter how much we disagree, the vast majority of us will usually be able to rationally figure out a good middle ground solution. Most importantly, these otherwise MySpace-y things serve to remind us, as cliché and redundant as it sounds, that we're not simply me, but rather that we're we.
After all, we are the ones who must accurately and without undue bias describe existence, itself, as everyone experiences it, while being sure to avoid the temptation of simply siding with that which one point of view thinks it should be or worse: that which another group thinks it absolutely must be.
Impervious to bulletsedit
Ironically, the things that humanize us and make us more vulnerable to criticism have the end result of making it harder to actually hurt us. Simply observe many bathroom stalls, highway overpasses, and riots throughout the world and one will realize a rule of thumb to destruction: the less alive the target is, the easier it is to destroy it. Whether it be a remarkable feat of engineering (e.g., an overpass for a highway), a critical barrier for modesty (e.g., a bathroom wall), or the coolest and most visited encyclopedia on the internet (e.g., Wikipedia), all share a common plague: vandalism. Thus, it seems that it's easier for people to deface something if the one doing so either does not realize how it negatively affects others or simply does not grasp the amount of hard work and dedication that has gone into creating that which is seemingly so easy to destroy.
A healthy addictionedit
Wikipedia is addictive. The fact you found this page and got this far into reading it is proof that we've hooked you. ;) But, how did this happen? Most people probably don't get addicted to their chemistry books in high school, and most chemists probably don't constantly revisit their freshman chemistry books on a regular basis, but here on Wikipedia, the opposite behavior is commonplace. People watchlist articles, constantly update them, and participate actively in things like writing essays about the site—all on their free time.
Our secret? Wikipedia is an extremely diverse, well-developed social group in which you can start drama, stop drama, find drama you never knew existed, learn something you never knew, chat in real-time, catch troublemakers in the act, give someone something special, meet like-minded individuals in real life, or just plain joke around. Long story short, we realize that while we're technically supposed to be only an encyclopedia, and that while technically we're supposed to be all professional and such, we realize that if that ever happened, we'd break our addiction to our community and our friends, and the site would fail.
So, despite being addicts, we're totally fine with it, because we know we're actually doing something good for the world.
Conclusionsedit
Some argue that the encyclopedia should be more encyclopedic than community-oriented—that we should elect to keep interaction to a minimum in order to satisfy the prime objectives.[1] They argue that the community is minor and secondary to the ultimate goal of creating an encyclopedia. Whether or not that approach is correct is uncertain; however, we must be careful in restricting elements of the community excessively, because it is obvious that our encyclopedia's success is directly proportional to the level and frequency of involvement of those generating its content and maintaining the backend—the community.
We're technically an encyclopedia; but, we're an encyclopedia that exists because of and is maintained exclusively by the community. Because the community generates the majority of the encyclopedia's content, disagreements will occur, and it helps to keep conflicts productive using reminders that those involved are real people in real life.
We're not MySpace, and that's a good thing, because on a daily basis, more people will visit us than they will MySpace (subscription required). On the other hand, thankfully we're not solely an encyclopedia, either, because based on the competition (subscription required), we wouldn't be doing nearly as well as we are now.
See alsoedit
m:The Wikipedia Community
m:False community
Wikipedia:Administration
Wikipedia:Five pillars
Wikipedia:IPs are human too
Wikipedia:Wikipedia is an encyclopedia
Wikipedia:Wikipedians
Category:Wikipedia humor
Wikipedia:Underwear rule
Notesedit
^Star Trek Into Darkness - Violating the Prime Directive (2013) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDI3snWDWuo
Other essaysedit
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Blind men and an elephant
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Build content to endure
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Chesterton's fence
Children's lit, adult new readers, & large-print books
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Concept cloud
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Deprecated sources
Dictionaries as sources
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Editing on mobile devices
Editors are not mindreaders
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Give an article a chance
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Mine a source
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Minors and persons judged incompetent
"Murder of" articles
Not every story/event/disaster needs a biography
Not everything needs a navbox
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Nothing is in stone
Obtain peer review comments
Organizing disambiguation pages by subject area
Permastub
Potential, not just current state
Presentism
Principle of Some Astonishment
The problem with elegant variation
Pro and con lists
Printability
Pruning article revisions
Publicists
Put a little effort into it
Restoring part of a reverted edit
Robotic editing
Sham consensus
Source your plot summaries
Specialized-style fallacy
Stub Makers
Run an edit-a-thon
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There are no shortcuts to neutrality
There is no deadline
There is a deadline
The deadline is now
Try not to leave it a stub
Understanding Wikipedia's content standards
Walled garden
What an article should not include
Wikipedia is a work in progress
Wikipedia is not a reliable source
Wikipedia is not being written in an organized fashion
The world will not end tomorrow
Write the article first
Writing better articles
Writing article content
Avoid thread mode
Copyediting reception sections
Coup
Don't throw more litter onto the pile
Gender-neutral language
Myth vs fiction
Proseline
Use our own words
We shouldn't be able to figure out your opinions
Write the article first
Writing about women
Writing better articles
Removing or deleting content
Adjectives in your recommendations
AfD is not a war zone
Arguments to avoid in deletion discussions
Arguments to avoid in deletion reviews
Arguments to avoid in image deletion discussions
Arguments to make in deletion discussions
Avoid repeated arguments
Before commenting in a deletion discussion
But there must be sources!
Confusing arguments mean nothing
Content removal
Counting and sorting are not original research
Delete or merge
Delete the junk
Deletion is not cleanup
Does deletion help?
Don't attack the nominator
Don't confuse stub status with non-notability
Don't overuse shortcuts to policy and guidelines to win your argument
Follow the leader
How to save an article proposed for deletion
I just don't like it
Identifying blatant advertising
Identifying test edits
Immunity
Keep it concise
Liar liar pants on fire
Nothing
Nothing is clear
Overzealous deletion
Relisting can be abusive
Relist bias
The Heymann Standard
Unopposed AFD discussion
Wikipedia is not Whack-A-Mole
Why was the page I created deleted?
What to do if your article gets tagged for speedy deletion
When in doubt, hide it in the woodwork
No Encyclopedic Use
Essays on civility
The basics
Accepting other users
Apology
Contributing to complicated discussions
Divisiveness
Don't retaliate
Edit at your own pace
Encouraging the newcomers
Enjoy yourself
Expect no thanks
High-functioning autism and Asperger's editors
How to be civil
Maintaining a friendly space
Negotiation
Obsessive–compulsive disorder editors
Please say please
Relationships with academic editors
Thank you
Too long; didn't read
Truce
Unblock perspectives
We are all Wikipedians here
You have a right to remain silent
Philosophy
A weak personal attack is still wrong
Advice for hotheads
An uncivil environment is a poor environment
Be the glue
Beware of the tigers!
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Failure
Forgive and forget
It's not the end of the world
Nobody cares
Most people who disagree with you on content are not vandals
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Revert notification opt-out
Shadowless Fists of Death!
Staying cool when the editing gets hot
The grey zone
The last word
There is no Divine Right of Editors
Most ideas are bad
Nothing is clear
Reader
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There is no common sense
Two wrongs don't make a right
Wikipedia clichés
Wikipedia is not about winning
Wikipedia should not be a monopoly
Writing for the opponent
Dos
Assume good faith
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Assume no clue
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Be excellent to one another
Beyond civility
Call a spade a spade
Candor
Deny recognition
Desist
Discussing cruft
Drop the stick and back slowly away from the horse carcass
Encourage full discussions
Get over it
How to lose
Imagine others complexly
Just drop it
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Keep it down to earth
Mind your own business
Say "MOBY"
Mutual withdrawal
Read before commenting
Settle the process first
Don'ts
ALPHABETTISPAGHETTI
Civil POV pushing
Cyberbullying
Don't accuse someone of a personal attack for accusing of a personal attack
Don't be a fanatic
Don't be a jerk
Don't be an ostrich
Don't be ashamed
Don't be a WikiBigot
Don't be high-maintenance
Don't be inconsiderate
Don't be obnoxious
Don't be prejudiced
Don't be rude
Don't be the Fun Police
Don't bludgeon the process
Don't call a spade a spade
Don't call people by their real name
Don't call the kettle black
Don't call things cruft
Don't come down like a ton of bricks
Don't cry COI
Don't demand that editors solve the problems they identify
Don't drink the consensus Kool-Aid
Don't eat the troll's food
Don't fight fire with fire
Don't give a fuck
Don't help too much
Don't ignore community consensus
Don't knit beside the guillotine
Don't make a smarmy valediction part of your signature
Don't remind others of past misdeeds
Don't shout
Don't spite your face
Don't take the bait
Don't template the regulars
Don't throw your toys out of the pram
Do not insult the vandals
Griefing
Nationalist editing
No angry mastodons
just madmen
No Nazis
No racists
No Confederates
No queerphobes
No, you can't have a pony
Passive aggression
POV railroad
Superhatting
There are no oracles
There's no need to guess someone's preferred pronouns
You can't squeeze blood from a turnip
UPPERCASE
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WikiBullying
WikiCrime
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WikiHate
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WikiLove
WikiPeace
Essays on notability
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All high schools can be notable
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Businesses with a single location
But it's true!
Common sourcing mistakes
Clones
Coatrack
Discriminate vs indiscriminate information
Don't cite GNG
Drafts are not checked for notability or sanity
Every snowflake is unique
Existence ≠ Notability
Existence does not prove notability
Extracting the meaning of significant coverage
Google searches and numbers
High Schools
Inclusion is not an indicator of notability
Independent sources
Inherent notability
Insignificant
Masking the lack of notability
Make stubs
Minimum coverage
News coverage does not decrease notability
No amount of editing can overcome a lack of notability
No big loss
No one cares about your garage band
No one really cares
Notability/Historical/Arguments
Notability cannot be purchased
Notability comparison test
Notability is not a level playing field
Notability is not a matter of opinion
Notability is not relevance or reliability
Notability means impact
Notability points
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Notabilitymandering
Not every single thing Donald Trump does deserves an article
Obscurity ≠ Lack of notability
Offline sources
One hundred words
One sentence does not an article make
Other stuff exists
Overreliance upon Google
Perennial websites
Pokémon test
Read the source
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Run-of-the-mill
Solutions are mixtures and nothing else
Subjective importance
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What BLP1E is not
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What notability is not
What to include
Wikipedia is not Crunchbase
Wikipedia is not here to tell the world about your noble cause
Wikipedia is not the place to post your résumé
Two prongs of merit
Humorous essays
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Assume bad faith
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Before they were notable
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Seven Ages of Editor, by Will E. Spear-Shake
Go ahead, vandalize
How many Wikipedians does it take to change a lightbulb?
How to get away with UPE
How to put up a straight pole by pushing it at an angle
How to vandalize correctly
How to win a citation war
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Mess with the templates
My local pond
Newcomers are delicious, so go ahead and bite them
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LTTAUTMAOK
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No one cares about your garage band
No one really cares
No, really
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Notability is not eternal
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Please bite the newbies
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Pledge of Tranquility
R-e-s-p-e-c-t
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Sarcasm is really helpful
Sausages for tasting
The Night Before Wikimas
The first rule of Wikipedia
The Five Pillars of Untruth
Things that should not be surprising
The WikiBible
Watchlistitis
Wikipedia is an MMORPG
WTF? OMG! TMD TLA. ARG!
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Why not create an account?
Yes legal threats
You don't have to be mad to work here, but
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