Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Lee Daniel Crocker (talk | contribs) at 16:07, 17 April 2002. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Fellow Wikipedians: Below is the beginning of my attempt to refactor and reorganize the mess of pages about our policies, including the "rules to consider" and their debates. It is my goal to make these both easier to find and easier to discuss, but I will not be changing any actual content. This will take me a day or two (4/16/2002), so please be patient and use the existing pages for now. -- LDC

There are no "official" editors of Misplaced Pages, and very few official policies. But there are a lot of things that many people feel go into making a good encyclopedia, and those ideas are listed here as rules to consider. Each of the rules has a page of its own where it is described in more detail, and debate about the rule on the corresponding talk page. These talk pages also contain lists of names of those who generally support or generally disfavor the rule; express your opinions by adding your name to these lists and by joining the discussion.

General policies

• Editing policy
• Most common Misplaced Pages faux pas
• Don't infringe copyrights
• Naming conventions, Disambiguation
• Misplaced Pages is not a dictionary
• Avoid bias

Specific rules and guidelines to consider

• Ignore all rules
• Always leave something undone
  • Make omissions explicit
• Explain jargon
• Define and describe
• Integrate changes
• Delete patent nonsense
  • Give the author a chance
• Establish context
• Build the web
• Don't use external links where we'll want Misplaced Pages links
• Cite your sources
  • List links to references and primary sources
  • Use proper references
  • Don't infringe trademarks
• Always fill summary field
• Boldface the word or phrase that the article is about
  • Don't highlight every instance of title item in text body
  • Link only one or a few instances of the same item
• Make only links relevant to the context
• Use color sparingly
• Use subheads sparingly
• Use short sentences and lists
• Balance parts of a page
• Avoid statements that will date quickly
• Pay attention to spelling
• Don't include copies of primary sources
• Warn about spoilers
• Remember that the main purpose of Misplaced Pages is being useful for readers
  • Consider the audience in your writing
• Look for an existing article before you start one
• Check your facts
• Make smart use of soft line breaks
• Avoid making your articles orphans
• Use other languages sparingly
• Contribute what you know or are willing to learn about
  • Create stubs responsibly
• Sign your posts on talk pages
• No personal attacks
  • When a debate becomes personal, move it to e-mail

Essays about Misplaced Pages and its policies

The Meta-Misplaced Pages site contains many articles about Misplaced Pages and related topics in a more editorial style.