 | This is anessay onWikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one ofWikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not beenthoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: There are other places for potentially useful or valuable content which is not appropriate for Wikipedia. |
When content (text, pages, images, etc.) isdeleted (or not accepted for publication from a draft), various policies and guidelines such as "What Wikipedia is not",notability,verifiability and ourprohibition on original research are often cited as reasons the material does not belong here, in an encyclopedia, and rightly so. Unfortunately, this is not particularly helpful or calming to the person(s) who put in time and effort to write the material. They often see it as their hard work being casually tossed away. The phrase "try anotherwiki" is also sometimes used, for similar intent.
In an effort to foster ageneral spirit of collegiality, this page provides some referrals to alternative outlets whichdo allow content that Wikipedia does not. Sometimes material is submitted that is perfectly factual and verifiable, but simply outside of the scope of Wikipedia. Just because the content does not belong here does not mean it does not have value, and it is worth preserving valuablefree content if we can.
Please consider directing people to these sites (or this page), rather than simply telling them that their contributions areWP:NOT wanted.
For example, Wikipedia contains a significant amount of information about the "Star Wars" media franchise, but for an even more detailed treatment, tryWookieepedia—a wiki dedicated to the "Star Warsuniverse". Similarly, information on the "Star Trek" franchise can be found atMemory Alpha.JurisPedia focuses onlegal topics. There also are wikis devoted to specific languages or localities that may be more appropriate for a given topic.
There may be legal or ethical restrictions on the copying of content from Wikipedia to other sites. It is up to individual contributors to familiarize themselves with the procedures and policies of other outlets and toexamine their licensing arrangements, which may differ from Wikipedia in significant ways.
It is also sometimes the case that new or inexperienced users will post an excessive amount of personal details or otherwise inappropriate content in theiruserspace. While such userpages may be nominated for deletion atWP:MfD, it may be appropriate (and courteous) to first open a dialogue with the user, and give them notice to revise the userpage and/or move its content to a more appropriate site, such asNeocities orTumblr. If the user responds favorably to such a request, opening a deletion discussion about their userpages may not be necessary.
Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by theWikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteerprojects:
There are Wikipedia articles, lists, and categories which provide information on other websites:
This page also haslinks to external sites which provide similar information.
There are alsoWikipedias in many other languages, including aSimple English Wikipedia.
Content (text, images, etc.) Text submitted to Wikipedia is required to be licensed under the terms of theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA); Media submitted to Wikipedia is required to be licensed under the terms of the CC BY-SA or a similarfree license. Other sites (especially non-WMF sites) may require a different license. Do not copy content from Wikipedia to other sites unless you are sure the licenses are compatible. If they are not, try contacting the copyright holder of the content to obtain permission to re-license the content. Typically the user who submitted the content to Wikipedia in the first place is the copyright holder. Check thepage's edit history to help identify the user.
For CC BY-SA content being deleted from Wikipedia, the edit history should also be copied or preserved in some way. For example, if the target site usestalk pages in the style of Wikipedia, copy the edit history there.
For more information, see:Reusing Wikipedia content.