 | This is anexplanatory essay about thepolicy on essays. This page provides additional information about concepts in the page(s) it supplements. This page is not one ofWikipedia's policies or guidelines as it has not beenthoroughly vetted by the community. |
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Essays, as used by Wikipedia editors, typically contain advice or opinions of one or moreeditors. The purpose of an essay is to aid or comment on the encyclopedia but not on anyunrelated causes. Essays have no official status and do not speak for theWikipedia community because they may be created and edited without overall community oversight. Following the instructions or advice given in an essay is optional. Notwithstanding, some essays are widely accepted as part of theWikipedia gestalt. Generally soft advice belongs in an essay, thusavoiding instruction creep in Wikipedia's official protocols. There areover 2,000 essays on a wide range of Wikipedia-related topics.Wikipedia policy says, “Essays…that overtly contradict consensus, belong in theuser namespace”.
Although essays are notpolicies or guidelines, many are worthy of consideration. Policies and guidelines cannot cover all circumstances. Consequently, many essays serve as interpretations of or commentary on perceived community norms for specific topics and situations.The value of an essay should be understood in context, usingcommon sense anddiscretion. Essays can be written by anyone and can be long monologues or short theses, serious or humorous. Essays may represent widespread norms or minority viewpoints. An essay, as well as being useful, can potentially be adivisive means of espousing a point of view. Although an essay should not be used to create an alternative rule set, the Wikipedia community has historically tolerated a wide range of Wikipedia-related subjects and viewpoints onuser pages.
The difference between policies, guidelines, and some essays on Wikipedia may be obscure. Essays vary in popularity and how much they are followed and referred to. Editors should defer to official policies or guidelines when essays,information pages ortemplate documentation pages are inconsistent with establishedcommunity standards and principles.
Avoid"quoting" essays as though they are policy—including this explanatory supplement page. Essays, information pages and template documentation pages can be written without much—if any—debate, as opposed to Wikipedia policies that have beenthoroughly vetted by the community (seeWP:Local consensus for details). In Wikipedia discussions,editors may refer to essays, provided that they do not hold them out asconsensus or policy.Proposals for new guidelines and policies require discussion and ahigh level of consensus from the entire community for promotion. SeeWikipedia:How to contribute to Wikipedia guidance andWikipedia:Policy writing is hard for more information.
Essays are located in theWikipedia namespace (e.g.,Wikipedia:Reasonability rule) and inUser namespaces (e.g.,User:Jimbo Wales/Statement of principles). TheHelp namespace contains pages which provide factual (usually technical) information on using Wikipedia and its software (seebelow). The{{Essay}}-family templates (with several variants like{{Notability essay}} and{{WikiProject advice}}), versus the{{Guideline}} (and variants, like{{MoS guideline}}) and{{Policy}} templates give an indication of a page's status within the community. Some essays at one time were proposed policies or guidelines, but they could not gain consensus overall; as indicated by the template{{Failed proposal}}. Other essays that at one time had consensus, but are no longer relevant, are tagged with the template{{Historical}}. Essays currently nominated for policy status are indicated by the banner{{Proposed}}. SeeWikipedia:Template messages/Wikipedia namespace for a listing of namespace banners.
Essays in the Wikipedia namespace – which arenever to be put in the main (encyclopedia article) namespace – typically address some aspect of working in Wikipedia. They have not been formally adopted as guidelines or policies by the community at large, but typically edited by the community. Some are widely accepted as part of the Wikipedia gestalt, and have a significant degree of influence during discussions (like "guideline supplements"WP:Tendentious editing,WP:Bold, revert, discuss cycle, andWP:Competence is required).
Many essays, however, are obscure, single-author pieces. Essays may bemoved into userspace as user essays(see below), or evendeleted, if they are found to be problematic.[1] Occasionally, even longstanding, community-edited essays may be removed or radically revised if community norms shift.[2]
Wikipedia'show-to and information pages are typically edited by the community and can also be found in thehelp namespace. They generally provide technical and factual information about Wikipedia or supplement guidelines and policies in greater detail. Where "essay pages" often offer advice or opinions through viewpoints, information pages are intended to clarity and explain current community practices in an impartial way (e.g.,Wikipedia:Administration).
WikiProjects are groups of editors who work together.Advice pages written by these groups are formally considered the same as pages written by anyone else, that is, they are essays unless and until they have been formally adopted as community-wide guidelines or policies. WikiProjects are encouraged to write essays explaining how the community's policies and guidelines should be applied to their areas of interest and expertise (e.g.,Wikipedia:WikiProject Bibliographies#Recommended structure).
According toWikipedia policy, "Essays that the author does not want others to edit, or that are found to contradict widespread consensus, belong in theuser namespace." These are similar to essays placed in the Wikipedia namespace; however, they are often authored/edited by only one person, and may represent a strictly personal viewpoint about Wikipedia or its processes (e.g.,User:Jehochman/Responding to rudeness). Some of them are widely respected by other editors, and even occasionally have an effect on policy (e.g., theWP:General notability guideline originated in a user essay).
Writings that contradict policy are somewhat tolerated within the User namespace. The author of a personal essay located in their user space hasthe prerogative to revert any changes made to it by any other user, within reason.Polemics in the form of personal attacks against particular people, groups, real-life ideas (e.g. artists or politicians), oragainst Wikipedia itself, are generally deleted at MFD, as unconstructive ordisruptive. Likewise,advocacy of fringe POV and pushing of fringe content and conspiracy theories is not tolerated. Wikipedia is a mainstream encyclopedia that sides with RS and does not promote content based on unreliable sources. Such content is consideredWP:UNDUE.
The Wikimedia Foundation'sMeta-wiki was envisioned as the original place for editors to comment on and discuss Wikipedia, although the "Wikipedia" project space has since taken over most of that role. Many historical essays can still be found atmeta.wikimedia.org.
It is generally preferable thatinactive WikiProjects not betagged as "Historical ", but instead be marked as{{WikiProject status|inactive}} or{{WikiProject status|Defunct}}. SeeWP:INACTIVEWP for more details.
Before creating an essay, it is a good idea to check if similar essays already exist. Although there is no guideline or policy that explicitly prohibits it,writing redundant essays is discouraged. Avoid creating essaysjust to prove a point orgame the system. Essays that violate one or more Wikipedia policies, such asspam,personal attacks,copyright violations, orwhat Wikipedia is not tend to getdeleted ortransferred to user space.
You do not have to have created an essay to improve it. If an essay already exists,you can add to, remove from, or modify it as you wish, provided that you use good judgment. However, essays placed in theUser: namespace are often—though not always—meant to represent the viewpoint of one user only. You should usually not substantively edit someone else's user essay without permission. To be on the safe side, discuss any edits not covered byREFACTOR andMINOR before making them. If the original author is no longer active or available, seek consensus on the essay's talk page (other editors who have worked on the essay are likely to care about it), or just write a new one.
Wikipedia:Essay directory lists about 2100 essays to allow searching for key words or terms with your browser. Essays can also be navigated viacategories, thenavigation template, or by acustom search box (as seen below).