Jump to content

Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Self-references to avoid

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
< Wikipedia:Manual of Style
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Eloquence (talk | contribs) at 05:43, 20 July 2003 (new guideline on self-references). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Avoid self-references within Wikipedia articles to the Wikipedia project, such as:

This Wikipedia article discusses ...
Open content projects, such as this website ..
While Wikipedia is not a dictionary, ... (in an article about a certain term)
Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers (see Wikipedia:Spoiler warning for alternative text)

Such self-references are entirely acceptable on talk pages or in the Wikipedia namespace, but they are inappropriate in articles. The main reason is that they complicate forking and the use of Wikipedia articles by others, which our license explicitly allow. Wikipedia can, of course, write about Wikipedia, but context is important: If you read about Shakespeare's works, you are not interested in reading about Wikipedia's policies or conventions. If, however, you read about online communities, the article may well discuss Wikipedia as an example -- in neutral tone, without specifically implying that the article in question is being read on, or part of Wikipedia.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Self-references_to_avoid&oldid=1171152"