Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Self-references to avoid: Difference between revisions

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{{redirect|WP:SELF}}

{{about|text that mentions Wikipedia (i.e., a "self-reference")|the guideline on autobiographies|Wikipedia:Autobiography|self-published sources|WP:SPS|the guideline against using Wikipedia articles as references|WP:CIRCULAR}}

{{style-guideline|MOS:SELFREF|WP:ASR|WP:SRTA|WP:SELF|type=style guideline}}

{{guideline in a nutshell|Wikipedia's [[free content]] is reused in many places: do not assume that the reader is reading Wikipedia, or indeed any website. Articles may refer to themselves, but they shouldn't refer to Wikipedia in a non-neutral fashion except under special circumstances.}}

{{style}}

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==Types of self-reference==

===''This Wikipedia article discusses ...'', ''While Wikipedia is not a ...'', ''Edit this page ...''===

{{Side box|text=

{{tick}} <big>This article discusses...</big><br/><br/>

{{cross}} <big>This Wikipedia article discusses...</big>

|style=background-color: aliceblue|metadata=no}}

Mentioning that the article is being read on Wikipedia, or referring to Wikipedia policies or technicalities of using Wikipedia, should be avoided in the article namespace where it is unnecessary. If mentioning a policy is necessary to disambiguate article titles or subtopics, [[WP:HATNOTE|hatnotes]] can serve that purpose.

These types of self-references limit the use of Wikipedia as a [[free content]] encyclopedia suitable for [[fork (software development)|forking]], as permitted by our [[Wikipedia:Copyrights|licenses]]. The goal of Wikipedia is to create ''an encyclopedia'', not merely to perpetuate itself, so the articles produced should be useful, even outside the context of the project used to create them. This means that while articles may refer to themselves, they should not refer to "Wikipedia" or to the Wikipedia project as a whole (e.g. "this website"). And our readers already know this is an encyclopedia; it is not useful to insert [[Wikipedia:No disclaimers in articles|content disclaimers]], e.g., "While Wikipedia is not a dictionary&nbsp;..." to an article on a jargon term.

Mentioning the Wikipedia community, or website features, can confuse readers of [[Wikipedia:Reusing Wikipedia content|derived works]]. Unless substantially part of the article topic, do not refer to the fact that the page can be edited, nor mention any Wikipedia project page or process, specialized Wikipedia jargon (e.g. "PoV" in place of "biased"), or any [[MediaWiki]] interface link in the sidebar or along the top of the screen.

References that exist in a way that assumes the reader is using an encyclopedia, without reference to the specific encyclopedia (Wikipedia) or the manner of access (online), are acceptable. For instance, in the article on the [[Kobe Bryant sexual assault case]], before the alleged victim's identification, it said that "Due to concerns over privacy, the name of the alleged victim is not being included in this article." That is a reference that makes sense on [[Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks|mirrors and forks]] and in print, and makes sense in a copy of Wikipedia that contains only the article space. Similarly, many [[Wikipedia:Stand-alone lists|list articles]] explicitly state their inclusion criteria in the lead section. The template {{tlx|printworthy selfref}} can be used to mark such passages as intentional self-references that are generally printworthy and mirror-worthy, but which some reusers may wish to suppress. Other examples of permissible self-references of this sort include [[WP:DLINKS|disambiguation link]]s (the [[:Category:Hatnote templates|templates for which]] suppress their appearance in printed copies), and "See ..." [[:Category:Cross-reference templates|cross-references]] (which may or may not be printworthy, depending upon whether they are inter-article; {{crossreference|see [[Template:Crossreference/doc]])}}.

The templates that render self-referencing messages for the maintenance needs of developing articles, such as {{tlx|stub}}, {{tlx|npov}}, and {{tlx|refimprove}}, are unavoidable (and may permissibly include things like "Edit this page&nbsp;..."), but articles should normally avoid self-referencing templates such as {{tlx|shortcut}} and the others.

===''Note that&nbsp;...'', ''It is important to&nbsp;...'', ''What is&nbsp;...?'', ''Surprisingly&nbsp;...'', ''Of course&nbsp;...''===

{{anchor|Note that ...|Note that|NOTETHAT}}

{{shortcut|WP:4WALL|WP:4THWALL}}

{{main|Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Instructional and presumptuous language}}

{{see also|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch#Editorializing}}

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{{anchor|Think about print}}

{{Shortcut|WP:CLICKHERE}}

Although [[WP:NOTPAPER|Wikipedia is not a paper encyclopedia]], articles should be written in a manner that facilitates transmission in other forms such as print, spoken word, and via a [[screen reader]]. So terms such as "this article" are preferable to "this webpage", and phrases like [[Click here (user interface message)|"click here" should be avoided]]. In determining what language is most suitable, it may be helpful to imagine writing the article for a print encyclopedia.

===''Free content projects, such as this website&nbsp;...'' (writing about Wikipedia itself)===

{{anchor|Writing about Wikipedia itself}}

{{Shortcut|WP:WAWI}}

{{see also|Wikipedia:About}}

Articles about online communities may well discuss Wikipedia as an example, in a neutral tone, without specifically implying that the article in question is being read on&mdash;or is a part of&mdash;Wikipedia. In this framework, if you link from an article to a specific Wikipedia page, use external link style, so the link will make sense in any context. The {{tlx|srlink}} template will do this for you.

Such pages may include:

* Articles where Wikipedia played a major role in the subject of the article, for example: [[Uncyclopedia]]

* Articles about prominent people involved in Wikipedia, for example: [[Jimmy Wales]]

* Articles about [[Wikipedia]]

* Articles where Wikipedia, or an individual incident related to it, is illustrative of the subject, such as [[virtual community]], [[encyclopedia]] and [[Streisand effect]]

===''This article was criticized by&nbsp;...'' (articles are about their subjects, not this website)===

{{See also|WPWikipedia:Navel-gazing}}

{{anchor|Articles are about their subjects}}

{{Shortcut|WP:SUBJECT}}

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For example, a discussion of [[Stephen Colbert (character)|Stephen Colbert]]'s call for vandalism of the [[Elephant]] article might be appropriately mentioned in the article on ''[[The Colbert Report]]'', but not in the article on elephants, because elephants have nothing to do with Stephen Colbert. Protests regarding depictions of Muhammad in Wikipedia's [[Muhammad]] article are <em>not</em> addressed in that article (which is about the prophet Muhammad), but rather in the article [[Depictions of Muhammad]].

A mention of Wikipedia by a notable person is unlikely to justify a mention in their Wikipedia article; such a mention would have to reflect its [[WP:DUE|importance in the person's overall body of work]]. For example, a radio host mentioning that he read his Wikipedia biography is not normally an important event in his overall career. On the other hand, the media attention surrounding [[John Seigenthaler#Wikipedia biography incident|John Seigenthaler]]'s Wikipedia entry is now abecame [[Wikipedia Seigenthaler biography incident|notable eventsignificant]] in his public life.

If it may be helpful to the community to link to [[WP:press coverage|press coverage]] about an article, this can be done in the article's talk page using the [[Template:Press|<nowiki>{{Press}}</nowiki>]] banner template.

==In templates and categories {{anchor|In the Template and Category namespaces}}==

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The self-reference template, {{tlx|selfref}}, is used to mark pieces of text and links that wouldn't make sense on copies of Wikipedia. This gives the ability to programmatically remove all such references or transform them into external links. Thus, the end product can have all of its self-references removed automatically for users, such as forks and mirrors. This template is most often used as a [[Wikipedia:Hatnote|hatnote template]] to help guide editors from an article to a related Wikipedia policy or guideline page in the [[Wikipedia:Project namespace|Wikipedia project namespace]].

Many hatnote templates that ''do'' contain helpful preset text and linking, such as {{ttlx|for}} and {{ttlx|about}}, support a {{para|selfref}} parameter that gives them the same functionality as <code>{{tlf|Self referenceselfref}}</code>, making them better options in most circumstances.

In cases where a Wikipedia page should link to Wikipedia itself (for instance, at [[Wikipedia]]) and this link should be kept on mirrors, the format {{tlx|srlink|link}} can be used to write the link as external, rather than internal when outside of Wikipedia, to prevent it breaking in mirrors. For instance: {{srlink|Main Page|Wikipedia's Main Page}} (made by <code><nowiki>{{srlink|Main Page|Wikipedia's Main Page}}</nowiki></code>) as opposed to [[Main Page|Wikipedia's Main Page]] (<code><nowiki>[[Main Page|Wikipedia's Main Page]]</nowiki></code>).

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* [[Wikipedia:Double redirects]]

{{Style wide}}

[[Category:Wikipedia Manual of Style (content)|Self-references to avoid]]