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

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{{redirect|WP:SELF}}

{{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}}

This guideline is about [[self-reference]]s and specifies which types of self-references should be avoided and which kinds are acceptable. A self-reference in an article usually mentions Wikipedia directly or tells readers to take an action on Wikipedia, such as editing the article.

Although self-references within Wikipedia articles to the Wikipedia project should usually be avoided, there are exceptions. Some examples of acceptable self-references are articles about Wikipedia, categories, and maintenance templates.

==Types of self-reference==

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

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

{{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 ...'' (writing about Wikipedia itself)===

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===''This article was criticized by ...'' (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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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 became [[Wikipedia Seigenthaler biography incident|significant]] 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}}==

Self-references are sometimes found in the [[Help:Template|templates]] and the [[Wikipedia:Categorization|categories]]. Some of these are necessary or intrinsic to the purpose of the page, as with disambiguation information at the top of category pages and in {{tl|stub}} templates, which encourage readers to edit the page. Unnecessary self-references are not encouraged in templates or categories, due to the need of third-party users to either delete those templates or modify them to remove the Wikipedia references. For example, all {{tl|navbox}} templates should provide a list of related articles, but none of them should label these pages as "Wikipedia articles" or as "Related articles on this website".

When forced to use templates like this, you should use them in a way such that the article still makes sense when the template is removed, in order to facilitate automated removal.

Wikipedia project coordination pages should be under [[:Category:Wikipedia administration]], not in categories that contain main-namespace articles by topic. (A small number of articles ''about'' Wikipedia are in the mainstream categories and this is OK.) User pages may be categorized under [[:Category:Wikipedians]], but not in any of the subcategories under [[:Category:People]].

==Self-reference tools==

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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>).