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

Revision as of 05:04, 11 September 2023

Revision as of 06:44, 18 September 2023

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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 or at this time." 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 ..."), but articles should normally avoid self-referencing templates such as {{tlx|shortcut}} and the others.