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

Revision as of 10:16, 30 March 2024

Revision as of 23:39, 22 April 2024

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* 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 ...'' (articles are about their subjects, not this website)===

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

{{anchor|Articles are about their subjects}}

{{Shortcut|WP:SUBJECT}}

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, so its articles are about their subjects; they are <em>not</em> about the articles themselves. This means that even if an article itself becomes famous, that article should not report this about itself.

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 became [[Wikipedia Seigenthaler biography incident|significant]] in his public life.

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