Help:Wikipedia: The Missing Manual/Appendixes/Reader's guide to Wikipedia: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:16, 4 March 2020

Revision as of 04:29, 4 March 2020

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So, should you trust Wikipedia? That should depend somewhat on the article. If you see a star in the upper right corner (see '''Figure B-2'''), indicating a featured article, you can be virtually certain that what you'll read is correct, and that the cited sources back up what's in the article.

[[File:Wikipedia-The Missing Manual_I_mediaobject_d1e29416.png|frame|right|'''Figure B-2''' Featured articles (articles with the highest assessed quality in Wikipedia) have a star in the upper right corner. You can click the star to learn how articles get their featured status (see [[Help:Wikipedia: The Missing Manual/NameCollaborating ofwith Partother ofeditors/Lending theother Book/Nameeditors ofa hand#Going for the Chapter#Sectiongold: Better and best article headingcandidates|the section about xxgood and featured articles]]).]]

You'll find that each article contains clues to its reliability. If you see a well-written article with at least a reasonable number of footnotes, then you should be reasonably confident that almost all the information in the article is correct. If you see a lot of run-on sentences and templates noting a lack of sources, point of view problems, and so on, then you should be skeptical.

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==== Searching for categories ====

External search engines often have options that Wikipedia's search feature lacks, as discussed on [[Help:Wikipedia: The Missing Manual/Name of Part of the Book/Name of the Chapter#SectionSearching headingWikipedia|theearlier sectionin aboutthis xxchapter]]. When you use an external search engine, you simply restrain your search results to Wikipedia pages and apply any other options you like. If you use Google, for example, you can search just Wikipedia category pages by typing ''site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category'' in the search box. '''Figure B-14''' shows how to use this site restriction in Google. This Google search restricts results to category pages, since "site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category" was typed into the search box. It furthermore requires that the title of the category page contain the word "spy"; note "intitle:spy" at the beginning of the search term. There are 16 categories with "spy" in the title. Searching for "spy" instead of "intitle:spy" would turn up category pages with "spy" anywhere on the page (of which there are about 500).[[File:Wikipedia-The Missing Manual_I_mediaobject_d1e29765.png|frame|center|'''Figure B-14''' This Google search restricts results to category pages, since "site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category" was typed into the search box. It furthermore requires that the title of the category page contain the word "spy"; note "intitle:spy" at the beginning of the search term. There are 16 categories with "spy" in the title. Searching for "spy" instead of "intitle:spy" would turn up category pages with "spy" anywhere on the page (of which there are about 500).]]

You can also use the technique shown in '''Figure B-14'''—finding category pages of interest—before you use the category intersection tool CatScan, to avoid having to guess the exact names of categories that you want to use in CatScan.

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Several years ago, the Wikimedia Foundation realized that it didn't make sense to have images stored on language-specific Wikipedias, so it created the Commons ([http://commons.wikimedia.org http://commons.wikimedia.org]) as a central storage area available to all language Wikipedias. Think of it as a stock media site for Wikpedia and other Wikimedia Foundation projects (it has sounds and other media files as well as images). In fact, the image in '''Figure B-17'' is actually on Commons, not the English Wikipedia.

==== Finding pictures in theon Commons ====

Because the Commons is a media storage site, you'll find a table of contents right on its Main Page ('''Figure B-18'''). With more than 4 million images, you may find something you really like—and it's all free content.

The Commons' Main Page offers a number of ways to view its content—by starting with featured pictures, by drilling down through categories, or by choosing a topic area. If you choose a topic, you'll arrive at a category page similar to '''Figure B-5''' with one interesting difference—the page has a tab labeled CatScan. Yep—that's the category intersection tool mentioned on [[Help:Wikipedia:#Articles Thein Missingtwo Manual/Namedifferent of Part of the Book/Name of the Chapter#Section headingcategories|theearlier sectionin aboutthis xxchapter]], and it works for the Commons as well as Wikipedia.[[File:Wikipedia-The Missing Manual_I_mediaobject_d1e29909.png|frame|right|'''Figure B-18''' The Commons' Main Page offers a number of ways to view its content—by starting with featured pictures, by drilling down through categories, or by choosing a topic area. If you choose a topic, you'll arrive at a category page similar to '''Figure B-5''' with one interesting difference—the page has a tab labeled CatScan. Yep—that's the category intersection tool mentioned on [[Help:Wikipedia:#Articles Thein Missingtwo Manual/Namedifferent of Part of the Book/Name of the Chapter#Section headingcategories|theearlier sectionin aboutthis xxchapter]], and it works for the Commons as well as Wikipedia.]]

==== Picture of the day ====

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=== Missing articles ===

You've searched for an article and didn't find it, even using an outside search engine ([[Help:Wikipedia: The Missing Manual/Name of Part of the Book/Name of the Chapter#SectionSearching headingWikipedia|the section about xxsearching]]). Now what? Wikipedia has created a page where you can check to see if someone has already suggested that Wikipedia needs such an article. And that page, [[Wikipedia:Requested articles]], has associated pages where you can add the name of the article as a suggestion if no one else already has.

Unfortunately, this page, and its associated pages, isn't particularly user-friendly for someone unfamiliar with Wikipedia editing. You have to pick the correct general topic area from a list of 10, then a topic area from what can be a long list, and then maybe even go down yet one more level just to see the area of a page where you're supposed to post.

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Finally, when you're at the right area of the page, you have to figure out how to post your suggestion. If all the sections of all the associated pages were consistently formatted, you'd find instructions here on how to post to them—but they're not.

An easier way to suggest to the Wikipedia community that an article is needed is to find a relatively close ''existing'' article, and then, following the steps ondescribed [[Help:Wikipedia:#Articles The Missing Manual/Name of Part of the Book/Name of the Chapter#Sectionwith headingproblems|theearlier sectionin aboutthis xxchapter]], post a note on the article's talk page. When you post, describe the topic that you looked for and couldn't find, and that you'd appreciate it if a more experienced editor added the subject at the [[Wikipedia:Requested articles]] page.

== See also ==