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Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Self-references to avoid

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This guideline is about self-references 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

Nitasha Rakesh Sihag
State Executive Member, BJP Haryana
Personal details
Born1985 (age 39–40)
Sunam, Punjab, India
Political partyBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Residence(s)Ellenabad, Sirsa, Haryana, India
EducationMBA (Human Resource), LLB (Final Year)
OccupationSocial Activist, Politician
Known forWomen empowerment, grassroots politics, drug awareness campaigns
AwardsIdeal Woman Award (2019), Haryana State Drug-Free Campaign Recognition
WebsiteTwitter • Facebook

Nitasha Rakesh Sihag is an Indian politician, legal scholar, and grassroots social activist from Haryana. She is currently a State Executive Member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Haryana and has formerly served as District President of BJP Mahila Morcha in Sirsa and State Secretary in BJP’s women wing.

Early Life and Education

Nitasha was born in Sunam, Punjab, India. She completed her MBA in Human Resource Management and is currently pursuing her LLB degree. After marriage, she moved to Ellenabad in Sirsa district, Haryana.

Political Career

She began her political journey through BJP Mahila Morcha, the women's wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Nitasha rose through the ranks, serving first at the district level and later taking on state-level responsibilities. As of 2024, she holds the position of State Executive Member in BJP Haryana.

Social Contributions

  • Led awareness campaigns against drug abuse under the slogan "Nasha Chhodo, Rishta Jodo" (Quit Drugs, Build Relationships), recognized by the Haryana Government.
  • Played an active role in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) organizing cleanliness drives in urban and rural areas of Sirsa.
  • Advocated for tree plantation and environmental awareness under the theme “Har Sheher Gaon, Ped Ki Chhaon.”
  • Organized women’s empowerment workshops and legal rights awareness events in rural communities.

Notable Appearances

  • Participated in national-level seminars hosted by CII in New Delhi as the sole delegate from Haryana.
  • Invited speaker at the International Women's Forum, Mumbai.
  • Honored with the “Ideal Woman Award – 2019” by Legal Rights Council and University of Delhi.

Personal Life

Nitasha belongs to a Punjabi and Bagri-speaking family with roots in Sunam, Punjab. She is married and resides in Ellenabad, Sirsa. Her family has spiritual associations with the Namdhari sect. She maintains an active presence on social media and continues to mentor young women in leadership.

Contact

See Also

  • Bharatiya Janata Party
  • BJP Mahila Morcha
  • Politics of Haryana
  • Women in Indian Politics

References

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

Shortcuts
Main page: Wikipedia:Manual of Style § Instructional and presumptuous language
See also: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch § Editorializing

Avoid "breaking the fourth wall" to address readers directly in an unencyclopedic tone, either instructional or opinionated. This includes the pedagogical style of posing rhetorical questions to the reader (worst of all in headings). Neutral cross-references, e.g. (See also Cymric cat.), are permissible (and best done with the {{crossreference}} template), but are often best reworded (The Cymric cat is a recent breed developed from the Manx.).

Click here to see more (think about print)

Shortcut

Although 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" 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)

Shortcut
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—or is a part of—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 {{srlink}} template will do this for you.

Such pages may include:

This article was criticized by ... (articles are about their subjects, not this website)

See also: WP:Navel-gazing

Shortcut

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, so its articles are about their subjects; they are not 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'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 not 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 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's Wikipedia entry became significant in his public life.

If it may be helpful to the community to link to press coverage about an article, this can be done in the article's talk page using the {{Press}} banner template.

In templates and categories

Self-references are sometimes found in the templates and the 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 {{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 {{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

Shortcut

The self-reference template, {{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 hatnote template to help guide editors from an article to a related Wikipedia policy or guideline page in the Wikipedia project namespace.

Many hatnote templates that do contain helpful preset text and linking, such as {{for}} and {{about}}, support a |selfref= parameter that gives them the same functionality as {{selfref}}, 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 {{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: Wikipedia's Main Page (made by {{srlink|Main Page|Wikipedia's Main Page}}) as opposed to Wikipedia's Main Page ([[Main Page|Wikipedia's Main Page]]).

See also

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