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This page in a nutshell: Add template messages to inform readers and editors of specific problems with articles or sections, but do not use them as a badge of shame.
Template messages (maintenance tags, cleanup tags, cleanup messages) may be added to articles needing cleanup. Their purposes are to foster improvement of the encyclopedia by alerting editors to changes that need to be made. Cleanup tags are meant to be temporary notices that lead to an effort to fix the problem, not a permanent badge of shame to show that you disagree with an article, or a method of warning readers about an article.
Unless otherwise noted, cleanup messages should be placed at the top of the page, before other templates, images, or infoboxes, but after hatnotes (see Wikipedia:Hatnote § Placement). Cleanup messages should be placed directly on the article or file, not on its talk page. Certain tags can be placed at the beginning of an individual section, and others can be placed within the text itself (inline).
A date parameter is added by a bot, or you can add it yourself with |date=August 2025.
Before you tag an article, please remember the following:
Don't tag an article if you can easily and confidently fix the problem.
The goal is an improved article, not a tagged article.
Do some research to attempt to solve the problem before tagging.
Don't put the burden of doing so on another editor if you are capable of fixing the problem yourself with a simple search or consulting a reference work.
Don't perform "drive-by" tagging.
Tags must be accompanied by either a comment on the article's talk page explaining the problem and beginning a discussion on how to fix it or, for simpler and more obvious problems, a remark using the reason parameter (available in all templates, regardless of whether it appears in the documentation) as shown below. At the very least, tagging editors must be willing to follow through with substantive discussion.
For example, most articles that read like essays have an inappropriate tone, and in fact they end up being automatically grouped in the same category, so it is unnecessary to tag with both {{tone}} and {{essay-like}}.
If an article has many problems, tag only the highest priority issues.
If multiple tags are necessary, consider using the {{multiple issues}} template.
This will help to avoid cluttering the article with tags and eclipsing the article's content.
Don't add tags for trivial or minor problems, especially if an article needs a lot of work.
For example, there is little point in noting grammatical problems for a section that needs to be completely re-written to comply with content policies. Focus on the biggest one, two, or three problems.
Does the article meet inclusion requirements?
Before placing templates on a page it is worthwhile to cast a critical eye over the page to determine whether indeed it should be included in Wikipedia. Some articles can be tagged for speedy deletion or nominated for a deletion discussion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion.
Best practices
In obscure or unpopular articles
On pages that have received little attention from editors or readers, cleanup templates can be used as a way to call attention to problems that need to be addressed by editors. Editors who want to help address these problems should look through the various cleanup categories such as maintenance and articles with content issues and try to address the problems so that the templates can be removed. Editors who frequently tag articles should also address the backlogs.
In heavily monitored articles
On pages that are being edited by a number of users, cleanup templates are used to inform readers and editors of ongoing discussions and attempts to fix the problems on the page. Such templates can be used to attract uninvolved users to discussions and cleanup efforts, and they can also serve as a warning to casual readers that the article may have problems and be subject to noticeable changes. In general, an editor who places a template message to indicate a problem like this should explain their rationale fully on the talk page of the article. If the consensus of the other editors is that there is a problem or an editorial dispute that deserves such a clean-up template, then the editors should work to fix the problem as quickly and cleanly as possible so the template message can be removed. If the consensus is that there is no problem, then the message can be removed immediately. For heavily monitored articles, please do not add or remove template messages of this sort without using the talk page.
Use in sections
Many of these cleanup tags require you to place |article as the first parameter when you use the tag at the top of an article. When you want the template to refer to just one section, however, you replace |article with |section (where the | is a pipe key | found on most keyboards as a shift-backslash ⇧ Shift+\. See the specific template below to determine if such "section use" is supported and appropriate.
Overarching copyright issues
Templates in this section identify possible violations of Wikipedia's licensing requirements, as defined in the Wikimedia Terms of use.
This article's edit history is not complete. Some of the article text's edit history exists at article due to copying and pasting between articles. This may be a violation of the CC BY-SA and/or GFDL if proper attribution was not made in an edit summary or on the talk page. Please see Wikipedia:Merging and Wikipedia:Splitting for details of when such copying and pasting is acceptable and when it is not, and how to correctly attribute using links in the edit summaries. You can also read Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia for an overview of the issues.
This article may have been copied and pasted from another ___location, possibly in violation of Wikipedia's copyright policy. Please review the source and remedy this by editing this article to remove any non-free copyrighted content and attributing free content correctly, or flagging the content for deletion. Please be sure that the supposed source of the copyright violation is not itself a Wikipedia mirror.
This animal-related article may require cleanup to conform to a higher standard of quality. You can help by improving it if you can. The article's talk page may have suggestions.
This article is largely based on an article in the out-of-copyright Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, which was produced in 1911. It should be brought up to date to reflect subsequent history or scholarship (including the references, if any). When you have completed the review, replace this notice with a simple note on this article's talk page.
For use in fiction-specific articles that have way too many trivial examples. (Ex.: For an article specifically about famous fictional horses that mentions the fact that Sesame Street once told kids how to spell "horse", or that one of the animals you can kill in an online game is a horse.)
For use when a nonfiction article has become overcrowded with too many references to fiction or other pop culture. (Ex.: Article on horses having a long section of TV shows, movies, video games, etc. that have "horse" in the name or feature horses in some way.)
This taxon may be invalid. Redirect to the correct taxon or request deletion by adding a {{subst:prod|concern=TEXT}} tag. See this article's talk page for more information.
This article may contain inappropriate self-references to the Wikipedia project or to itself. Please address the problem by removing references to Wikipedia or to the article as a document.
This article's lead sectioncontains information that is not included elsewhere in the article. If this information is appropriate for the lead, it should also be included in the article's body. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This page may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page.
This overview section duplicates the intended purpose of the article's lead section, which should provide an overview of the subject. Please merge it with the introduction, move its content to other sections, or retitle the section to give it a clear scope.
This section should include a summary of, or be summarized in, another article. See Wikipedia:Summary style for information on how to incorporate it into this article's main text, or the main text of another article.
This article may benefit from being shortened by the use of summary style. Summary style may involve the splitting of sections of text to one or more sub-topic articles which are then summarized in the main article.
This page or section uses colour as the only way to convey important information. To meet Wikipedia's web accessibility guidelines, please help improve this page or section so it is easier to read by those with disabilities by adding an additional means for these readers to access the relevant information. See the guides to editing for accessibility at contrast and colours.
This article has problems when viewed in dark mode. Desktop readers can switch to light mode temporarily using the eyeglasses icon at the top of the page. You can help fix these problems; see the official how-to.
This article may overuse or misuse colour, making it hard to understand for colour-blind users. Please remove or fix instances of distracting or hard-to-read colours or remove coloured links that may impede users' ability to distinguish links from regular text, or links coloured for purely aesthetic reasons. See the guides to editing for accessibility of contrast and colour.
This page or section may contain link spam masquerading as content. Spam on Wikipedia consists of external links mainly intended to promote a website. If you are familiar with the content of the external links, please help by removing promotional links in accordance with Wikipedia:External links.
This "see also" section may contain an excessive number of entries. Please ensure that only the most relevant links are given, that they are not red links, and that any links are not already in this article. (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article concentrates unduly on statistical information.Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information and long lists of statistics may be confusing to readers and reduce the readability and neatness of our articles. In addition, articles should contain sufficient explanatory text to put statistics within the article in their proper context for a general reader. Please discuss this issue on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article is about an event or subject that may not be current but does not specify a time period. Please help improve it to include this information. The talk page may contain suggestions.
Off-topic
Articles occasionally contain content which is otherwise valid, but appears unrelated to the nominal topic of the article.
Place {{lacking ISBN|date=August 2025}} at the head of the relevant section(s). Remember that books published before 1974 may not have ISBNs (though more recent editions should).
This article is missing information about Articles to be expanded. Please expand the article by making an edit requestto include this information . Further details may exist on the talk page.
When calling this template, you must pass it a parameter. A template call like {{Missing information|why bananas are yellow}} generates "This article is missing information about why bananas are yellow."
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in another language. Click [show] for important translation instructions.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is (using German): Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Exact name of German article]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated||Error: No language code specified}} to the talk page.
When calling this template, you may pass it a parameter. A template call like {{expand section|examples and additional citations}} generates: "This section requires expansion with: examples and additional citations."
This section has color coding, typographical symbols, or uncommon abbreviations that should be explained in a legend. Please help improve the section and read the Manual of Style for guidelines. (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article contains images without alternative text.Alternative text helps readers who use screen readers to access Wikipedia due to visual impairment. Please help improve Wikipedia by adding descriptive text to images. See the Manual of Style for guidelines. (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article needs attention from an expert in PROJECTNAME. Please add a reason or a talk parameter to this template to explain the issue with the article.WikiProject PROJECTNAME may be able to help recruit an expert.
Before adding this template, start a section on the article discussion page describing what you wish the expert to address, and put the section name in the |talk= parameter. {{Expert needed talk}} may be used on the talk page for this purpose.
This article is about an event or subject that may not be current but does not specify the time period. Please help improve it to include this information. The talk page may contain suggestions.
This Wikipedia page needs to be updated. Please help update this Wikipedia page to reflect recent events or newly available information. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page.
The factual accuracy of this Wikipedia page may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help update this Wikipedia page to reflect recent events or newly available information. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page.
This project page is actively undergoing a major edit for a little while. To help avoid edit conflicts, please do not edit this page while this message is displayed.
This page was last edited at 13:21, 30 August 2025 (UTC) (3 hours ago) – this estimate is cached, update. Please remove this template if this page hasn't been edited for a significant time. If you are the editor who added this template, please be sure to remove it or replace it with {{Under construction}} between editing sessions.
This project page or section is in a state of significant expansion or restructuring. You are welcome to assist in its construction by editing it as well. If this project pagehas not been edited in several days, please remove this template. If you are the editor who added this template and you are actively editing, please be sure to replace this template with {{in use}} during the active editing session. Click on the link for template parameters to use.
This page was last edited by WikiEdita65(talk | contribs) 3 hours ago. (Updatetimer)
This article is currently being heavily edited because its subject has recently died. Information about their death and related events may change significantly and initial news reports may be unreliable. The most recent updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. Please feel free to improve this article (but edits without reliable references may be removed) or discuss changes on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Contradiction and confusion
Note: Templates relevant for when articles are confusing or hard to understand due specifically to translation issues can be found at Wikipedia:Template index/Translation.
This article appears to contradict another article. Please discuss at the talk page and do not remove this message until the contradictions are resolved.
This article appears to contradict the articles example and illustration. Please discuss at the talk page and do not remove this message until the contradictions are resolved.
Use these tags in articles that appear to contradict themselves or each other.
This article contains content that may be misleading to readers. Please help improve it by clarifying such content. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page.
Use this tag when the article is not factually wrong, but leads the reader to draw incorrect conclusions.
The relevance of particular information in (or previously in) this article or section is disputed. The information may have been removed or included by an editor as a result. Please see discussion on the talk page considering whether its inclusion is warranted.
An optional parameter can be added to specify the applicable guideline; e.g.: {{notability|biographies}}, {{notability|fiction}}. See the template documentation for a list of supported values.
The factual accuracy of the map included in this page is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help replace the disputed map with another suitable one or improve it if possible. (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article contains material that may constitute a hoax. Please carefully verify any reliably sourced claims and add reliable sources for any uncited claims. If the claims cannot be verified, consider removing the section in question and/or nominating the article for deletion. Please see the talk page for details.
This article may be weighted too heavily towards only one aspect of its subject. Please help improve it by introducing more general information. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page.
This article may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints. Please help improve it by adding information on neglected viewpoints. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page.
This article's sources may have been cherry-picked. Its accuracy and/or neutrality is potentially compromised. Please help improve it by introducing a greater range of sources and ensuring they lend equal weight to varying viewpoints.
This article may have been created or edited in return for undisclosed payments, a violation of Wikipedia's terms of use. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view.
The subject of this biographical articleis shown as being deceased on a Wikipedia article in another language, and possibly on Wikidata. Please help to find reliable sources to confirm whether this individual is alive or dead, or correct any mis-categorization on the relevant foreign-language article(s). Further usage instructions for this template can be found here.
This article does not cite any reliable sources. Reliable sources are necessary to demonstrate that a particular subject is notable enough to warrant an article. Please help by identifying at least one reliable source that gives significant coverage of the topic, and adding it to this article. If at least two such sources cannot be found, the article may be considered for deletion. (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article's references contain multiple incorrect ISBNs. Please help improve it by checking ISBNs listed in references and ensuring that they correctly correspond to the works referenced.
The truthfulness of this image has been questioned, and it is believed that it may constitute a hoax. Please add reliable sources to its description page or comment on its talk page to show that it is not a manipulated photo or that it does not present misleading information. If the image cannot be suitably verified, consider placing it at files for discussion. Further information and discussion may be found on its talk page.
This article contains historical images which have been upscaled using AI. This will have introduced speculative and possibly inaccurate details. Such images should be replaced with their original versions. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page.
This listcontains entries that may be out of scope and need to be evaluated for removal. Please help clean it up by removing items that do not meet the inclusion criteria agreed upon on the talk page.
To identify a list on Wikipedia that has entries that may be out of scope.
This article should be written as a table. Please improve this article to meet Wikipedia's quality standards, or discuss this issue on the talk page. Editing help is available.
This table may be more easily updated if the rank-order column (1,2,3) is removed and a row number column is added instead. Alphabetical order may also help. See examples here.
Wiki tech
Most of these issues are covered in the main Manual of Style.
This article currently links to a large number of disambiguation pages (or back to itself). Please help direct these ambiguous links to articles dealing with the specific content intended. Read the FAQ.
Use this on a page that links to a large number of disambiguation pages.
This template is sometimes placed automatically by DPL bot.
This page is a list of project pages associated with the same title or shortcut. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended page. Note: This page may need to be cleaned up to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Further information might be found on the talk page.
This page's infoboxmay require expansion, verification, or otherwise need cleanup. Please ensure it meets Wikipedia's guidelines. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. You may also want to view the infobox template page to see the full parameter list and get guidance on the usage of that infobox.
This article lacks an infobox. You may wish to add one, so that the article resembles the standard display for this subject. This talk page may contain the banner of a relevant project, that provides the standardized infobox for this type of article. See also Category:Infobox templates, and Wikipedia:WikiProject Infoboxes.
This template should be used on talk pages.
Also has functionality to indicate that only a section in a page needs one. See the template page for more info.
This page has an infobox that is missing one or more vital fields and needs to be updated. Please consult the relevant WikiProject or this category to find the appropriate usage.
This article would benefit from the addition of a Mycomorphbox which lists traits used to identify this mushroom. You can help Wikipedia by adding one.
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
