Wikipedia:Principles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The English Wikipedia does not have a single, definitive statement of the community's values and principles. Over the years, several editors have written summaries of these values and principles as well as essays expressing their ideas about what is important. Here's a list of some of these popular pages:

User:Jimbo Wales/Statement of principles: One of the oldest, this statement of principles was written by a founder.
Wikipedia:Five pillars: Perhaps the most popular, this was written as a simple summary for new editors.
Wikipedia:Trifecta: This three-point simplified ruleset was the precursor to the Five Pillars page.
Wikipedia:Core content policies: Brief summary and a bit of background on our core content policies.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia is an encyclopedia: Blunt and to the point laying out of what Wikipedia is
Wikipedia:Wikipedia in brief: Focuses on the encyclopedic nature of the project.
Wikipedia:Simplified ruleset: A longer page with more detail.
Wikipedia:Ethics: A list of various ethical codes
Wikipedia:Purpose: Wikipedia's purpose
Wikipedia:User Creed: What Wikipedians believe
Wikipedia:Pledges: Specific principles individual Wikipedians pledge to uphold
Wikipedia:Product, process, policy: The three P's
Wikipedia:Here to build an encyclopedia: Behaviors that build, or destroy, the project.
Wikipedia:8 simple rules for editing our encyclopedia
Wikipedia:Ten Simple Rules for Editing Wikipedia

meta:Founding principles: Principles generally supported by all of the Wikimedia communities
wmf:Values: The six values of the Wikimedia Foundation
wikiversity:Wikimedia Ethics

All of these pages are intended to be informative and helpful to editors. None of these pages themselves are official policies or guidelines of the English Wikipedia community.

Wikipedia:Expectations and norms of the Wikipedia community, supplement
Wikipedia:Editorial oversight and control, summary of various processes and structures
Wikipedia:Introduction / Wikipedia:About, introductory pages
Wikipedia:History of Wikipedian processes and people, historical
Wikipedia:Governance, directory of links related to Wikipedia governance
Wikipedia:IPs are human too, an essay
Wikipedia:The rules are principles, an essay
Wikipedia:Wikiness, an essay
Wikipedia:Why Wikipedia is so great, an essay
Wikipedia:Five pillars of evil, a humorous essay

v t e Essays on building Wikipedia
Philosophy	Articles must be written Be a reliable source Cohesion Concede lost arguments 8 simple rules for editing our encyclopedia Explanationism Here to build an encyclopedia Paradoxes Product, process, policy Purpose The role of policies in collaborative anarchy Ten Simple Rules for Editing Wikipedia Trifecta User Creed Wikipedia in brief Wikipedia is an encyclopedia Avoid vague introductions
Inclusion	Alternative outlets Articles with a single source Avoid template creep Bare notability Bombardment But it's true! Citation overkill Clones Coatrack Discriminate vs indiscriminate information Existence ≠ Notability Explanationism Google searches and numbers High Schools Inaccuracy Inclusion is not an indicator of notability Independent sources Inherent notability Insignificant Masking the lack of notability Make stubs No amount of editing can overcome a lack of notability No big loss No one cares about your garage band No one really cares Notability/Historical/Arguments Notability is not a matter of opinion Notability means impact Obscurity ≠ Lack of notability Offline sources Notability sub-pages One sentence does not an article make Other stuff exists Perennial websites Pokémon test Run-of-the-mill Solutions are mixtures and nothing else Subjective importance Third-party sources Video links What notability is not Wikipedia is not here to tell the world about your noble cause
Construction	100K featured articles A navbox on every page Alternatives to the "Expand" template Amnesia test An unfinished house is a real problem Avoid mission statements Bare URLs Be neutral in form Beef up that first revision Concept cloud Don't demolish the house while it's still being built Don't hope the house will build itself Don't leave giant breaks between sections Don't panic Editing on iPhones, iPads, etc. Editors are not mindreaders Featured articles may have problems Give an article a chance Inaccuracies in Wikipedia namespace Link rot Not everything needs a navbox Not everything needs a WikiProject Nothing is in stone Over explained Permastub Potential, not just current state Put a little effort into it Pruning article revisions Restoring part of a reverted edit Robotic editing Temporary versions of articles The world will not end tomorrow There is a deadline There is no deadline Wikipedia is a volunteer service Wikipedia is a work in progress Wikipedia is not being written in an organized fashion Write the article first Writing better articles
Deletion	Adjectives in your recommendations AfD is not a war zone Arguments to avoid in deletion discussions Arguments to avoid in deletion reviews Arguments to avoid in image deletion discussions Arguments to make in deletion discussions Avoid repeated arguments Before commenting in a deletion discussion But there must be sources! Content removal Delete the junk Does deletion help Don't overuse shortcuts to policy and guidelines to win your argument Follow the leader How to save an article proposed for deletion I just don't like it Immunity Liar Liar Pants on Fire Nothing Overzealous deletion Relisting can be abusive Why was my page deleted?
About essays	Value of essays Difference between policies, guidelines and essays Essays are not policy Don't cite essays as if they were policy Finding an essay Quote your own essay
Essays

See also