User:*Kat*/Lingo

Wiki-Lingo is a variant of the English language that has cropped up in the years since Wikipedia's inception. This is a short glossary of terms.

Note: This is not intended to be a list of all the various acronyms on Wikipedia. This glossary is intended for words and abbreviations that are used so often by regular users that, more often than not, the term is not linked to a page that explains what the user is talking about. My goal is to eventually move this page to the main space and have it included on the relevant welcome messages so that new users won't feel like a fish out of the water when they read an article's talk page.

#

 * 3RR - Three Revert Rule.

A

 * AfD - Article for Deletion, a process for deciding whether to delete an article.
 * AGF - Assume Good Faith
 * AN - Administrator's noticeboard
 * ANI - Administrators' Noticeboard/Incidents.
 * ArbCom - Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee.
 * Admin - A Wikipedia administrator.
 * Autoblock - a restriction that is automatically placed on an IP address if a user with that IP attempts to edit after their account has been blocked.
 * AWB - AutoWikiBrowser

B

 * banned - a prohibition against editing part or all of the encyclopedia that is laid against a person or group of people by an administrator or the arbitration committee. Although the account is technically able to edit the prohibited areas, doing so is inadvisable.
 * barnstar - a wiki-award given by one editor to another for extraordinary service to the Wiki.
 * BJAODN - A collection of bad jokes and other deleted nonsense
 * BLP - Biography of living persons
 * blocked - prevented from editing by the Wiki software. Administrators can block a user or an IP range from editing, either for a fixed time or indefinitely. Blocks can expire or can be reversed by an administrator unblocking, which removes the block altogether. see also: autoblock.
 * BRD - BOLD, revert, discuss cycle. A popular and effective strategy for editing controversial articles.

C

 * ce - short for 'copyediting'. Refers to edits that improved an article without making major changes to it.
 * copyvio - refers to a copyright violation.
 * CSD - Criteria for speedy deletion.
 * CU - CheckUser. The tool used to check if someone is using more than one account.  A person with access to the tool is sometimes referred to as a CheckUser.

D

 * diff -
 * duck - see Sockpuppet.

E

 * edit war - when two or more editors make several contradictory changes to an article over a very short period of time. See also: wheel war.

F

 * feathers - a suspicion of sock puppetry.
 * FA - Feature Article. Recognition that an article is one of the best to be found on Wikipedia.  Feature Articles often find their way onto the main page

G

 * GA - Good Article. Recognition that an article is far better than average.  Sometimes seen as a stepping stone to Feature Article status.

H

 * hatting - collapsing a discussion into a template that takes up no more than one or two lines on the page.
 * HotCat - tool used to easily add categories to the end of articles.
 * Huggle

I

 * IAR - Ignore All Rules. One of the five pillars of Wikipedia.

M

 * Magic 8 ball - See: CheckUser
 * meat puppet - A person who acts in close support of another editor because he was recruited from off-site for the purpose. See sock puppet.
 * MfD - Miscellany for deletion.
 * MoS - Manual of Style.

N

 * NaCL - see Salt
 * NPA - refers to No Personal Attacks, a Wikipedian policy against making personal attacks against other users.
 * NPOV - refers to Neutral Point of View.

O

 * OR - Original Research

P

 * PC - Pending Changes. A new feature in which a trusted user reviews an edit before it becomes visible.
 * Popups - to preview hyperlinks and simple editing tasks.
 * POV - Point of View. 1) An article (or edit) that is biased in tone.
 * PR - Peer Review. Where an editor lists an article for outside input prior to nominating it as a Good Article or Feature Article.
 * PROD - Proposed deletion.
 * PUF - Possibly unfree files, where files are listed if their copyright status is unclear or disputed.

R

 * Randy in Boise - uninformed but relentless Wikipedia editor
 * RC - Recent Changes - a log of the most recent changes to take place on Wikipedia.
 * Reflinks - tools used on the Toolserver.
 * RefToolbar - script for editing toolbar.
 * RevDel - Revision Delete. When an edit is totally wiped form an article's history.
 * RfA - Request for Adminship. The process by which a person becomes an administrator on Wikipedia.
 * RFAR - Request for Arbitration. The final step in dispute resolution.
 * RFC - Request for Comment. Where one goes to get outside input on a user's behavior or an article's content.  Part of the dispute resolution process.
 * RS - Reliable Sources

S

 * salt(ed) - a process that prevents certain articles from being created.
 * sockpuppet - an undisclosed secondary account used to evade sanctions, subvert accountability, or give the illusion of support for views expressed by the original. Hard to distinguish from a meat puppet (qv).
 * SNOW - refers to Wikipedia's Snowball clause which permits the early closure of votes when the issue at hand doesn't have a proverbial snowball's chance in Hell of passing.
 * speedied - refers to Speedy Deletion, the quickest way to have an item removed from Wikipedia.

T

 * tagged - to insert a template within an article.
 * template - standardized messages inserted into a page by including the template's name between double curly brackets ( – ).
 * TW - short for Twinkle
 * Twinkle - A set of tools used to make simple edits relatively quickly.

U

 * UBX - userbox

W

 * wheel war - when two or more administrators use their tools or privileges to engage in an edit war with each other.
 * WP - abbreviation for Wikipedia.