Wikipedia:Did you know

Wikipedia:Did you know (DYK) is the project page for the "Did you know" section on the Main Page. The DYK section showcases new or expanded articles that are selected through an informal review process. It is a general trivia section. The choice of articles is subject to a set of criteria that are set out on this page.

The other sections of changeable content on the Main Page are coordinated at In the news, Picture of the day, Selected anniversaries, Today's featured list (currently Mondays and Fridays), and Today's featured article. More general discussion of the main page takes place at Talk:Main Page, and errors are reported at Main Page/Errors.

Aims and objectives
Wikipedia's goal is to build and maintain an encyclopedia covering all branches of human knowledge. Hundreds of new articles are created and many more expanded each day on the English Wikipedia. DYK showcases new and improved content by presenting a series of facts ("hooks"), some of them accompanied by images, which link to selected articles. The hooks appear for a limited period in the "Did you know...?" box on the Main Page. Editors whose articles appear in DYK will receive an acknowledgement on their user talk pages. The choice of articles is subject to a series of criteria (see DYK rules below). Editors may nominate their own or someone else's work for a DYK appearance.

DYK aims to achieve the following five goals:
 * To showcase new and improved content, illustrating to readers the continuous improvement and expansion of Wikipedia's corpus of articles;
 * To highlight the variety of information on Wikipedia, thereby providing an insight into the range of material that Wikipedia covers.
 * To present facts about a range of topics which may not necessarily otherwise receive Main Page exposure;
 * To acknowledge the work that editors do to expand and improve Wikipedia, encouraging them to continue their efforts and thereby contributing to editor retention and ongoing content improvement;
 * To encourage readers to edit articles that appear on DYK or start their own, thus facilitating the recruitment of new editors.

What DYK is not
DYK is not:
 * A smaller-scale version of either featured content or good articles, though selected good articles do appear in the DYK box. Articles must meet the basic criteria set out on this page but do not have to be of very high quality. As DYK's main purpose is to showcase new and improved content, it is not expected that articles appearing on DYK would be considered among the best on Wikipedia.
 * A collection of general trivia. The articles featured are specifically new and improved ones which meet the criteria set out below.
 * A means of advertising, or of promoting commercial or political causes. While it is fine to cover topics of commercial or political interest, DYK must not provide inappropriate advantage for such causes (e.g. during election campaigns or product launches).

DYK rules
DYK consists of a series of "hooks", which are interesting facts taken from Wikipedia's newest content, of the format "Did you know that...?" Thus, to nominate something to appear on DYK, an editor must either write or identify new content (see below for what qualifies as "new") and propose an interesting hook. Any registered user who is at least autoconfirmed may nominate a DYK suggestion; self-nominations are encouraged. To make a nomination, submit it here.

Eligibility criteria
Four basic criteria are used to determine whether a nomination is eligible for DYK, together with a review requirement. Did you know/Guidelines outlines all of the criteria that need to be met, but all DYK submissions must broadly meet these key points:


 * 1) New – At the time of nomination, an article must be considered new, which means it was created, expanded fivefold, or promoted to good article status in the seven days preceding a nomination.
 * 2) Long enough – The article must be at least 1500 characters of original prose, which includes only raw text and does not include markup.
 * 3) Cited hook – The facts of the hook need to appear in the article with a citation no later than at the end of the sentences in which they appear.
 * 4) Within policy – Articles for DYK must conform to Wikipedia's most important content policies, which include Verifiability, Copyright violations, and Biographies of living persons.
 * 5) Review requirement (QPQ) – If you have nominated five or more articles in the past, you must review one other nomination (unrelated to you) for every subsequent article you nominate—‌this is called quid pro quo or QPQ.

The DYK process

 * Rules (WP:DYKCRIT) – how DYK works
 * DYK talk (WT:DYK) – for general discussion of the project
 * Includes issues with current or past nominations which may need wider discussion than on the corresponding nomination page (in which case add a note to the nomination page).
 * Nominations (T:TDYK) – where nominations are proposed and discussed
 * The nomination is checked against DYK criteria; reviewers may also suggest improvements or alternatives to the hook.
 * Bot generated list of promising new articles, a source for potential nominations
 * Preps and queues (T:DYK/Q)
 * Prep areas – where hook "sets" are assembled and finalized – See How to promote a hook.
 * Queues – to which finalized hook sets are moved from "prep" by an administrator, and where they wait to be moved (by a bot) to the Main Page – The admin moving the hooks to the live template may edit or reject any hook at their discretion.
 * Rotation – if we are at one set per day and immediately after the midnight (UTC) update finishes there are more than 120 approved nominations while at least ten prep/queue sets are filled, we rotate to two sets per day. If we are at two sets per day and immediately after a midnight (UTC) update there are fewer than 60 approved nominations or fewer than six filled prep/queue sets, we rotate to one set per day. The approved nominations page (WP:DYKNA) has a maximum size limit, so it will sometimes not display or count the latest nominations.
 * Did you know... template (T:DYK) – the hooks currently appearing on the main page; DYKUpdateBot moves sets here from the Queue area according to a schedule.
 * Old DYK entries are archived at Recent additions after they leave the main page.
 * Errors (WP:ERRORS) – to report concerns about DYK items currently or shortly to be on the main page. If necessary an admin may edit or replace a hook on main page by changing the DYK template.
 * If a factual error is reported when the hooks are on the front page, try to replace the hook with another fact from the article, rather than just removing it.
 * If it is the first hook and hence has an associated picture, you replace it with another hook with a picture.

Active editors
Any editor may volunteer and assist with DYK, simply by contributing to the department operations.

History
DYK made its first Main Page appearance on 22 February 2004. The article, "Pencil sharpener", was developed by Raul654. An April 2004 archived copy shows DYK located in the space now occupied by "In the news". Credit recognition for article creators started on 24 November 2004, DYK began placing DYK notifications on article talk pages on 13 January 2006, and nominators started receiving credit on 13 May 2006.

Userboxes

 * Did you know
 * Personal statistics

Awards


Recognitions for editors who make a valued contribution to Did you know.


 * Did you know/Hall of Fame
 * DYK user templates