Wikipedia:Training/core/Pillar 1

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia. It incorporates elements of general and specialized encyclopedias, almanacs, and gazetteers.

Maybe this seems obvious. But it's important because it highlights what Wikipedia is NOT.


 * Wikipedia is NOT a soapbox, an advertising platform, a vanity press, an experiment in anarchy or democracy, an indiscriminate collection of information, or a web directory.
 * Wikipedia is NOT a dictionary, a newspaper, a book or instruction manual, or a collection of source documents.
 * However, note that there are Wikimedia sister projects that serve all of the above purposes (namely wiktionary, wikinews, wikibooks, and wikisource, respectively).

What does this mean for you? Ask yourself: Does my contribution look like a blog post? An advertisement? A newspaper? A how-to guide? If you've written something aside from an encyclopedia article, something is amiss!