Wikipedia:Update/1/Content policy changes, 2011


 * Article titles
 * Substantial changes since September


 * Biographies of living persons
 * In the introduction, changed: "must be attributed to a reliable, published source using an inline citation." to: "must be explicitly attributed to a reliable, published source, which is usually done with an inline citation."
 * In WP:BLP, removed: [If reliable sources cover the person only in the context of a single event, and if] ", outside of the event," [that person otherwise remains, and is likely to remain, a low-profile individual, we should generally avoid having an article on them.]
 * In WP:BLP, added: [These principles apply equally to lists and navigation templates] "and Infobox statements ..."
 * In WP:BLP, added: "Editors with any significant legal or personal dispute with the subject of any article subject to this policy are strongly discouraged from editing any such articles, and are advised to use the BLP noticeboard and other noticeboards depending on the issues involved."


 * Neutral point of view
 * In WP:NPOV, removed: "See the guideline Manual of Style for clarification on the issues raised in this section."


 * No original research
 * In WP:PSTS, changed: "Secondary sources are second-hand accounts, at least one step removed from an event. They rely on primary sources for their material, often making analytic or evaluative claims about them." to: "Secondary sources are second-hand accounts, generally at least one step removed from an event. They rely on primary sources for their material, making analytic or evaluative claims about them."


 * Verifiability
 * Substantial changes since September


 * What Wikipedia is not
 * In WP:NOT, added: "A diary. Even when an individual is notable, not all events he is involved in are. For example, news reporting about celebrities and sports figures can be very frequent and cover a lot of trivia, but using all these sources would lead to overdetailed articles that look like a diary. Not every match played, goal scored or hand shaken is notable enough to be included in the biography of a person."
 * In WP:NOT, added: "Where it is not necessary, as in the main article United States presidential election, 2008 (which mentions no polls at all), omit excess statistics altogether and summarize any necessary data concisely."


 * Article titles
 * Substantial changes throughout since June


 * Biographies of living persons
 * In WP:BLP, added: [and if,] "outside of the event," [that person otherwise remains, and is likely to remain, a low-profile individual, we should generally avoid having an article on them.]
 * In WP:BLP, removed: [These principles apply equally to ...] "infobox statements".


 * Neutral point of view
 * In WP:NPOV, removed: "... representing all significant views fairly, proportionately ...". Added: "... the neutral point of view should not be interpreted as the exclusion of certain points of view."
 * In WP:NPOV, added a quote from the BBC Trust's policy on science reporting.


 * No original research
 * In WP:PSTS, added: "Further examples of primary sources include ... investigative reports, trials, (including material — which relates to either the trial or to any of the parties involved in the trial — published by any involved party, before, during or after the trial), editorials, opinion pieces ...". Added: [Do not base articles] "and material" [entirely on primary sources.]  Added: "A book review too can be an opinion, summary or scholarly review."


 * Verifiability
 * In WP:V, added: "When using a machine translation of source material, editors should be reasonably certain that the translation is accurate and the source is appropriate."
 * In WP:V, added: "When using templates to tag material, it is helpful to other editors if you explain your rationale in the template, edit summary, or on the talk page. ... Special care should be used in regard to material about living people."


 * What Wikipedia is not
 * In WP:NOT, removed: [Although articles should begin with a good definition and] "description of one topic, they should provide other types of information about that topic as well."
 * In WP:NOT, added: "As Wikipedia is not a paper source, editors are encouraged to include current and up-to-date information within its coverage, and the development of stand-alone articles on significant current events."
 * In WP:NOT, added: "Similarly, articles on works of non-fiction, including documentaries, research books and papers, religious texts, and the like, should contain no more than a recap or summary of the works' contents."
 * In WP:NOT, removed: "Editors are expected to comply with Wikipedia guidelines and policies, especially when it comes to behavior and conduct."


 * Article titles
 * In the introduction, added: "An article title is a convenient label for the article, which distinguishes it from other articles. It need not be the name of the subject; many article titles are descriptions of the subject. Wikipedia's design makes it impossible for different articles to have the same title; the URL for each article as a webpage is generated from the title. Generally, article titles are based on what the subject is called in reliable sources; when this offers multiple possibilities, Wikipedia chooses among them by considering five principles: the ideal article title will resemble titles for similar articles, precisely identify the subject, be short, be natural, and recognizable."
 * In WP:TITLE, changed: "Generally, article titles are based on what reliable English-language sources call the subject of the article." to: "Article titles are based on what reliable English-language sources refer to the article's subject by." Changed: "an ideal title will confirm, to readers who are familiar with (though not necessarily expert in) the topic, that the article is indeed about that topic. One important aspect of this is the use of names most frequently used by English-language reliable sources to refer to the subject." to: "article titles are expected to be a recognizable name or description of the topic."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "When using Google, generally a search of Google Books and News Archive should be defaulted to before a web search, as they concentrate reliable sources ..."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "The following points are used in deciding on questions not covered by the five principles; consistency on these helps avoid duplicate articles:".  Removed: "To italicize a title, add the template  near the top of the article: Use of italics should conform to WP:ITALICS." Changed: "Titles should be nouns or noun phrases." to: "Nouns and noun phrases are normally preferred over titles using other parts of speech; such a title can be the subject of the first sentence. One major exception is titles which are quotations or titles of works: A rolling stone gathers no moss, or Try to Remember."  Added: [Do not enclose titles in quotes ...] "An exception is made when the quotation marks are part of a name or title (as in the movie "Crocodile" Dundee or the album "Heroes")."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: [The characters ...] "_" [cannot be used.] Changed: "Provide redirects to non-keyboard characters: If the use of diacritics (accent marks) is in accordance with the English-language name, or other characters not present on standard keyboards are used, provide a redirect from the equivalent title using standard English-language keyboard characters; such characters should only be used when they are customarily used for the subject in reliable English secondary sources. In particular, provide a redirect from the hyphenated form when a dash is used in an article title." to: "Redirects and characters not on a standard keyboard. Sometimes the most appropriate title will contain diacritics (accent marks), dashes, or other letters and characters not found on most English-language keyboards. This can make it difficult to navigate to the article directly. In such cases, provide redirects from versions of the title that use only standard keyboard characters."


 * Biographies of living persons
 * In WP:BLP, added: "Material should not be added to an article when the only sourcing is tabloid journalism. When material is both verifiable and notable, it will have appeared in more reliable sources."


 * Neutral point of view
 * Renamed WP:NPOV to WP:NPOV, with numerous small tweaks to the text.
 * In WP:NPOV, added: [Avoid ... weasel words ... An exception is situations where a phrase such as "Most people think" can be supported by a reliable source,] "such as in the reporting of a survey of opinions within the group."


 * No original research
 * In the introduction, added: "For questions about whether any particular edit constitutes original research, see the NOR noticeboard."


 * Verifiability
 * In the nutshell, added: "Other people have to be able to check that you didn't just make things up."
 * In the introduction, changed: "Material must be attributable to a source with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy, which is appropriate for the claim being made. In practice you do not need to attribute everything; only quotations and material challenged or likely to be challenged must be attributed, through an inline citation which directly supports the material in question." to: "To show that it is not original research, all material added to articles must be attributable to a reliable, published source appropriate for the content in question. In practice you do not need to attribute everything. This policy requires that all quotations and anything challenged or likely to be challenged be attributed in the form of an inline citation that directly supports the material."
 * Some text from WP:V moved to the new subsection WP:V, and changed from: "(Be mindful of copyright and plagiarism. Read the sources, understand and internalize them, then summarize them in your own words. When paraphrasing closely or quoting, use in-text attribution.)" to: "Take care to avoid plagiarism and breaches of copyright when using sources. Summarize source material in your own words as far as possible; when quoting or closely paraphrasing a source use an inline citation, and in-text attribution where appropriate."
 * In WP:V, added: "Source material must have been published (made available to the public in some form); unpublished materials are not considered reliable."
 * In WP:V, changed: [Questionable sources are those with a poor reputation for checking the facts, or] "with no editorial oversight." to: "lacking meaningful editorial oversight."
 * In WP:V, added: "This policy also applies to pages on social networking sites such as Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook."
 * In WP:V, changed: "When citing such a source without quoting it, the original and its translation should be provided if requested by other editors" to: "When citing a non-English source for information, it is not always necessary to provide a translation. However, if a question should arise as to whether the non-English original actually supports the information, relevant portions of the original and a translation should be given in a footnote, as a courtesy."


 * What Wikipedia is not
 * In WP:NOT, added: "As an exception, even highly speculative articles about events that may or may not occur far in the future might be appropriate, where coverage in reliable sources is sufficient. For example, ultimate fate of the universe is an acceptable topic." Added: "Wikipedia is not a collection of product announcements and rumors. While Wikipedia includes up-to-date knowledge about newly revealed products, short articles that consist only of product announcement information are not appropriate. Until such time that more encyclopedic knowledge about the product can be verified, product announcements should be merged to a larger topic (such as an article about the creator(s), a series of products, or a previous product) if applicable. Speculation and rumor, even from reliable sources, are not appropriate encyclopedic content."
 * In WP:NOT, added: "While Wikipedia has many elements of a bureaucracy, it ..."


 * Article titles
 * Throughout the page, changed many instances of "common names" (and synonyms) to "most frequently used names" (and synonyms).
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "Titles are often proper nouns, such as the name of the person, place or thing that is the subject of the article." Added: [When using a search engine, restrict the results to pages written in English, and exclude the word "Wikipedia".] "(Also exclude inauthor:"Books, LLC" when searching Google Books.)"  Added in a footnote: "LLC "publishes" printouts of WP articles".  Added: [ambiguous or inaccurate names for the article subject, as determined by reliable sources, are often avoided ...] "This provision also applies when names are used as part of descriptive titles."
 * Substantial changes to WP:TITLE
 * Substantial changes to WP:TITLE
 * In WP:TITLE, removed: "Articles' titles usually merely indicate the name of the topic."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "If there are at least three alternate names, or there is something notable about the names themselves, a separate name section is recommended."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: [If the use of diacritics (accent marks) is in accordance with the English-language name, or other characters not present on standard keyboards are used, provide a redirect from the equivalent title using standard English-language keyboard characters;] "such characters should only be used when they are customarily used for the subject in reliable English secondary sources. In particular, provide a redirect from the hyphenated form when a dash is used in an article title." Changed: "Do not use non-language characters" to: "Do not use symbols". Added: "This includes non-Latin punctuation such as the characters in Unicode's CJK Symbols and Punctuation block."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: [Other types of formatting (such as bold type and superscript) can technically be achieved in the same way, but should] "generally" [not be used in Wikipedia article titles] "(except for articles on mathematics.)"


 * Biographies of living persons
 * In WP:BLP, added: "In addition, some subject specific notability guidelines such as WP:ATHLETE provide criteria that may support the notability of certain individuals who are known chiefly for one event."
 * In WP:BLP, changed: "These principles apply equally to infobox statements, and to lists and navigation templates that are based on religious beliefs and sexual orientation, or which suggest that the persons included in the list or template have a poor reputation." to: "These principles apply equally to biographies of living persons, lists, navigation templates, and/or infobox statements (referring to living persons within any Wikipedia page) that are based on religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or suggest that any living person has a poor reputation."


 * No original research
 * In the renamed section WP:NOR, removed: "This policy does not prohibit editors with specialist knowledge from adding their knowledge to Wikipedia. In fact,  expert input is encouraged and experts often have specific knowledge of the relevant literature.  However, as with all editors, this policy does prohibit experts from drawing on their personal knowledge without citing reliable sources."
 * In WP:NOR, added to a footnote: [Primary sources ... Further examples include ...] "ancient works, even if they cite earlier lost writings". Changed: "Do not make analytic, synthetic, interpretive, or evaluative claims about material found in a primary source." to: "Do not analyze, synthesize, interpret, or evaluate material found in a primary source yourself; instead, refer to reliable secondary sources that do so."  Added in a footnote: [research articles ... review articles ...] "Be aware that either type of article can be both a primary and secondary source, although research articles tend to be more useful as primary sources and review articles as secondary sources."  Added: [Reliably published tertiary sources can be helpful in providing broad summaries of topics that involve many primary and secondary sources,] "especially when those sources contradict each other."
 * Removed section: WP:NOR
 * In the renamed section WP:NOR, removed: "Where English translations of non-English material are unavailable, editors may supply their own, subject to consensus, with the original posted alongside or in a footnote. Copyright restrictions permitting, translations published by reliable sources are preferred to those provided by Wikipedians."


 * Verifiability
 * In the introduction, changed: "To show that it is not original research, all material in Wikipedia articles must be attributable to a reliable published source." to: "Material must be attributable to a source with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy, which is appropriate for the claim being made." Changed: [core content policies ... editors should familiarize themselves with] "all three" to: "the key points of all three".
 * In WP:V, changed: "Any material lacking a reliable source directly supporting it may be removed." [How quickly this should happen depends ...] to: "You may remove any material lacking a reliable source that directly supports it."
 * Removed subsection: WP:V


 * What Wikipedia is not
 * In WP:NOT, added: "Changelogs or release notes. An article about a product should include a history of its development and major improvements. But avoid a complete step-by-step record of every release or update. Note that this policy only applies to articles, and not Wikipedia's exhaustive article version histories."
 * In WP:NOT, added: "Video game guides. An article about a computer game or video game should summarize the main actions the player does to win the game. But avoid lists of gameplay weapons, items, or concepts. Specific point values, achievements and trophies, time-limits, levels, character moves, character weight classes, and so on are also considered inappropriate. A concise summary is appropriate if it is essential to understanding the game or its significance in the industry. See WP:VGSCOPE."
 * In WP:NOT, added: "Predictions, speculation, forecasts and theories stated by reliable, expert sources or recognized entities in a field may be included, though editors should be aware of creating undue bias to any specific point-of-view." Changed: "Articles that present extrapolation, speculation, and "future history" are original research and therefore inappropriate." to: "Articles that present original research in the form of  extrapolation, speculation, and "future history" are inappropriate."
 * In WP:NOT, changed: "You could also remind the user in question of Wikipedia's policy of no personal attacks in such a situation." to: "If necessary, point out gently that you think the comments might be considered uncivil, and make it clear that you want to move on and focus on the content issue."


 * Content policy changes, July 2010 to December 2010
 * Content policy changes, January 2010 to June 2010
 * Content policy changes, July 2009 to December 2009
 * Content policy changes, January 2009 to June 2009
 * Content policy changes, July 2008 to December 2008