Wikipedia:Update/1/Content policy changes, 2012


 * Article titles
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "See: http://books.google.com/ngrams/"
 * In WP:TITLE, changed: "Avoid abbreviations: Abbreviations and acronyms are generally avoided unless the subject is almost exclusively known by its abbreviation" to: "Avoid ambiguous abbreviations: Abbreviations and acronyms are often ambiguous and thus should be avoided unless the subject is known primarily by its abbreviation and that abbreviation is primarily associated with the subject"
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "(Similarly, in cases where it is determined that the most appropriate title is one that omits diacritics, dashes and other letters not found on most English-language keyboards, provide redirects from versions of the title that contain them.)"


 * Biographies of living persons
 * Changed subsection name from WP:BLP to WP:BLP, and added a quote to that subsection from WP:NPOV.
 * In WP:BLP, added: "However, names of family members who are not also notable public figures must be removed from an article if they are not properly sourced."
 * In WP:BLP, added: "This policy does not limit the use of administrative categories for WikiProjects, article clean-up, or other normal editor activities."


 * No original research
 * In WP:NOR, changed: "Secondary sources are second-hand accounts, generally at least one step removed from an event." to: "A secondary source provides an author's own thinking based on primary sources, generally at least one step removed from an event. It contains an author's interpretation, analysis, or evaluation of the facts, evidence, concepts, and ideas taken from primary sources."


 * Verifiability
 * Significant changes throughout since September


 * What Wikipedia is not
 * In WP:NOT, added: "A procedural, coding, or grammatical error in a new contribution is not grounds for reverting it, unless the error is difficult to fix."


 * Article titles
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "For instance, the recognizable, natural, and concise title United Kingdom is preferred over the more precise title United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". Removed: "Where there are several possible alternatives, search engines can be used to research which is most frequently used, as discussed in the section below. It is also advisable to do an Advanced Search to check if some or all of the alternative terms are already used as Wikipedia Category names."
 * New subsection: WP:TITLE
 * Significant changes to WP:TITLE (diff)


 * Biographies of living persons (as of October 2)
 * In WP:BLP, added: "However, it should only state that the politician was alleged to have had the affair, not that he actually did."
 * In WP:BLP, added: "If different judicial proceedings result in seemingly contradictory judgements that do not override each other, refrain from using pithy descriptors or absolutes and instead use more explanatory information."
 * In WP:BLP, added: "or list of suicides"


 * Neutral point of view
 * In WP:NPOV, changed: "clearly and accurately" to: "fairly, proportionately, and as far as possible without bias."


 * No original research
 * In WP:NOR, added: "Primary sources may or may not be independent or third-party sources." Added: "Secondary sources are not necessarily independent or third-party sources." Added: [Reliably published tertiary sources] "may be helpful in evaluating due weight".


 * Verifiability
 * Significant changes to the introduction (diff)


 * Article titles
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "Comma-separated disambiguation. With place-names, if the disambiguating term is a higher-level administrative division, it is often separated using a comma instead of parentheses, as in Windsor, Berkshire."


 * Biographies of living persons
 * Changed "notable" to "noteworthy" in many places.
 * In WP:BLP, changed: "Questionable material that affects living persons should be removed promptly." to: "Contentious or questionable material that affects living persons or recently deceased persons should be removed promptly."
 * New subsection: WP:BLP
 * Expanded subsection: WP:BLP
 * In WP:BLP, changed some contact information


 * Neutral point of view
 * In WP:NPOV, added: "including all notable and verifiable" [points of view]
 * In WP:NPOV, added: [Generally, the views of tiny minorities should not be included at all,] "except perhaps in a "see also" about those specific views."
 * Tweaked WP:NPOV


 * No original research
 * In WP:NOR, added: [primary sources ...] "(depending on context)" [interviews]


 * What Wikipedia is not
 * In WP:NOT, added: [user pages] "should be used primarily" [to present information relevant to working on the encyclopedia.] "Limited biographical information is allowed, but user pages should not function as personal webpages or be repositories for large amounts of material that's irrelevant to collaborating on Wikipedia."
 * In WP:NOT, added: "Also, while travel guides for a city will often mention distant attractions, a Wikipedia article for a city should only list those that are actually in the city."
 * In WP:NOT, changed: [Straw votes should be used with caution, and] "are no more binding than any other consensus decision." to: "their results are not the sole factor in determining consensus."
 * In WP:NOT, removed: "When instruction creep is found to have occurred, it should be removed."


 * Article titles
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "These should be seen as goals, not as rules."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "If the name of a person, group, object, or other article topic changes then more weight should be given to the name used in reliable sources published after the name change than in those before the change."


 * Biographies of living persons
 * New subsection: WP:BLP
 * Replaced WP:BLP with a new subsection, WP:BLP


 * No original research
 * In WP:NOR, added: [Do not base an entire article on primary sources,] "and be cautious about basing large passages on them."


 * Verifiability
 * Extensive changes this quarter


 * What Wikipedia is not
 * Extensive changes this quarter


 * Content policy changes, 2011
 * 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