Wikipedia:Update/1/Content policy changes, 2014


 * Article titles
 * In WP:TITLE, changed: [this form of disambiguation may not be sufficient if one article is] "far more likely a primary topic than the other." to: "far more significant on an encyclopedic level or far more likely to be searched for than the other."


 * Biographies of living persons
 * In WP:BLP, added: "For example, it would be appropriate to begin a discussion by stating This link has serious allegations about subject; should we summarize this someplace in the article?"


 * What Wikipedia is not
 * In WP:NOT, added: "Likewise, disambiguation pages (such as John Smith) are not intended to be complete listings of every person in the world named John Smith &mdash; just the notable ones."


 * Article titles
 * In WP:TITLE, changed: "Comply with WP:INITS." to: "Format names of persons as reliable sources do: When deciding whether to use middle names, or initials, follow the guidelines at WP:Middle names, which means using the form most commonly used by reliable sources (e.g., John F. Kennedy, J. P. Morgan, F. Scott Fitzgerald), with few if any exceptions. See also WP:CONCISE above."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "However, avoid combining diacritical marks, which are difficult to type and interfere with adjacent characters.". Changed: "Characters resembling quotes or accent marks (avoid them): The characters ʻ ʾ ʿ ᾿ ῾ ‘ ’ “ ” c, and also combining diacritical marks with a "space" character, should generally not be used in page titles. A common exception is the apostrophe ' (e.g. Anthony d'Offay), which should, however, be used sparingly (e.g. Shia instead of Shi'a)." to: "Quotation marks (avoid them):' Double ("...") and single quotation marks ('...'), as well as variations such as typographic quotation marks (“...”), typographic apostrophes (’), "low-high" quotation marks („...“), guillemets («...»), grave and acute accents or backticks (`...´) and &lt;q&gt; HTML tags (&lt;q&gt;...&lt;/q&gt;) should be avoided in titles. Exceptions can be made when they are part of the proper title (e.g. "A" Is for Alibi) or required by orthography ("Weird Al" Yankovic)."


 * Biographies of living persons
 * In WP:BLP, changed "off-wiki controversy": to "controversy ... on- or off-wiki"
 * In WP:BLP, changed: "Editors who repeatedly add or restore contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced may be blocked under Special enforcement on biographies of living persons for disruption" to: "Editors are subject to Arbitration Committee/Discretionary sanctions pursuant to NEWBLPBAN".


 * Verifiability
 * In WP:V, added: "The onus to achieve consensus for inclusion is on those seeking to include disputed content."


 * What Wikipedia is not
 * In the nutshell, added: "Wikipedia is not a place to promote things, is not a thought-book, a website to communicate, a free-media center, or a censored encyclopedia."
 * In WP:NOT, replaced some discussion on the subject of deceased Wikipedians by: "(For valid use examples outside of article space, see WP:RIP.)"
 * In WP:NOT, changed: "laws of the U.S. state of Virginia where Wikipedia's main servers are hosted" to: "laws of the United States"


 * Article titles
 * In WP:TITLE, added: [Article titles should be neither vulgar ] "(unless unavoidable)" [nor pedantic.]
 * In WP:TITLE, added: [Most of these exceptions are described in specific Wikipedia guidelines] "or by Wikipedia projects". Added: "Leeds North West is precise enough to be unambiguous, but Naming conventions (UK Parliament constituencies) specify the addition of the qualifier in Leeds North West (UK Parliament constituency) with a redirect from Leeds North West. ... M-185 is precise enough to be unambiguous, but Naming conventions (U.S. state and territory highways) specify adding the qualifier M-185 (Michigan highway) with a redirect from M-185"
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "This may lead to some acceptable inconsistency; for instance, the article on chickens is found at Chicken, but the article on turkeys is at Turkey (bird) to disambiguate it from the country."
 * In WP:TITLE, changed: [The goal of conciseness is to balance brevity with sufficient information to identify the topic] "in a way the average person searching for it will recognize." to: "to a person familiar with the subject area". Added: "Exceptions exist for biographical articles. For example, neither a given name nor a family name is usually omitted or abbreviated for conciseness. Thus Oprah Winfrey (not Oprah), Jean-Paul Sartre (not J. P. Sartre). See Naming conventions (people)."
 * In WP:TITLE, changed: "However, sometimes" to: "Very rarely," [a form that represents only minority local usage is chosen because of its greater intelligibility to English-speaking readers worldwide (e.g. Ganges rather than "Ganga").]
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "Likewise, even though Color's title omits the "u", Orange (colour)'s title does not."
 * In WP:TITLE, changed: "The abbreviation UK, for United Kingdom, is acceptable for use in disambiguation." to: "Acronyms may be used for parenthetical disambiguation (e.g. Conservative Party (UK), Georgia (U.S. state))." Added: "Comply with WP:INITS."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "adding single quotes to a page title will cause those quotes to become part of the URL, rather than affecting its appearance."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: [Changing one controversial title to another,] "without consensus after discussion," [is strongly discouraged.] Added: [do not invent names] "or use extremely uncommon names" [as a means of compromising between opposing points of view.]


 * Biographies of living persons
 * In WP:BLP, changed: [the article may be deleted after] "ten days" to: "seven days".


 * Neutral point of view
 * In WP:NPOV, added: [Giving due weight and avoiding giving undue weight means that articles should not give minority views] "or aspects" [as much of, or as detailed, a description as more widely held views] "or widely supported aspects".


 * No original research
 * In the introduction, changed: [This includes any analysis or synthesis of published material that] "serves to advance a position not advanced by the sources" to: "serves to reach or imply a conclusion not stated by the sources" (with similar changes throughout).
 * In WP:NOR, changed: "primary sources that have been reliably published" to: "reliable primary sources".
 * In WP:NOR, added: "Similarly, do not combine different parts of one source to reach or imply a conclusion not explicitly stated by the source."


 * Verifiability
 * WP:V renamed to WP:V


 * What Wikipedia is not
 * In WP:NOT, removed: "There is a Wikipedia fork at Wikinfo that encourages personal opinions in articles."
 * In WP:NOT, added: "usernames". Added: [Advocacy, propaganda, or recruitment of any kind:] "scientific".


 * Article titles
 * In WP:TITLE, added: [It is not always possible to use the exact title that may be desired for an article, as that title may have other meanings ...]. "Sometimes, this requires a change in the variety of English used; for instance, Lift is a disambiguation page with no primary topic, so we choose elevator as the name of the lifting device.
 * In (renamed) WP:TITLE, added: "Special care should be taken for names translated from other languages and even more so for transliterated titles; there is often no standardized format for the English name of the subject, so minor details are often not enough to disambiguate in such cases. ¶ Certain applications of this policy are often heavily debated; in certain instances, this form of disambiguation may not be sufficient if one article is far more of a primary topic than the other. For instance, an album entitled JESUS would probably have its article located at JESUS (album), with JESUS continuing to be a redirect to Jesus. If the album or other possible uses were deemed by editors to be reasonably likely search results for "JESUS", consensus among editors would determine whether or not JESUS would be the location for the album article, a redirect to Jesus, a disambiguation page, or a redirect to the existing disambiguation page Jesus (disambiguation)."


 * Biographies of living persons
 * In WP:BLP, added: [Beware of claims that rely on ...] "overly promotional" [content].
 * In WP:BLP, added: "drafts"
 * In WP:BLP, added: "Editors should make every effort to act with kindness toward the subjects of biographical material when the subjects arrive to express concern."


 * Verifiability
 * In WP:V, added: [Any material lacking a reliable source directly supporting it may be removed] "and should not be replaced without an inline citation to a reliable source." Changed: "The burden of evidence" [lies with the editor who adds or restores material] to: "The burden of identifying a reliable source". Added: [any editor who later removes the material has an obligation to articulate specific problems that would justify its exclusion from Wikipedia] "(e.g., undue emphasis on a minor point, unencyclopedic content, etc.)."


 * What Wikipedia is not
 * In WP:NOT, added: "(Personal essays on topics relating to Wikipedia are welcome in your user namespace or on the Meta-wiki. There is a Wikipedia fork at Wikinfo that encourages personal opinions in articles." Removed: "Wikipedians who wish to hold casual discussions with fellow Wikipedians can use IRC channels."
 * In WP:NOT, changed: "Introductory language in the lead and initial sections" to "Introductory language in the lead (and also maybe the initial sections)"
 * In WP:NOT, removed references to the Arbitration Committee.


 * Content policy changes, 2013
 * Content policy changes, 2012
 * 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