Wikipedia:Update/1/Content policy changes, July 2010 to December 2010


 * Article titles
 * In WP:TITLE, changed: "As part of this, a good title should convey what English, in an encyclopedic register, actually calls the subject (this does not mean Wikipedia must follow other encyclopedias' titles)." to: "As part of this, a good title should convey what the subject is actually called in English."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "Other encyclopedias may be helpful in deciding what titles are in an encyclopedic register, as well as what name is most common (see below)."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "Further, even when a neutral title is possible, creating redirects to it using documented but non-neutral terms is sometimes acceptable; see WP:RNEUTRAL."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "Often there is no alternative to parenthetical disambiguation, and it does have the advantage that the non-parenthesized part of the title may most clearly convey what the subject is called in English. On the other hand, such disambiguations may be longer or less natural than an alternate but unambiguous form, when there is one."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "To italicize a title, add the template near the top of the article: Use of italics should conform to WP:ITALICS."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "In addition, certain templates, including Template:Infobox book, Template:Infobox film, and Template:Infobox album, will by default italicize the titles of the pages they appear on; see the pages for those templates for details."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "however, "Media's coupling of Islam and terrorism" may be acceptable."


 * Biographies of living persons
 * In WP:BLP, removed: "Bear in mind that when dealing with groups, particularly very small ones, edits made to Wikipedia could have a bearing on living persons, so exercise caution."


 * Neutral point of view
 * Substantial changes throughout since September


 * No original research
 * In the introduction, removed: ["original research" ... refers to any analysis or synthesis] "by Wikipedians" [of published material ...]. Added: "Despite the need to attribute content to reliable sources, you must not plagiarize them. Articles should be written in your own words while substantially retaining the meaning of the source material."
 * In WP:NOR, added: "Unless restricted by another policy," [primary sources that have been reliably published may be used in Wikipedia, ...]. Added: "Use extra caution when handling primary sources about living people; see WP:BLPPRIMARY, which is policy."  Added: "Whether material counts as a primary or secondary source is not fixed. A book by a military historian about the Second World War might be a secondary source of material about the war, but if it includes details of the author's own war experiences, it would be a primary source of material about those issues."
 * In WP:NOR, added: "In fact, expert input is encouraged and experts often have specific knowledge of the relevant literature."


 * Verifiability
 * Substantial changes throughout since September


 * What Wikipedia is not
 * In WP:NOT, added: "... (see Plagiarism guideline: Public-domain sources for guidelines on" [adding content from public domain resources].
 * In new subsection, WP:NOT, added: "Editors are expected to comply with Wikipedia guidelines and policies, especially when it comes to behavior and conduct. But editors are welcome to take a break or leave Wikipedia at any time."


 * Article titles
 * In WP:TITLE, added: [Naturalness ...] "As part of this, a good title should convey what English, in an encyclopedic register, actually calls the subject (this does not mean Wikipedia must follow other encyclopedias' titles)." Added: [Consistency ...] "and ideally indicate titles that are in accordance with the principal criteria above."
 * In WP:TITLE, added: "But when local usage is itself divided, we do not necessarily follow the majority or plurality of local English usage against the consensus of the rest of the English-speaking world: Ganges, not Ganga."
 * In WP:TITLE, removed: "Do not apply formatting: Formatting, such as italics or bolding, is technically achievable in page titles but is used only in special cases, one example of which is taxonomic names of genera and species. (See italics and formatting restrictions.)"
 * New section: WP:TITLE
 * In WP:TITLE, added: [Where no reasonable overarching title is available,] "it is permissible to" [construct an article title using "and" ...]. Added: "However, titles with "and" are often red flags that the article has neutrality problems or is engaging in Original research. For this reason," [avoid use of "and" in ways that appear biased. For example, use Islamic terrorism, not "Islam and terrorism".]  "Also avoid the use of "and" to combine concepts that are not commonly combined in reliable sources."


 * Biographies of living persons
 * Removed section: WP:BLP. Some material moved to WP:BLP.
 * In WP:BLP, changed: "These provisions apply less forcibly to autobiographies published by reliable third-party publishing houses (which are NOT "self-published"), but might still be borne in mind (especially point 2)." to: "These provisions do not apply to autobiographies published by reliable third-party publishing houses, because they are not self-published."
 * In WP:BLP, removed: "... or, when the event is itself non-notable, delete the biography". Added footnote: "It is important for editors to understand two clear differentiations of WP:BIO1E when compared to WP:BLP1E. Firstly, WP:BLP1E should be applied only to biographies of living people. Secondly, WP:BLP1E should be applied only to biographies of low profile individuals."
 * In WP:BLP, added: [BLP applies to all material about living persons anywhere on Wikipedia, including] "talk pages, edit summaries," [user pages, images, and categories.]


 * No original research
 * In WP:NOR, removed part of a footnote: "Duke University, Libraries offers this definition: "A primary source is a first-hand account of an event. Primary sources may include newspaper articles, letters, diaries, interviews, laws, reports of government commissions, and many other types of documents."


 * What Wikipedia is not
 * In WP:NOT, added: "(for films, see WP:NFF)"


 * Article titles
 * In WP:TITLE, there were significant changes from the July version.
 * In WP:TITLE, there were significant changes.
 * In WP:TITLE, removed: " In case of very minor differences, a parenthetical tag should be added as if the title forms were identical, as in Streets of London (song) and Streets Of London (computer game)."


 * Biographies of living persons
 * In WP:BLP, changed: [BLPs should be written responsibly,] "conservatively" to: "cautiously"
 * In WP:BLP, changed: [Pages that are unsourced and negative in tone, and] "which appear to have been created to disparage the subject," [should be deleted at once if there is no policy-compliant version to revert to; ...] to: "which may disparage the subject,"
 * New subsection: WP:BLP
 * In WP:BLP, changed: "These provisions do not apply to autobiographies published by reliable third-party publishing houses, because they are not self-published." to: "These provisions apply less forcibly to autobiographies published by reliable third-party publishing houses (which are NOT "self-published"), but might still be borne in mind (especially point 2)."
 * In WP:BLP, added: [Biographies in these cases can give undue weight to the event and conflict with neutral point of view. In such cases, it is usually better to merge the information and redirect the person's name to the event article,] "or, when the event is itself non-notable, delete the biography."
 * In WP:BLP, changed: "An event such as marriage, divorce, legal separation, or when the intention to marry, divorce, legally separate is verifiable by its publication in reliable secondary sources, the name of the subject's intended spouse, spouse, or ex-spouse is not private, unless there has been a court seal on the disclosure of the name." to: "The names of any immediate, ex, or significant family members or any significant relationship of the subject of a BLP may be part of an article, if reliably sourced, subject to editorial discretion that such information is relevant to a reader's complete understanding of the subject."
 * In WP:BLP, added: "The template BLP removal can be used on a talk page of an article (or a user) to explain why material has been removed under this policy, and under what conditions the material may be replaced."


 * Neutral point of view
 * In WP:NPOV, added: "If you need help finding high-quality sources for something, ask other editors on the talk page of the article you are working on, or ask at Reference desk."
 * In WP:NPOV, added: [A biased statement violates this policy when it is presented as a fact or the truth. It does not] "necessarily" [violate this policy when it is presented as an identifiable point of view.]


 * What Wikipedia is not
 * In WP:NOT, changed: "Articles" [about companies and products are written in an objective and unbiased style.] to: "All information"


 * Article titles
 * In WP:TITLE, changed: "Consistent – Using names and terms that follow the same pattern as those of other similar articles." to: "Consistent – When other criteria do not indicate an obvious choice, consider giving similar articles similar titles."


 * Biographies of living persons
 * WP:BLP rewritten and renamed to WP:BLP
 * In WP:BLP, added: "An event such as marriage, divorce, legal separation, or when the intention to marry, divorce, legally separate is verifiable by its publication in reliable secondary sources, the name of the subject's intended spouse, spouse, or ex-spouse is not private, unless there has been a court seal on the disclosure of the name." [sic]
 * Renamed WP:BLP to WP:BLP, and added: "These principles apply equally to lists and navigation templates based on religious beliefs and sexual orientation, or which suggest that the persons included in the list or template have a poor reputation."
 * In WP:BLP, the word "reliable" was moved down.


 * Neutral point of view
 * In WP:NPOV, changed: [Neutrality requires that] "an article ..." to: "each article or other page in the mainspace ..."
 * In WP:NPOV, removed "racism" from [What about views that are morally offensive to most readers, such as sexism and Holocaust denial ...]


 * No original research
 * In WP:NOR, changed: "A primary source may only be used to make descriptive statements that can be verified by any educated person without specialist knowledge." to: "A primary source may only be used on Wikipedia to make straightforward, descriptive statements that any educated person, with access to the source but without specialist knowledge, will be able to verify are supported by the source."


 * Verifiability
 * In WP:V, removed: [... contentious claims about third parties,] "which includes claims against persons living or dead, institutions, as well as more ill-defined entities."
 * In WP:V, removed: [third parties] "(such as people, organizations, or entities);"
 * In WP:V, added: [To discuss the reliability of a specific source] "for a particular statement ..."


 * What Wikipedia is not
 * In WP:NOT, added: "most" [changes made are displayed immediately]


 * 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