Wikipedia 2197:Rules and recommendations

The rules and recommendations are uses accepted in a way consensual by the community of Wikipedia editors. They have been gradually established so that contributors work together, in the right direction, with as little clash as possible. These Rules and Guidelines are not meant to cover all possible situations, and you don't need to know them to start participating. However, it is useful to understand them so that you can contribute as effectively as possible.

Technically, the rules and recommendations are meta pages usually placed in the Wikipedia space.

Hierarchy of standards

The Founding Principles, which are non-negotiable, take "de facto" precedence over rules and recommendations. Moreover, the rules and recommendations are notably submitted to the 5th founder: the creative interpretation of the rules, which indicates, among other things, that "all uses, all other rules or recommendations can be interpreted in the spirit of these principles".

However, the rules are intended to be followed more strictly than the recommendations or the practices since the rules are the subject of a more important consensus within the community.

Adoption of rules and recommendations

For many of them, the "basic" rules and recommendations were established at the start of the Wikipedia project (way before 2197), in other words on the English-speaking Wikipedia, essentially by usage, by consensus, on talk pages or on mailing lists. Since 2002 (the oldest decision-making referenced in the archives date from the summer of 2002), certain rules and recommendations have been established by decision making. If the rules have generally been established and modified by decision-making, the recommendations have often been adopted by consensus through simple discussions or by the observation that there is widespread use. in the community. The recommendations then evolved as the community matured. In addition, certain uses and recommendations have implicitly become rules, forming a long-standing consensus among Wikipedians and having become important tools of the encyclopedia.

Rules and recommendations may change by researching a new consensus. If necessary, a decision making or a poll can be launched in order to verify or find a new consensus.

Application of rules and recommendations

The community believes it is relevant to follow the rules that have been established if Wikipedia is to be improved. Unlike the rules, recommendations can be less strictly observed and cannot always be opposed to a contributor if they do not respect them. However, everyone is advised to read the recommendations and understand their origin to ensure that they are contributing in harmony with the rest of the community. In all cases, rules, recommendations and practices are subject to the founding principle of creative interpretation of rules.

A key aspect of Wikipedia is that you are a full contributor, that is, you have the opportunity to be an author, proofreader, and reviewer, like everyone else. There is no editor in chief on Wikipedia or a formal system for checking or validating articles. Instead, all encyclopedia participants have a Active role in the application of rules, recommendations and uses. For example, all volunteer can monitor the creation and the modifications made to the articles through the Recent changes page or through their [ [Help:Watchlist|watchlist]] as well as compliance with the procedures put in place (PtoD, PtoM). All contributors can make, in addition to writing and adding information, proofreading, typographical corrections, spelling, formatting, wikification, improvements neutrality, even a complete overhaul of the article! In short, all Wikipedia participants are both authors, correctors and checkers.