Wikiquote:Policies and guidelines

Wikiquote is a collaborative project and its founders and contributors have a common goal:


 * Our goal with Wikiquote is to create a free compendium of quotations--indeed, the largest compendium of quotations in history, in both breadth and depth. We also want Wikiquote to become a reliable resource . 

Wikiquote has some policies and guidelines that are generally accepted and considered important, or even essential, by the project's founders and participants. These help us to work towards our goal. It is important to note that at least some of these policies are still evolving, as Wikiquote grows and develops. Some others, however, have now long been settled and are not regarded as controversial by the vast majority of Wikiquote contributors.

Generally accepted policies

 * Don't infringe copyrights. Wikiquote is a free compendium licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License‎ and the GNU Free Documentation License. Submitting work without the copyright holder's permission threatens our objective to build a truly free compendium of quotations that anyone can redistribute, and could lead to legal liability for the project. See Copyrights for more information.
 * Wikiquote is a compendium of quotations. The site should primarily be used for developing the compendium. In particular, discussions on talk pages should be directed at improving entries. See What Wikiquote is not.
 * Respect other contributors. Wikiquote contributors come from many countries and cultures, and have widely different views. By treating others with respect we are able to cooperate effectively in building a compendium of quotations. For some guidelines, see Etiquette.
 * Follow conventions. By following these conventions we are able to produce a more consistent and usable compendium of quotations:
 * Editing policy (How to edit articles)
 * Naming conventions (How to title articles)
 * Disambiguation (How to resolve title conflicts)
 * Image use policy (Handling uploads)
 * Deletion policy (When and how to delete)
 * Neutral point of view

For policies on using some restricted features, see Administrators.

The policies of Wikiquote's sister project, Wikipedia, usually apply equally well to Wikiquote. In addition, most of them are more mature and hence more polished than Wikiquote's policies, which are still in the process of being developed. Where not specified in Wikiquote, use Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines and linked articles.

While a Wikiquote version of the page has yet to be written, Wikipedia's "Avoiding common mistakes" page contains some useful information for newcomers.

How are these policies enforced?
You are a Wikiquote editor. Wikiquote lacks an editor-in-chief or a central, top-down mechanism whereby the day-to-day progress on the compendium is monitored and approved. Instead, active participants monitor recent changes and make copyedits and corrections to the content and format problems they see. So the participants are both writers and editors.

In extreme and unusual cases, Jimmy Wales has stepped in to ban a user who has proven to be unusually disruptive. Jimbo has also declared certain policies to be, essentially, official Wikiquote policies; see this Wikien-l post and User:Jimbo Wales/Statement of principles.

How policy has been formulated
Wikiquote policy is formulated for the most part by habit and consensus. Hence, the statements on this page and pages adjoining it are intended for the most part to be descriptive of existing community norms that have developed over time. Discussion pages including Village pump and numerous talk pages of articles and documents incubate our policies and guidelines. Issues are still formulated and debated on talk pages.

Behavior policies

 * Username policy
 * Blocking policy

Content guidelines

 * Quotability guideline
 * Sourced and Unsourced sections guideline

Other policies

 * Bots policy

Style manuals

 * Manual of style
 * Templates includes formatting suggestions and recommendations for several genres

Policies and guidelines from Wikipedia
In addition to the generally accepted Wikiquote policies and guidelines listed above, policies and guidelines from the Wikipedia project usually apply equally well to Wikiquote. The following guidelines have been suggested by various participants in the Wikipedia project:

General guidelines

 * Be bold in updating pages
 * Make omissions explicit - While this policy has been rejected on Wikipedia, it is important for Wikiquote, as many "misquoted" quotes still should be included, to serve the purpose of clarifying the common misunderstanding.
 * Ignore all rules - A philosophically important, but still controversial policy.

Behavior guidelines

 * No personal attacks - And please, move personal debates to email.
 * Sign your posts on talk pages
 * Avoid profanity
 * Log in before making drastic changes to existing articles - Once again, a policy which has not received consensus on Wikipedia, but is still important to Wikiquote.
 * Don't create articles about yourself

Content guidelines

 * Explain jargon
 * Integrate changes - Instead of just appending quotations to the end of a page, make them fit aesthetically into the format of the article as it is.
 * Deal appropriately with patent nonsense
 * Avoid statements that will date quickly
 * Spoiler warnings are deprecated
 * Make entries useful for readers
 * Check your facts
 * Guide to writing better articles
 * Summarize discussion, when the discussion is at a stage where it can be summarized.
 * Make only links relevant to the context
 * External links
 * Avoid peacock terms
 * Avoid weasel terms
 * Avoid self-references

Style guidelines

 * Pay attention to spelling
 * Don't include copies of primary sources
 * Avoid making your articles orphans
 * Use other languages sparingly
 * Always fill summary field
 * Follow highlighting conventions
 * Use color sparingly
 * Use subheads sparingly
 * Use short sentences and lists
 * Balance parts of a page
 * Line breaks
 * Do not use subpages
 * Build the web

Draft Wikiquote policies and guidelines
Please participate in improving these Wikiquote policies and guidelines.

Behavior guidelines

 * No personal attacks - And please, move personal debates to email.
 * Please do not bite the newcomers

Content guidelines

 * Citing sources