"WP:GOV" redirects here. For the style guidelines on capitalization for government institutions, see
MOS:INSTITUTIONS
.
Wikipedia information page
Wikipedia
requires a certain amount of
administration
and
governance
in order to further the
project's goals
. To achieve Wikipedia's
purpose
, a wide range of
administrative pages
are made available in various
namespaces
which enumerate the various
protocols and conventions
created and implemented by
community
consensus
for English Wikipedia. Of course, this process is not generally
automated
, and live
human administration
is necessary to ensure that the editing of project pages, whether administration pages or content pages, happens
peacefully
and in accordance with the
policies
generally, and loosely,
governing
the creation and editing of all Wikipedia pages.
Human and legal administration
At the top of the human and legal
administrative structure
is the
Wikimedia Foundation
, a not-for-profit and charitable organization governed by a
Board of Trustees
. Although the Wikimedia Foundation owns Wikipedia, it is largely uninvolved in the creation of
Wikipedia's policies
and daily
implementation
of those policies (see
below
). The
Wikipedia community
is generally self?organizing and ?governing, as
editors
with
varying administrative abilities
and their elected project administrators are granted
considerable discretion
over the means used to accomplish
Wikipedia's purpose
. Editors are entrusted with the responsibility of upholding the integrity of Wikipedia while adhering to
intellectual property
rights, such as
avoiding plagiarism
, respecting
copyright laws
, and presenting
appropriate citations
for article content.
Pursuant to the
Five Pillars
, English Wikipedia
does not occur according to firm rules
. Wikipedia's
protocols are principles
, not a civil code or exacting law and are actualized using
common sense
and
editor discretion
. Wikipedia's
policies
,
guidelines
, and
formatting norms
are created and revised by the editing community to describe best practices, and clarify doctrine aimed at improving the encyclopedia and
resolving disputes
. These "official" protocols and conventions require discussion and a high level of
community-wide consensus
for
promotion to a guideline or policy
, thus have a significant degree of influence during deliberations. Most
processes on Wikipedia
depend on editor consensus in some form or another governed by Wikipedia's
content
and
conduct
policies. While consensus is the key method for making decisions, a
consensus amongst a small group of editors
cannot override community wide policies such as "
Neutral point of view
". In order to determine community consensus and resolve ongoing disputes, a wide array of
discussion venues
are made available covering topic specific issues editors encounter in writing and maintaining Wikipedia.
Ensuring the harmonious implementation of the project's
editor consensus-developed protocols
governing the creation and development of all types of pages are editors elected or appointed to certain roles:
i.e.
,
functionaries
like
stewards
and the
Arbitration Committee
, alongside
bureaucrats
, and
administrators
, all of whom ultimately derive their own authority from the Wikimedia Foundation. As well as being
volunteer mediators
, with the
ability (tools)
to
restrict editing on pages
, "project custodians" have the authority to
limit
,
block
or
ban
individuals who would widely be seen as
disruptive
,
tendentious
, or
dishonest
. In cases where the conduct dispute resolution procedure has been ineffective, the
Arbitration Committee has the authority
to deal with highly disruptive or sensitive situations. Some matters of a
legal nature
with regards to the
safety of children
,
libel statements
,
legal threats
or
threats of harm
, are
reported to administrators
and may be deferred to the
Wikimedia Foundation
for resolution and the
edit history of the incident removed
from public view.
Wikimedia Foundation
The
Wikimedia Foundation
(WMF) owns and operates Wikipedia, along with several other collaborative,
wiki
-based
Internet
projects
. The WMF organizes the raising of money, distributes
grants
, develops software, deploys that software, controls the servers, and does outreach to support
Wikimedia projects
. The WMF does not edit Wikipedia content (except for occasional
office actions
). Wikipedia editors handle content and internal policies.
The WMF is governed and guided by the terms of their
Charter
,
Corporate Bylaws
,
Mission Statement
,
Vision
,
Values
, and
Strategy
(the last two of which are not officially adopted by the Foundation). In addition, the
Founding Principles
are a statement of the common principles guiding the founding of any Wikimedia project. See
officially adopted policies
.
The global work of the Foundation is supported by "
Wikimedia local chapters
" (usually incorporated as non-profit corporations, according to the law of the locality), and each is governed by their own chapter board of trustees. Trustees of Wikimedia affiliates are assisted by a very small number of
Wikimedia staff
.
Editors
Editors
, often referred to as
Wikipedians
, are the individuals who comprise the
community of volunteers
that write and edit the pages of Wikipedia as opposed to
readers
, who simply read the articles. Some editors use their real life names as "
user names
", to identify themselves on Wikipedia, whereas others choose never to reveal personal information. Theoretically all editors are equal with no "power structure" or "law enforcement officers." There are however, within the editing community, editors with
extra privileges
(maintenance responsibilities or ability to perform certain administrative actions). Other categories of contributors have also emerged, such as
Wikipedians in residence
and
students with assignments
related to editing Wikipedia (see below).
| To locate your user access levels, go to
Special:Preferences
. In the "user profile" tab is "Member of groups".
|
User access levels
(or
User rights and groups
) are determined by whether an editor is
logged into an account
, whether the account is of sufficient age or by number of constrictive edits based on knowledge of Wikipedia protocols. Some
User levels
are granted automatically; for example, an
autoconfirmed user
is an account that is more than four days old. Others
User rights
are only given upon request, such as
rollbacker
,
page mover
or
template editor
. Entry into
User groups
such as
administrator
and
bureaucrat
, are determined by community discussion and consensus (see below).
Oversight
and
CheckUser
Rights
are only granted by the
Arbitration Committee
, and only after
strict scrutiny
(see below). The system-generated
user rights
are listed at
Special:ListGroupRights
.
The English Wikipedia currently has
47,455,190
users who have registered a username. Only a minority of users contribute regularly (
120,533
have edited in the last 30 days), and only a minority of those contributors participate in
community discussions
. An unknown but relatively large number of
unregistered Wikipedians
also contribute to the site.
Creating an account
is free and has several benefits, for example, the ability to create pages, upload media, and edit without one's IP address being visible to the public.
Stewardship
Stewards
are
volunteer editors
with complete access to the wiki interface on all Wikimedia wikis, including the ability to change any and all
user rights and groups
. This means that, along with the
Wikipedia Arbitration Committee
, stewards have
Checkuser
and
Oversight
rights. They are tasked with technical implementation of community consensus, dealing with emergencies, and intervening against cross-wiki vandalism. The number of stewards is not limited by any policies. Stewards are
elected
annually by the global Wikimedia community. Candidates must have a support/oppose ratio of at least 80% with at least 30 supporting users. Current stewards are confirmed during each election. Stewards are subject to the
stewards' policy
; further documentation may be found in the
steward handbook
.
The Wikimedia Foundation created the position of steward when it recognized the need to separate user rights management from software development and systems administration.
Arbitration Committee
Members of the
Arbitration Committee
(referred to as
ArbCom
or
Arbs
), are
volunteer editors
who act in concert or in sub-groups imposing
binding solutions
on
conduct disputes
the community has been unable to resolve. ArbCom has very wide latitude in adjudication with the authority to impose
general sanctions
and/or
personal sanctions
on editors or groups of editors. They impose sanctions, either as a result of remedies accepted during cases, or during requests for clarification or amendment, or as a result of motions. The arbitration process exists exclusively for Wikipedia
conduct disputes
(i.e., not content disputes that may require mediation). The committee also resolves issues by private hearings if factors such as privacy may preclude public consideration.
Arbitrators are
elected annually
in one-year or overlapping two-year terms. The original Committee was appointed by Jimmy Wales in December 2003 from a group of volunteers. Subsequently, elections were held on a yearly basis with Wales ratifying the results, but this role evolved into a purely ceremonial one and he has not been involved at all since 2013. The Wikimedia Foundation supports the technical side of the electoral process and requires that candidates meet the Wikimedia Foundation's
criteria for access to non-public data
and sign the Foundation's non-public information
confidentiality agreement
.
The
election rules
are debated each year. Although nomination is subject only to rather
broad criteria
, in practice only Administrators have succeeded in being selected as Arbitrators.
Bureaucrats
Bureaucrats
are
volunteer editors
with the technical ability (user rights) to:
- promote other users to
administrator
or bureaucrat status.
- remove the admin status of other users
- grant and revoke an account's
bot
status.
They are bound by policy and consensus to grant administrator or bureaucrat access only when doing so reflects the wishes of the community, usually after a successful request at
Wikipedia:Requests for adminship
. In like fashion, they are expected to exercise judgement in granting or removing bot flags on the advice of the
Bot Approvals Group
. They are expected to be capable judges of consensus, and are expected to explain the reasoning for their actions on request and in a civil manner. Users are granted bureaucrat status by community consensus. The process is similar to
the process of granting administrator status
, but the expectations for potential bureaucrats are higher and community consensus must be clearer.
Bureaucrats do not have the technical ability to grant other levels of access (they cannot assign oversight or checkuser rights). These actions are performed by
stewards
, a small multilingual group that serves all Wikimedia projects. Additional stewards are elected annually; for more information see
Requests for permissions
. Changes in user rights by stewards are recorded at
m:Special:Log/rights
. The English Wikipedia currently has 15 bureaucrats as of 26 May 2024. Though not required by policy, in practice all bureaucrats are also Administrators.
Administrators
Administrators
, commonly known as
admins
or
sysops
(
sys
tem
op
erator
s
), are volunteer editors who have been trusted with access to restricted technical features ("tools"). For example, administrators can
protect
and
delete
pages, and
block
other editors. See
Wikipedia:Administrators/Tools
. Administrators are appointed after a successful community review process at
Wikipedia:Requests for adminship
in which
consensus
is determined by the bureaucrats. The English Wikipedia currently has 859 administrators as of 26 May 2024.
Administrators assume responsibilities as
volunteers
; thus are never required to use their tools, and must never use them to gain an advantage in a dispute in which they are involved (see:
Wikipedia:What adminship is not
). Only
Jimmy Wales
or the
Wikipedia Arbitration Committee
may authorize the
removal of administrator privileges
, and this authorization may be executed by any
bureaucrat
or
steward
.
Wikipedians in residence
A
Wikipedian in residence
is a
volunteer editor
who accepts a placement with an institution, typically an art gallery, library, archive or museum or institute of higher education (such as a university) to facilitate
Wikipedia entries
. Typical duties of such posts include outreach to other staff and members of the public, as well as making contributions to articles relevant to the institution's materials and mission. Such outreach work may include the arranging of training events and
editathons
. See
Wikipedia:GLAM
for more information.
Educators and students
The
Education program
helps with the coordination of
educators and students
around the world
contribute to Wikipedia
and other Wikimedia projects in an academic setting. Educators
assign their students
to contribute to Wikipedia based on course-related topics. Programs are run by
Wikimedia local chapters
(usually incorporated as non-profit corporations, according to the law of the locality), affiliate organizations, and dedicated volunteer Wikipedia editors. Supporting the program is a limited number of
staff members at the Wikimedia Foundation
, who help program leaders start and scale their programs sustainably.
Data structure and development
Development of the Wikipedia
data structure
occurs within various
namespaces
. Namespaces allow for the organization and separation of
content pages
from
administration pages
. Each namespace also segregates and organizes data according to its function within the overall project schema (articles, portals, files, drafts, templates etc.). Namespaces separate data into core sets, those intended for public viewing, and those intended for the editing community. Unlike the
Article namespace
, and other content related namespaces, such as the
Portal namespace
, administrative namespaces are used to
assist the building of content
and
should be
seen to be mutually exclusive of content pages, except for cases where a linkage is required. In other words, administration pages
should be
in the background and
not visible
to the reader.
Administration pages, including
user pages
,
draft pages
,
policies pages
,
information pages
,
maintenance pages
,
talk pages
and
interactive forums
fall completely within the bounds of administration, as distinguished from content. In this regard,
categories
are utilized for both content and administration but
should not have
both types of pages within the same category.
Templates
are also used for both content and administration pages and therefore, unlike other administrative pages, are collected together and entirely as sub-categories of
Category:Wikipedia templates
.
Excluding the Article namespace all namespaces use a prefix; for example, all
user pages
are prefixed by
User:
, and
help pages
by the prefix
Help:
. Some
namespaces also have abbreviated identifiers
, for example typing
WT:
is a
shortcut redirect
for the "Wikipedia talk" namespace and
H:
for the "Help" namespace. By default
Wikipedia's search engine
is restricted to the Article namespace. However typing a namespace "name" (prefix) followed by a colon limits search results to that namespace (see
Special:Search
for details). Namespace prefixes should not be confused with prefixes for
interwiki linking
. Each namespace is given a numerical value - intended for hiding pages on a watchlist (see
Hide Pages in Watchlist
for details).
Content namespaces
Content namespaces are intended for use by readers as part of the encyclopedia such as articles.
Article namespace
The
Main namespace
or
Article namespace
is the namespace of Wikipedia that contains the encyclopedia proper?that is, where content?
Wikipedia articles
reside. The main namespace is the default namespace and does not use a prefix in article page names. This is distinct from other namespaces where page names are always prefixed by an indicator of the particular namespace in which the page resides. Thus, any page created
without
such a prefix will automatically be placed in the article namespace. The Main namespace number is zero (0).
Portal namespace
The
Portal namespace
is intended to serve as "main pages" for content (articles) to specific topics or areas. The idea of a portal is to help readers and/or editors navigate their way through Wikipedia topic areas through pages similar to the
Main Page
. In essence, portals such as the
Contents portal
, are useful entry-points to Wikipedia's content. Portals may be associated with
WikiProjects
; however, unlike WikiProjects, portals are meant for both readers and editors of Wikipedia, and should promote content and its navigation.
A portal link box may be added to a page by typing
{{
Portal
|<portal name>}}
for example
{{Portal|Energy}}
. If more than one portal is to be linked use a second parameter, for example
{{Portal|Energy|Cycling}}
. At present, there are 539 portals on Wikipedia. Pages in this namespace will always have the prefix
Portal:
and alias
P:
. The Portal namespace number is one hundred (100). See
Wikipedia:Portal guidelines
for general guidelines and best practices.
Category namespace
The
Category namespace
is a software feature of
MediaWiki
, which enables pages to be added to automatic listings. These help structure Wikipedia's contents and administrative pages by grouping together pages on similar subjects. A category page lists the articles (or administrative pages) that have been added to a particular category. There may also be a section listing the
subcategories
of that category. The subcategorization feature makes it possible to organize categories into tree-like structures to aid navigation.
Article pages should be kept out of administrative categories if possible. There are separate administrative categories for different kinds of non-article pages, such as
template
categories,
disambiguation page
categories,
project page
categories etc. See
WP:PROJCATS
for details.
To add a page to a category, include "
[[Category:
Category name
]]
" or "
[[Category:
Category name
|
Sortkey
]]
" in that page's
wikimarkup
. The categories to which a page belongs appear in a box at the bottom of the page. Pages in this namespace will always have the prefix
Category:
and alias
CAT:
. The Category namespace number is fourteen (14). See
Wikipedia:Categorization
for generally accepted standards.
Administrative namespaces
Administrative namespaces are intended for use by editors or by automated tools for the administration and governance of the encyclopedia. See also
Category:Wikipedia project content guidelines
Talk namespace
For every type of namespace (including the Main namespace) there is a corresponding
Talk namespace
or
Talk page
, reached by clicking the
Talk
tab just above the title. The accompanying talk namespace for each namespace page is a place where editors may discuss and dialogue on their work in the various administrative and content pages in the corresponding namespaces. (Note: on
interactive noticeboards
discussion happens on the main page.)
The talk pages are designated by appending the word
talk
to the namespace name. The talk namespace associated with the article namespace is
Talk:
. Whereas the user and project namespaces are even-numbered, the talk namespaces are odd-numbered and are assigned the odd number that follows the corresponding substantive namespace number. See
Help:Using talk pages
for general advice.
User namespace
Wikipedia provides personal
user pages
in the
User namespace
to facilitate communication among participants
here to build an encyclopedia
. Generally, substantial content on a user page that is unrelated to Wikipedia is avoided.
Wikipedia is not a general hosting service
, so a user page is not used as a personal website. However, a user page may be about the particular editor's "persona" as a Wikipedian, including the pages to which the user has contributed or their general interests in regard to subjects or projects related to Wikipedia, its administration and content. In addition, there is broad agreement that an editor may not include in their user space any material that is likely to bring the project into disrepute.
To reach a user page, simply type
User:username
, where "username" is the user's Wikipedia username. The talk namespace associated with the user namespace has the prefix
User talk:
. The User namespace is assigned the namespace number two (2). See
Wikipedia:User page design center
for some fun.
"Wikipedia" aka Project namespace
Although it may appear from its name that the
Wikipedia namespace
or the
Project namespace
might contain the actual content of the Wikipedia articles, this is not correct. The Main namespace is the default namespace and therefore does not use a prefix in article page names. The Project namespace is a namespace consisting of pages with information or discussion about Wikipedia itself. As such, Wikipedia namespace pages are purely administrative, and the inclusion of substantive content should be avoided unless the content itself is about administration. The project namespace includes,
policies, guidelines
,
essays
,
WikiProjects
,
informative
,
discussion
,
maintenance
and process pages like
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion
. This "information page" is contained within the
Wikipedia namespace
.
Pages in this namespace will always have the prefix
Wikipedia:
. They can also be reached by alias
WP:
or the standard (for any
MediaWiki
site) prefix
Project:
. The Wikipedia namespace number is four (4).
Help namespace
The
Help namespace
consisting of Wikipedia pages whose titles begin with the prefix
Help:
and alias
H:
, such as
Help:Link
. These pages contain information intended to help use Wikipedia or its software. Some of these pages are intended for readers of the encyclopedia; others are intended for editors, whether beginning or advanced. Some of the pages in the Help namespace are copied from
Meta-Wiki
.
There is a large amount of overlap between the Help namespace and the
Wikipedia namespaces
. For this reason
redirects
and
hatnotes
are often set up between these two namespaces. See
Help:About the help pages
for more information. The Help namespace number is twelve (12).
File namespace
The
File namespace
contains millions of illustrative
images
and other
electronic media
. The File Namespace is the namespace in which all of Wikipedia's media content resides including data files for images, video clips, or audio clips, including document length clips; or midi files (a small, computer-instructions file). The media filenames all begin with the prefix
File:
. The File namespace number is six (6).
A typical file can be inserted with the line code
[[File:...|thumb|...]]
.
Image:
can be substituted for
File:
with no change in effect for images, the choice between the two is purely a matter of editorial preference. Only
logged in
users can
upload files
under an
appropriate title
. See
Wikipedia:Creation and usage of media files
for more information.
Template namespace
The
Template namespace
is used to store templates, intended for inclusion on multiple pages.
Templates
are an administrative feature that generally duplicate the same content across more than one page while helping reduce
wikitext
and
HTML markup
. Changes to a template will immediately propagate to the pages that use it. Common uses include to display
administrative notices
,
infoboxes
,
navigational boxes
, standard warnings, special text formatting, unit conversions, calculations and many other purposes. The most common method of inclusion is called
transclusion
, where the wikitext of the target page contains a reference to the template, using the
{{Template?name}}
syntax.
Pages in this namespace will always have the prefix
Template:
and alias
T:
. The Template namespace number is ten (10). See
Help:Template
for information on developing templates and syntax details. For a table of some useful templates, see
Wikipedia:Template messages
. For detailed templating documentation see
m:Help:Template
.
Draft namespace
The
Draft namespace
is where new articles may be stored allowing them to be developed and receive feedback before being moved to Wikipedia's
mainspace
. Editors may also create
draft pages in their userspace
. Drafts are
not indexed
by most search engines including Google, meaning most readers will not find them. However anyone may search and view drafts on Wikipedia directly by using the
Special:Search
option. Pages in this namespace will always have the prefix
Draft:
. The Draft namespace number is one hundred and eighteen (118).
MediaWiki namespace
The
MediaWiki namespace
is the database structure namespace used by
MediaWiki
software, on which Wikipedia runs. The pages in this namespace (whose titles begin
MediaWiki:
) contain the text to be displayed in certain places in the web interface. Only
administrators
can edit this namespace, but all editors can propose changes on the appropriate talk pages. See
Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)
and
Wikipedia:Developers
for more information. See
Wikipedia:MediaWiki messages
for discussions about the content of MediaWiki pages. The MediaWiki namespace number is eight (8)
Virtual namespaces
There are two virtual namespaces that do not relate to pages stored in the database:
Special
and
Media
.
Special namespace
Special pages
are pages that have no
wikitext
, but are generated by the software on demand. They are found in the "Special:" namespace. It is not possible to make a redirect to a special page, or to create normal pages beginning with the "Special:" prefix. Special pages often take parameters. Sometimes these can be supplied after a slash (as in
Special:Log/block
); in other cases an index.php call is used (as in
Special:RecentChanges
). Also the content of some special pages depends on preferences that have been set by the user, e.g. classic or enhanced Recent Changes, the number of titles in Recent Changes and the watchlist, etc.
The special pages can be accessed from
Special:SpecialPages
, which is found in the sidebar of every page on Wikipedia. It is located in the Toolbox section. The namespace number for a special namespace page is negative one (-1).
Media namespace
The
Media namespace
is used to render a link which can activate the image or audio or video of a data file directly, on its own page (separate from the rendered page or the file page), for example
Media:Great Feeling.ogv
. The Media namespace number is negative two (-2).
See also
- User:Jimbo Wales/Statement of principles
?
statement of principles!
by the co-founder of Wikipedia,
Jimmy Wales
, as updated by the community since then.
- Contributing to Wikipedia
? the main "how-to" page that provides information, links, videos and other resources on the basics needed to comprehend, comment on, and edit Wikipedia.
- Core content policies
? a brief summary and background on Wikipedia's core content policies.
- Editorial discretion
? discusses how common sense and Wikipedia policy dictates that editors must practice discretion regarding the proper inclusion of relevant and well-sourced content.
- Editor integrity
? discusses how editors have a responsibility to uphold the integrity of Wikipedia and respect intellectual property rights of the sources they draw upon when they create and improve encyclopedia pages.
- The essence of Wikipedia
? describes how Wikipedia is the harnessing of the collective intelligence and collaborative efforts of editors who hold opposing points of view, in an attempt to preserve all serious contributions which are reliably sourced.
- The role of policies in collaborative anarchy
? describes how policies produce a quality encyclopaedia.
- WikiProject Democracy
? links to information where
you
can participate in governing Wikipedia.
Further reading
External links
|
---|
People
| |
---|
Projects
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|
Related
| |
---|