វិគីភីឌា:Tutorial/Keep in mind
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There are some things to keep in mind when editing វិគីភីឌា.
Editorial policies
Subject matter
វិគីភីឌា is an editable encyclopedia (along with some topics that would typically be found in an almanac). Hence, articles should consist of encyclopedic information about "notable" subjects. What exactly constitutes notability is the subject of constant debate on វិគីភីឌា, but in no case should there be (per Wikipedia rules) an article for every person on the planet, or for every company that sells anything, or for each street in every town in the world. However, there are sister projects for certain types of non-encyclopedic content.
Encyclopedia articles are primarily about the subject, not the words for the subject, so any article that simply defines and explains the usages of a word, or short phrase, as you would find in a typical dictionary, should be contributed to the Wiktionary sister project instead.
Original source text, such as from a public-domain book that you want to post to make it more accessible, should be contributed to one of វិគីភីឌា's other sister projects, Wikisource.
ទំព័រគំរូ:វិគីភីឌា's sister projects For a list of all related projects, see the Complete list of Wikimedia projects.
Wikipedia is also not the place for "original research" — that is, new theories that have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. For more details about what Wikipedia should include, see What Wikipedia is not and Notability (people).
We also tend to discourage authors from writing about themselves or their own accomplishments, as this is a conflict of interest. If you have made notable accomplishments, someone else will write an article about you (eventually). វិគីភីឌា:Autobiography has more detail on this.
Neutral point of view
Wikipedia's editorial policy is that articles must be written in "neutral point of view," often abbreviated "NPOV." This policy says that we accept all the significant viewpoints on an issue. Instead of simply stating one perspective, we try to present all relevant viewpoints without judging them. Our aim is to be informative, not persuasive. Our policy does NOT mean that our articles are expected to be 100% "objective," since in any dispute all sides believe their view to be "true."
It is okay to state opinions in articles, but they must be presented as opinions, not as fact. Also, it is a good idea to attribute these opinions, for example "Supporters of this say that..." or "Notable commentator X believes that..."
You might hear Wikipedians referring to an article as having a "POV" problem. This is Wikipedia slang for a biased article, or one obviously written from a single perspective. Advertising copy would fall in this category, as would a political diatribe. In a less extreme case, an article might have "POV" problems if it spends significantly more time discussing one view than another view of equivalent significance, even if each view is presented neutrally, or if the article gives excessive coverage to a minor viewpoint.
If you are going to spend time on controversial articles in subjects like religion or politics, it is important that you read the neutral point of view policy page as soon as possible. You should probably also read the essay Staying cool when the editing gets hot. If you are going to spend your time on less emotional topics such as math, or video games, you should still read the policies, but it is a less pressing concern. Keep in mind the advice here, and read the full policy if an NPOV issue comes up. See also the NPOV tutorial.
Citing sources
Wikipedia requires that you cite sources for the information you contribute, preferably by adding a footnote, as discussed in the "Citing Sources" page of this tutorial. Citations help our readers verify what you have written and find more information.
If any websites would be of particular interest to a reader of an article, they should be listed and linked to in an "External links" section. Books of particular interest should be listed in a "Further reading" section, but only if they were not used as sources for the article.
Copyrights
Do not add copyrighted materials to Wikipedia without permission from the copyright owner. When adding information to articles, make sure it is written in your own words. Remember that all information found on the Internet is copyrighted unless the website specifically states otherwise.
English dialects
All common forms of words are welcome on Wikipedia. An abridged version of the policy here could be stated as:
- 1. Do not edit a page simply to "correct" a spelling that is correct in another language.
- 2. If the subject of an article is related to the U.S., then U.S. English is preferred:
- 3. If the subject is related to an organization using British English (UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, UN, etc.) then British English is preferred.:
- 4. If the subject is not a regional one ("astronomy," for example), the original contributor's usage should be followed. See American and British English differences if you have difficulty with this.
- 5. The usage should be consistent throughout an article, unless it mentions both US- and Britain/Commonwealth-related topics. In that case, Policies 2 and 3 prevail.
- 6. When you create a new article, generally the most commonly used title is preferred. A simple way of testing this is to try a Search engine test on one of the common search engines, and see what generates more results.
Conduct
Wikipedia encourages an atmosphere of friendliness and openness. Of course, in practice there are sometimes disagreements and even an occasional heated argument, but members of the community are expected to behave in a generally civil manner.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that you should always assume good faith on the part of other editors. Do not assume that someone is acting out of spite or malice. If someone does something that upsets you, leave a polite message on the relevant article's talk page or on the user's talk page, and ask why. You may find that you have avoided a misunderstanding and saved yourself some embarrassment.
Creating articles
When creating articles on Wikipedia, try to take the advice given in the tutorial and to follow the policies mentioned here, such as neutrality. It is important to cite sources to establish the notability of the topic and make the article verifiable. You need to be registered to directly create an article in the encyclopedia, but if you are not, you can still use the articles for creation process.
Renaming articles
If you find an article that you believe is mis-named, please do not copy and paste the contents of the old article into a new article — among other things, it separates the previous contributions from their edit history (which we need to keep track of for copyright reasons). The preferred method is to move the page to the new name, you need to be registered for that. If it is your first move, please read the warnings on the move page carefully, as there are a number of issues to consider before moving a page. If a "disambiguation" page is involved, it is best to review Wikipedia:Disambiguation.