This page in a nutshell: Add template messages to inform readers and editors of specific problems with articles or sections. Do not use them as a badge of shame.
The following template messages may be added to articles needing a cleanup. Their purposes are to foster improvement of the encyclopedia by alerting editors to changes that need to be made. Cleanup tags are meant to be temporary notices that lead to an effort to fix the problem, not a permanent badge of shame to show that you disagree with the article or a method of warning the readers against the article.
Unless otherwise noted, the cleanup messages, or tags, should be placed at the top—before other templates, images, or infoboxes, but after a possible hatnote (see WP:Hatnote#Placement). Certain tags can be placed at the top of an individual section, and others can be placed within the text itself (inline).
Avoid tagging articles if you can easily fix the problem. The goal is an improved article, not a tagged article.
Avoid "drive-by" tagging: tags should be accompanied by a comment on the article's talk page explaining the problem and beginning a discussion on how to fix it, or, for simpler problems, a remark using the reason parameter as shown below
Don’t insert tags that are similar or redundant. For example, most articles that read like essays have an inappropriate tone, and in fact they end up being automatically grouped in the same category, so it is unnecessary to tag with both {{tone}} and {{essay-like}}.
If an article has many problems, tag only the highest priority issues. A lengthy list is often less helpful than a shorter one. (See also: tag bombing and over-tagging)
Don't add tags for trivial or minor problems, especially if an article needs a lot of work. For example, there is little point in polishing the grammar of a section that needs to be dramatically re-written to comply with content policies. Focus on the biggest one, two, or three problems.
A date parameter is added by a bot, or you can add it yourself with |date=May 2024.
Does the article meet inclusion requirements?[edit]
Before placing templates on a page it is worthwhile to cast a critical eye over the page to determine whether it should, in fact, be included in Wikipedia. Some articles can be tagged for speedy deletion or nominated for a deletion discussion at article for deletion.
Best practices in obscure or unpopular articles[edit]
On pages that have received little attention from editors or readers, cleanup templates can be used as a way to call attention to problems that need to be addressed by editors. Editors who want to help address these problems should look through the various cleanup categories such as maintenance and articles with content issues and try to address the problems so that the templates can be removed. Editors who do a lot of tagging of articles should also address the backlogs.
Best practices in heavily monitored articles[edit]
On pages that are being edited by a number of users, cleanup templates are used to inform readers and editors of ongoing discussions and attempts to fix the problems on the page. Such templates can be used to attract uninvolved users to discussions and cleanup efforts, and they can also serve as a warning to casual readers that the article may have problems and be subject to dramatic changes. In general, an editor who places a template message to indicate a problem like this should explain their rationale fully on the talkpage of the article. If the consensus of the other editors is that there is a problem or an editorial dispute that deserves such a clean-up template, then the editors should work to fix the problem as quickly and cleanly as possible so the template message can be removed. If the consensus is that there is no problem, then the message can be removed immediately. For heavily monitored articles, please do not add or remove template messages of this sort without using the talk page.
Many of these cleanup tags require you to place |article as the first parameter when you use the tag at the top of an article. When you want the template to refer to just one section, however, you replace |article with |section (where the | is a pipe key found on most keyboards as a shift-backslash (\). See the specific template below to determine if such "section use" is supported and appropriate.
If too many tags are put at the top of an article, the article can become eclipsed by the tags, especially with short or stub articles. Consider consolidating the tags into the {{multiple issues}} template.
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it.
When calling this template, you may pass it a parameter. A template call like {{expand section|examples and additional citations}} generates: "This section requires expansion with: examples and additional citations."
This article appears to contain a large number of buzzwords. There might be a discussion about this on the talk page. Please help improve this article if you can.
This article uses HTML markup. Please help by changing HTML markup to wiki markup where appropriate. For help finding or replacing the problematic tags, see instructions.
If the article needs HTML changed into wiki-markup
This article appears to contradict another article. Please discuss at the talk page and do not remove this message until the contradictions are resolved.
This article appears to contradict the articles example and illustration. Please discuss at the talk page and do not remove this message until the contradictions are resolved.
Use these tags in articles that appear to contradict themselves or each other.
This article may have been copied and pasted from another location, possibly in violation of Wikipedia's copyright policy. Please review the source and remedy this by editing this article to remove any non-free copyrighted content and attributing free content correctly, or flagging the content for deletion. Please be sure that the supposed source of the copyright violation is not itself a Wikipedia mirror.
This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Note: This page may need to be cleaned up to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Further information might be found on the talk page.
This article needs attention from an expert in PROJECTNAME. Please add a reason or a talk parameter to this template to explain the issue with the article.WikiProject PROJECTNAME may be able to help recruit an expert.
Before adding this template, start a section on the article discussion page describing what you wish the expert to address, and put the section name in the |talk= parameter. {{Expert-talk}} may be used on the talk page for this purpose.
For use in fiction-specific articles that have way too many trivial examples. (Ex.: For an article specifically about famous fictional horses that mentions the fact that Sesame Street once told kids how to spell "horse", or that one of the animals you can kill in an online game is a horse.)
This article focuses only on one specialized aspect of the subject. Please help improve this article by adding general information and discuss at the talk page.
This article may lack focus or may be about more than one topic. Please help improve this article, possibly by splitting the article and/or by introducing a disambiguation page, or discuss this issue on the talk page.
For use when a nonfiction article has become overcrowded with too many references to fiction or other pop culture. (Ex.: Article on horses having a long section of TV shows, movies, video games, etc. that have "horse" in the name or feature horses in some way.)
Place {{Lacking ISBN|date=May 2024}} at the head of the relevant section(s). Remember that books published before 1974 may not have ISBNs (though more recent editions should).
This article is missing information about Error: you must specify what information is missing.. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.
When calling this template, you must pass it a parameter. A template call like {{Missing information|why bananas are yellow}} generates "This article is missing information about why bananas are yellow."
An optional parameter can be added to specify the applicable guideline; e.g.: {{notability|biographies}}, {{notability|fiction}}. See the template documentation for a list of supported values.
This article may overuse or misuse colour, making it hard to understand for colour-blind users. Please remove or fix instances of distracting or hard-to-read colours or remove coloured links that may impede user ability to distinguish links from regular text, or colour links for purely aesthetic reasons. See the guides to editing for accessibility at contrast and colours.
This article is about an event or subject that may not be current but does not specify the time period.. Please help improve it to include this information. The talk page may contain suggestions.
This "see also" section may contain an excessive number of entries. Please ensure that only the most relevant links are given, that they are not red links, and that any links are not already in this article. (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints. Please improve the article by adding information on neglected viewpoints, or discuss the issue on the talk page.
This Wikipedia page needs to be updated. Please help update this Wikipedia page to reflect recent events or newly available information. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page.
The factual accuracy of this Wikipedia page may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help update this Wikipedia page to reflect recent events or newly available information. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. (January 2022)
This page may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page.
This article lacks an infobox. You may wish to add one, so that the article resembles the standard display for this subject. This talk page may contain the banner of a relevant project, that provides the standardized infobox for this type of article. See also Category:Infobox templates, and Wikipedia:WikiProject Infoboxes.
This template should be used on talk pages.
Also has functionality to indicate that only a section in a page needs one. See the template page for more info.
This page's infobox may require expansion, verification, or otherwise need cleanup. Please make sure that the infobox meets Wikipedia's guidelines for infoboxes. There might be relevant comments on the talk page. You may also want to view the infobox template page to view the full parameter list and read guidance on usage of that infobox.
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