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Wikipedia:Training/Newcomers/Pillar 1

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Wikipedia's Five Pillars: Number 1

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Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia.
It incorporates elements of general and specialized encyclopedias, almanacs, and gazetteers.

Maybe this seems obvious. But it's important because it highlights what Wikipedia is NOT.

  • Wikipedia is NOT a soapbox, an advertising platform, a vanity press, an experiment in anarchy or democracy, an indiscriminate collection of information, or a web directory.
  • Wikipedia is NOT a dictionary, a newspaper, a book or instruction manual, or a collection of source documents.

What does this mean for you? Ask yourself: Does my contribution look like a blog post? An advertisement? A newspaper? A how-to guide? If you've written something aside from an encyclopedia article, something is amiss!