Wiktionary

Wiktionary:Tutorial (Keep in mind)

Conduct

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Wiktionary encourages an atmosphere of friendliness and openness. Of course, in practice there are sometimes disagreements and even the occasional fight, 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. Never 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've avoided a misunderstanding and saved yourself some embarrassment.

In correlation with assuming good faith, you can generally expect others to assume good faith as well, which means that if you see something you think should be fixed, don't worry too much about hurting the feelings of previous editors: Be bold! Get in there and fix it.

Editorial policy

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Wiktionary's editorial policy is the "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 which is correct. Our aim is to be informative, not to convince readers of something. Our policy does NOT mean that our entries are expected to be "objective," since in any dispute both sides believe their view to be "true."

It's OK to state opinions in entries, but they must be presented as opinions, not as fact. Also, it's a good idea to attribute these opinions, for example "Supporters of this say that..." or "Notable commentator ___ believes that..."

You might hear Wiktionarians referring to an entry as "POV". This is Wiktionary slang for a biased article, or one obviously written from a single perspective. Advertising would fall in this category, as would a political diatribe.

Copyrights

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Do not submit copyrighted material without permission. The best articles are usually written from either personal knowledge, or through the synthesis of research from multiple sources.

Regional English

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British, American, and other Englishes are welcome on Wiktionary. An abridged version of the related policy could be stated as:

  1. Do not edit a page simply to "correct" the spelling in any direction.
  2. If the subject is related to the United States, US English is preferred (e.g., World Trade Center, not "World Trade Centre").
  3. If the subject is related to British-English regions, British English is preferred (e.g., British Labour Party, not "British Labor Party"). Same with most European topics, as they probably mostly see British English.
  4. If the subject is related to Canada, Canadian English is preferred.
  5. If the subject is neutral (e.g. science, etc.), the original contributor's usage should be followed. See dialects, accents and varieties of English if you have difficulty with this.
  6. The usage should be consistent throughout the article.
  7. Do not be silly.

For a more detailed version of the current formal policy, see Wiktionary:Entry layout

Continue with the tutorial.

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