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Wikipedia:Update/2/General style guidelines, January 2010 to June 2010

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March 2010

Note: A series of proposals have been made to merge WP:Avoid neologisms, WP:Avoid peacock terms, WP:Avoid weasel words, WP:Embedded list, WP:Explain jargon, WP:Layout, WP:Lead section and WP:Technical terms and definitions into other pages. Also see discussion at WT:MOS#General style guidelines.


  • Wikipedia:Citing sources
    • In the introduction, changed: "... unsourced material about living persons must be removed immediately. A source is also required when uploading an image." to: "... unsourced contentious or negative material about living persons must be removed immediately. When an image is uploaded, the uploader must state where the image came from, and its copyright status. If the image comes from an online site, a link to the source page is normally provided."
    • In WP:CITE#Shortened footnotes, added: "... though note that templates should not be added without consensus to an article that already uses a consistent referencing style."
    • Moved up and expanded the WP:CITE#List-defined references subsection
    • Part of WP:CITE#Citation styles was moved into a new subsection: WP:CITE#Consistent style





  • Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)
    • In WP:MOSNUM#Other date ranges, removed: "The form 1996–present should be avoided in the main text of articles, though it may be used in infoboxes, crowded templates or lists, with the caveat that they may need to be examined by editors more frequently to see if they need to be updated; it is helpful to other editors to add an HTML comment immediately after such constructions, giving the as-of date, e.g.: <!--as of 10 October 2007-->. The form since 1996 should be used in favor of 1996–present in normal article text."
    • In WP:MOSNUM#Which units to use and how to present them, added: "Articles concerning Commonwealth countries in Africa, Asia and Australasia generally put metric units first."


February 2009




  • Wikipedia:Layout
    • In WP:Layout#Further reading, changed: [Contents: A bulleted list, usually alphabetized, of a reasonable number of recommended publications that] "do not appear elsewhere in the article and were not used to verify article content." to: "will guide the reader to the more important published sources. The items may be annotated to provide additional information not in the title."


  • Wikipedia:Lead section
    • In WP:LEAD#Title variants, removed: "Sometimes, information about the article format is given in the page title. For example, “List of …” or “Comparison of …”. In such cases, only the subject itself should be boldface. For example, in Outline of Africa, the first sentence should describe Africa, and present only the word “Africa” in bold. The article is not about outlines of Africa, it is presenting information about Africa in outline form."





January 2009



  • Wikipedia:External links
    • In WP:EL#What should be linked, removed: [Sites that contain neutral and accurate material that] "is relevant to an encyclopedic understanding of the subject and" [cannot be integrated into the Wikipedia article due to copyright issues, amount of detail (such as professional athlete statistics, movie or television credits, interview transcripts, or online textbooks), or other reasons.]
    • In WP:EL#Avoid undue weight on particular points of view, changed: [On articles with multiple points of view,] "the number of links dedicated to one point of view should not overwhelm the number dedicated to other equal points of view, nor give undue weight to minority views." to: "avoid providing links too great in number or weight to one point of view, or that give undue weight to minority views."



  • Wikipedia:Linking
    • In WP:Linking#Repeated links, added: "long sortable" [tables, in which each row should be able to stand on its own.] "(Rows which are near the top of the table when it is sorted according to one column can be far from it when it is sorted according to another one.)"
    • In WP:Linking#Piped links to sections of articles, added: "As noted above, when doing this, add a hidden comment to the target section such as <!-- "Quark" links here --> so that someone changing the title of that section can fix the incoming links. (Alternatively, use {{Anchor}} in case of a large number of links to the section.)"
    • In WP:Linking#Non-English-language sites, changed: "when the webpage contains key or authoritative information found on no English-language site" to: "when the webpage contains information found on no English-language site of comparable quality". Added: "If the language is one that most readers could not be expected to recognize, or is for some other reason unclear from the name of the publication or the book/article/page title, consider" [indicating what language the site is in.]



  • Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)
    • In the introduction, information on ArbCom rulings was changed and expanded
    • In WP:MOSNUM#Which units to use and how to present them, added: [miles per hour for] "road" [speeds]. Added: "With imperial units which are not also US customary units, double conversions can be useful: The song's second verse reveals that Rosie weighs 19 stone (266 lb; 121 kg)."
    • In WP:MOSNUM#Formatting, added: "When called on to use a plural with the euro, use the standard English plurals and not the "legislative" plurals (ten euros and fifty cents, not ten euro and fifty cent). In adjectival use, no plural form is generally used, but rather a hyphenated form: (a two-euro pen, a ten-dollar meal, a ten-cent cigar)."
    • In WP:MOSNUM#Other date ranges, changed: [the form 1996–present ...] "is preferred in infoboxes and other crowded templates or lists" to: "may be used in infoboxes, crowded templates or lists"