Manual of Style (MoS) |
---|
Wikipedia has a daunting array of styleguides and policy pages. They come under very little central coordination and are subject to change without wide notice. This makes it hard for users to keep track of changes to rules and policies they need to be aware of, and to attain a sense of how the project is evolving.
This page displays the important changes in a central location, month by month; it enables all Wikipedians to keep abreast of what is happening, quickly and conveniently.
Contributors to styleguide and policy pages are asked to notify us of changes for each upcoming monthly summary by posting a brief note of substantive changes (with a diff) on the talk page.
Summary updates are posted here and at the talk pages of MOS, (main page), FAC and FAR shortly after the start of each calendar month. Copy-editing and relatively trivial changes are generally not included in these summaries.
Article titles. The parenthetical phrase was added.
This text:
was changed to:
This was added:
The following text was added to Date autoformatting:
A number of not-very-substantive changes were made to Numbers as figures or words.
This text was added to "Conventions" (under "Unit symbols"):
In Disambiguation, this text:
was changed to:
The underlined wording was added to Criterion 3b:
WP:NFCC#8. The final clause was reinstated (after the comma), having been removed, reinstated, and removed over the past three months:
Audio and video clips are now explicitly included in the definition of "non-free content", which is "all copyrighted images,... and other media files that lack a free content license".
In Bold title, "need not be" was strengthened to "is not":
This was added to Mixed or non-capitalization:
In Main uses, the third sentence (after the ellipsis) was added:
In Boldface, the opening paragraph was rationalised to this:
There were major changes to the guidelines on scientific notation, engineering notation, and uncertainty; binary prefixes; and units of measurement.
Non-breaking spaces. The narrower scope for using non-breaking (i.e., "hard") spaces was significantly clarified. They should be used:
Instability: The large number of edits during this month has caused disquiet among contributors. Because many of these changes may be subsumed by an audit for copy-editing and other issues during July, the details are not listed here.
Establish context. The following sentence was added:
Why sources should be cited. This was added:
When to cite sources. The last sentence was added:
When adding material that is challenged or likely to be challenged. This was added:
Reference qualification in article text. This text:
was changed to:
Provide full citations. The underlined words were added:
Embedded links. The second sentence was added:
The instructions on capping by reviewers were amended by adding a second sentence (underlined):
In a significant change, this rule:
was changed to this:
WP:NFCC#8. The last clause was again removed, having been removed and reinstated in previous months:
Non-breaking spaces. The scope of the recommendation to use a non-breaking (i.e., "hard") space was narrowed from all instances where:
to:
Compound items such as "20 chairs" are thus excluded from the recommendation.
En dashes vs. minus signs. Previously, en dashes were permitted as an alternative to minus signs. This is no longer the case:
Foreign terms and italics. The second of these two sentences was struck out:
Spelling and transliteration of foreign terms. The use of anglicized versus native spellings was clarified:
Identity. There was a change from:
Alignment of images. The previous preference for the right-alignment of images, with exceptions, was simplified to:
Symbols for bits and bytes. The following sentence was added:
Binary prefixes. A dispute tag still hangs over this section.
Units of measurement. The section "Follow the literature" is still the subject of a dispute tag and has been unstable.
Minus signs. A similar change was made to that listed above under "En dashes vs. minus signs". [Editorial note: The wording of both points now needs to be made consistent.]
Geographical coordinates. This section was restored with an edit summary to see WP:GEO.
[Editorial note: MOSNUM and the main page of MOS are now in need of housecleaning to ensure consistency in duplicated sections.]
Naming conventions (abbreviations) was merged into Manual of Style (abbreviations).
Capitalization of names of deities, etc. This was removed:
Capitalization of religious and mythical beings. This was clarified:
A long and discursive guideline for the See also section was replaced by a shorter one, introducing a new requirement:
The Further reading section may now be called "Books" if it contains only books; it is best to avoid the title "Bibliography", because it may mean different things to different readers.
Reference qualification in article text. This new section was added, opening with:
Examples were provided.
The criteria were reformatted to reduce redundant repetition; bolded titles were inserted for easier comprehension. The numbering and substantive meaning of the criteria are unaltered. The word count was reduced by about 11%.
The instructions now clarify and reinforce the proscription, in the lead, of dual nominations, with the addition of the underlined words:
The criteria underwent a major overhaul to produce a set of clearer, more concise tools for nominators and reviewers, reduced from 420 to 220 words. The major substantive changes involve the requirements that the writing be of "professional standard" and the lead "engaging", and the clarification of "scope" and "comprehensiveness". The need to take particular care in sourcing claims about living people was made explicit.
There were significant changes to the FLC instructions to legitimise the identity and roles of the first two Wikipedians to be appointed as FL directors. Some of the wording and new procedures were borrowed from the FAC instructions. Two important changes were (1) the abolition of the rule that a nomination must have a minimum of four declarations of support to be eligible for promotion, and (2) the way consensus is judged and the weight of "support" declarations compared with the resolution of critical comments, as embodied in the following insertion:
The criteria were amended in two ways. Added this sentence: "Article and biography summaries should not significantly exceed 200 words in length." Added these underlined words: "images where appropriate, with good captions, linked credits, and acceptable copyright status.
Non-free content policy statement. The following sentence was inserted: :"There is no automatic entitlement to use non-free content in an article".
WP:NFCC#3a. The criterion was amended from:
WP:NFCC#3b. The scope was broadened (italics replacing struck-through text):
Titles. Clarification that common nouns denoting deities or religious figures are not capitalized.
Acronyms and abbreviations. The terms "abbreviation", "acronym" and "initialism" were clarified.
Quotation marks. Clarification that (block-quoted) multiparagraph quotations "must be precise and exactly as in the source. The source should be cited clearly and precisely to enable readers to find the text that supports the article content in question." Instead of HTML tags, {{ quotation}} or {{ quote}} can be used to render block quotes.
SI symbols and unit abbreviations. This was added:
SI symbols and unit abbreviations. This was added:
Disputes over people's proper names. The previous statement:
was replaced with:
Alignment of images. The last four words were added to the statement:
An exception was added:
This was added:
Pronunciation. The last three words were added:
This sentence was added:
Decade abbreviations. Two-digit abbreviations for decades may have a preceding apostrophe only in reference to a social era or cultural phenomenon as a stock phrase that roughly corresponds to or defines a decade (the Roaring '20s, the Gay '90s), or where there is a notable connection between the period and the immediate topic (a sense of social justice informed by '60s counterculture, but grew up in 1960s Boston, moving to Dallas in 1971). [This is now inconsistent with the main page of the MoS.]
Units of measurement. A new section was inserted:
This was marked with a dispute tag and has been the subject of an edit war and page protection.
Units of measurement. The recommendation to use "sq" and "cu" with US-unit abbreviations was removed; now superscript exponents may be used in that system.
The piping of disambiguation pages. Clarification: piping may be used to add italics to the part of an article name inside parenthetical clarifiers (for instance [[Neo (The Matrix)|Neo (''The Matrix'')]]); until now the guideline only allowed italics and quotation marks for the part outside the parentheses.
The third bullet was added to the instructions (underlined here):
The following sentence was added to the Featured portal criteria:
The phrase that was removed from Non-free content Criterion 8 last month (underlined here) was reinstated and is currently under discussion:
Post notifications for the next month on [[User_talk:Tony1/Monthly_updates_of_styleguide_and_policy_changes#May_2008_notifications}the talk page]], please, not here.
General principles
Process
Location
Manual of Style (MoS) |
---|
Wikipedia has a daunting array of styleguides and policy pages. They come under very little central coordination and are subject to change without wide notice. This makes it hard for users to keep track of changes to rules and policies they need to be aware of, and to attain a sense of how the project is evolving.
This page displays the important changes in a central location, month by month; it enables all Wikipedians to keep abreast of what is happening, quickly and conveniently.
Contributors to styleguide and policy pages are asked to notify us of changes for each upcoming monthly summary by posting a brief note of substantive changes (with a diff) on the talk page.
Summary updates are posted here and at the talk pages of MOS, (main page), FAC and FAR shortly after the start of each calendar month. Copy-editing and relatively trivial changes are generally not included in these summaries.
Article titles. The parenthetical phrase was added.
This text:
was changed to:
This was added:
The following text was added to Date autoformatting:
A number of not-very-substantive changes were made to Numbers as figures or words.
This text was added to "Conventions" (under "Unit symbols"):
In Disambiguation, this text:
was changed to:
The underlined wording was added to Criterion 3b:
WP:NFCC#8. The final clause was reinstated (after the comma), having been removed, reinstated, and removed over the past three months:
Audio and video clips are now explicitly included in the definition of "non-free content", which is "all copyrighted images,... and other media files that lack a free content license".
In Bold title, "need not be" was strengthened to "is not":
This was added to Mixed or non-capitalization:
In Main uses, the third sentence (after the ellipsis) was added:
In Boldface, the opening paragraph was rationalised to this:
There were major changes to the guidelines on scientific notation, engineering notation, and uncertainty; binary prefixes; and units of measurement.
Non-breaking spaces. The narrower scope for using non-breaking (i.e., "hard") spaces was significantly clarified. They should be used:
Instability: The large number of edits during this month has caused disquiet among contributors. Because many of these changes may be subsumed by an audit for copy-editing and other issues during July, the details are not listed here.
Establish context. The following sentence was added:
Why sources should be cited. This was added:
When to cite sources. The last sentence was added:
When adding material that is challenged or likely to be challenged. This was added:
Reference qualification in article text. This text:
was changed to:
Provide full citations. The underlined words were added:
Embedded links. The second sentence was added:
The instructions on capping by reviewers were amended by adding a second sentence (underlined):
In a significant change, this rule:
was changed to this:
WP:NFCC#8. The last clause was again removed, having been removed and reinstated in previous months:
Non-breaking spaces. The scope of the recommendation to use a non-breaking (i.e., "hard") space was narrowed from all instances where:
to:
Compound items such as "20 chairs" are thus excluded from the recommendation.
En dashes vs. minus signs. Previously, en dashes were permitted as an alternative to minus signs. This is no longer the case:
Foreign terms and italics. The second of these two sentences was struck out:
Spelling and transliteration of foreign terms. The use of anglicized versus native spellings was clarified:
Identity. There was a change from:
Alignment of images. The previous preference for the right-alignment of images, with exceptions, was simplified to:
Symbols for bits and bytes. The following sentence was added:
Binary prefixes. A dispute tag still hangs over this section.
Units of measurement. The section "Follow the literature" is still the subject of a dispute tag and has been unstable.
Minus signs. A similar change was made to that listed above under "En dashes vs. minus signs". [Editorial note: The wording of both points now needs to be made consistent.]
Geographical coordinates. This section was restored with an edit summary to see WP:GEO.
[Editorial note: MOSNUM and the main page of MOS are now in need of housecleaning to ensure consistency in duplicated sections.]
Naming conventions (abbreviations) was merged into Manual of Style (abbreviations).
Capitalization of names of deities, etc. This was removed:
Capitalization of religious and mythical beings. This was clarified:
A long and discursive guideline for the See also section was replaced by a shorter one, introducing a new requirement:
The Further reading section may now be called "Books" if it contains only books; it is best to avoid the title "Bibliography", because it may mean different things to different readers.
Reference qualification in article text. This new section was added, opening with:
Examples were provided.
The criteria were reformatted to reduce redundant repetition; bolded titles were inserted for easier comprehension. The numbering and substantive meaning of the criteria are unaltered. The word count was reduced by about 11%.
The instructions now clarify and reinforce the proscription, in the lead, of dual nominations, with the addition of the underlined words:
The criteria underwent a major overhaul to produce a set of clearer, more concise tools for nominators and reviewers, reduced from 420 to 220 words. The major substantive changes involve the requirements that the writing be of "professional standard" and the lead "engaging", and the clarification of "scope" and "comprehensiveness". The need to take particular care in sourcing claims about living people was made explicit.
There were significant changes to the FLC instructions to legitimise the identity and roles of the first two Wikipedians to be appointed as FL directors. Some of the wording and new procedures were borrowed from the FAC instructions. Two important changes were (1) the abolition of the rule that a nomination must have a minimum of four declarations of support to be eligible for promotion, and (2) the way consensus is judged and the weight of "support" declarations compared with the resolution of critical comments, as embodied in the following insertion:
The criteria were amended in two ways. Added this sentence: "Article and biography summaries should not significantly exceed 200 words in length." Added these underlined words: "images where appropriate, with good captions, linked credits, and acceptable copyright status.
Non-free content policy statement. The following sentence was inserted: :"There is no automatic entitlement to use non-free content in an article".
WP:NFCC#3a. The criterion was amended from:
WP:NFCC#3b. The scope was broadened (italics replacing struck-through text):
Titles. Clarification that common nouns denoting deities or religious figures are not capitalized.
Acronyms and abbreviations. The terms "abbreviation", "acronym" and "initialism" were clarified.
Quotation marks. Clarification that (block-quoted) multiparagraph quotations "must be precise and exactly as in the source. The source should be cited clearly and precisely to enable readers to find the text that supports the article content in question." Instead of HTML tags, {{ quotation}} or {{ quote}} can be used to render block quotes.
SI symbols and unit abbreviations. This was added:
SI symbols and unit abbreviations. This was added:
Disputes over people's proper names. The previous statement:
was replaced with:
Alignment of images. The last four words were added to the statement:
An exception was added:
This was added:
Pronunciation. The last three words were added:
This sentence was added:
Decade abbreviations. Two-digit abbreviations for decades may have a preceding apostrophe only in reference to a social era or cultural phenomenon as a stock phrase that roughly corresponds to or defines a decade (the Roaring '20s, the Gay '90s), or where there is a notable connection between the period and the immediate topic (a sense of social justice informed by '60s counterculture, but grew up in 1960s Boston, moving to Dallas in 1971). [This is now inconsistent with the main page of the MoS.]
Units of measurement. A new section was inserted:
This was marked with a dispute tag and has been the subject of an edit war and page protection.
Units of measurement. The recommendation to use "sq" and "cu" with US-unit abbreviations was removed; now superscript exponents may be used in that system.
The piping of disambiguation pages. Clarification: piping may be used to add italics to the part of an article name inside parenthetical clarifiers (for instance [[Neo (The Matrix)|Neo (''The Matrix'')]]); until now the guideline only allowed italics and quotation marks for the part outside the parentheses.
The third bullet was added to the instructions (underlined here):
The following sentence was added to the Featured portal criteria:
The phrase that was removed from Non-free content Criterion 8 last month (underlined here) was reinstated and is currently under discussion:
Post notifications for the next month on [[User_talk:Tony1/Monthly_updates_of_styleguide_and_policy_changes#May_2008_notifications}the talk page]], please, not here.
General principles
Process
Location