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Glossary
Note: while the definitions below may be useful for understanding and communicating on project and discussion pages, and with edit summaries, remember to explain jargon in encyclopedic articles, and write them in language which is readily understandable without specific knowledge of the Wikipedia project.
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This is a glossary of terms commonly used on Wikipedia. For more help, see Wikipedia:Help, Wikipedia:FAQ, and Wikipedia:Contributing FAQ. For abbreviations often used in edit summaries, see Wikipedia:Edit summary legend. For common shorthands used in AfD (Articles for Deletion), see the Wikipedia:Guide to deletion. For a list of common abbreviations used within Wikipedia see Alphabet soup. For common abbreviations and slang phrases outside Wikipedia, see List of Internet slang phrases. See also Wikipedia:Manual of Style (abbreviations) and Wikipedia:WikiProject Glossaries.
Contents
!$@ 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z See also
!$@
– en:, de:, ja:, etc.
The English-, German-, Japanese-, etc.-language Wikipedia. Often used in
edit summaries to indicate changes to
interwiki links. For a full list of codes, see
ISO 639. For a full list of Wikipedias, see
m:Complete list of language Wikipedias available.
ø
The character ø is sometimes used in
edit summaries to indicate a
null edit.
!=
"Is not equal to". This usage comes from the
relational operator in such languages as C.
!vote
Read as "not-vote" (the exclamation mark means 'not' in many programming languages). Something that looks like a vote but should not be considered a vote. The term
!vote is somewhat tongue-in-cheek.
See also Wikipedia:Discuss, don't vote.
0–9
1RR
Voluntary or imposed (sometimes by
ArbCom) one-
revert rule.
See also Wikipedia:Revert only when necessary#One-revert rule.
2RR
Voluntary or imposed two-revert rule
3RR
Abbreviation for
three-revert rule
0RR
Voluntary or imposed zero-revert rule.
See also Wikipedia:Revert only when necessary#Zero-revert rule.
A
Abcdise, ABCDise, Abcdize, ABCDize
Term sometimes used in
edit summaries to indicate that the edit was to move list or other items into alphabetical order.
Admin
Short for
Administrator. A user with extra technical privileges for "custodial" work on Wikipedia – specifically, deleting and protecting pages, and blocking abusive users.
See also sysop.
AfC, AFC
The
Wikipedia:Articles for creation page where unregistered contributors can post details of articles they want created. Only relevant while article creation by unregistered users is disabled.
AfD, AFD
The
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion page. The AfD of an article refers to the discussion wherein Wikipedians consider whether an article should be kept or deleted.
See also Wikipedia:Guide to deletion for explanation of some terms used on AfD.
AGF
Abbreviation for "
assume good faith", a guideline whereby one should not assume that an unwanted or disputed edit was done maliciously.
See also Wikipedia:Assume good faith, and Hanlon's razor.
AIV
Abbreviation for "
Administrator intervention against vandalism", a place and procedure for notifying
Wikipedia administrators about chronic vandalism.
See also Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism.
AMA
Abbreviation for "
Association of Members' Advocates", an advocacy scheme by and for Wikipedians. It failed to achieve widespread acceptance and was closed down.
AN
Abbreviation for "
Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard", a discussion location for
Wikipedia administrators
Anchor
An
HTML term for code that lets you link to a specific point in a page, using the "#" character. You can use them to link to a
section of a page, e.g.,
Wikipedia:How to edit a page#Links and URLs.
ANI
Abbreviation for "
Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents", where
Wikipedia administrators discuss issues which may or may not need urgent administrator attention
Anon
Abbreviation for "anonymous user". As a user does not necessarily lose his or her anonimity by registering or logging in, this term should be avoided.
See also IP user.
AOTW, AotW
Abbreviation of
Wikipedia:Article of the week, the former appellation of
Wikipedia:Collaboration of the week.
ArbCom, Arbcom, ARBCOM
Abbreviation for
Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee
Arbitration
The final step in the
dispute resolution process.
See also Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee.
Archive
A
subpage of a
Talk page to which some parts of the discussion are transferred, to reduce the size of the Talk page. Rarely, the term may refer to the
Wikipedia:Historical archive page, for outdated historical material.
See also: Help:Archiving a talk page.
Armwaving
Same as Handwaving.
Article
An encyclopedia entry. All articles are pages, but there are also pages that are not articles, such as this one.
See also Wikipedia:What is an article.
Astroturf
Used only as a verb,
astroturfing refers to attempts at creating the impression of a
grassroots movement by the use of
sock puppets and meat puppets to make an idea, poll, article, or deletion discussion seem to have more support than it actually has; alternately, the practice of making entries on sites such as Wikipedia to make an idea seem to have more support. In effect, a technique for "stacking the deck".
Autoconfirm
A
newly registered user is still subject to some of the same restrictions as anonymous users – for example, inability to move articles or edit semi-protected pages, although some restrictions, such as the restriction on anonymous users creating pages, are lifted. When a user is autoconfirmed, these restrictions end. Currently, a new user must make ten edits and wait four days to be autoconfirmed.
Autofellatio
In the outside world, "Autofellatio" means just what
the article says. On Wikipedia, Autofellatio is connected to several issues, including censorship (by removing a photograph of the act that used to be on there) and vandalism (by inserting said photograph into user pages) and trolling (by igniting flamewars for or against the inclusion of said photograph). Because of this, and the term's otherwise obscurity, Autofellatio has become an internal Wikipedian
meme.
B
WP:BAD
See
BJAODN.
Bad faith nomination
A bad faith nomination is the nomination of a page, or more pages (usually for deletion at
AFD) for disingenuous reasons such as
making a point or
vandalism.
Ban
Banning is the extreme, last resort action by which someone is prevented from editing Wikipedia for a certain length of time, limited or unlimited. Typical reasons for banning include a long history of biased edits (violation of
NPOV), persistent adding of incorrect or doubtful material, refusal to cooperate with others, or extreme incivility and threats. Banned users are not necessarily blocked, however, it is one mechanism to enforce a ban. Any username or IP judged to be the same person can be blocked without any further reason. See also:
Block.
Banner
A banner is a template that is placed across the top of an article's talk page or at the top of a category to indicate specific details relating to the article or category's maintenance. They are often specifically linked to a WikiProject to indicate that the article or category falls within the jurisdiction of that project, but may also be related to article maintenance or protection. "Banner" may also simply mean the administrator who
bans a troublesome editor.
Bar
A
placeholder name. See
Foo
Barnstar
Barnstars are a light-hearted system of awards given to Wikipedian editors by other editors to acknowledge good work or other positive contributions to Wikipedia. They take the form of an image posted to an editor's
talk page, usually in the form of a five-pointed star. There is a wide variety of different types of barnstar, each indicating a different reason for the award having been given.
BASC
The
Ban Appeals Subcommittee, where users can appeal against their ban (or long-term block) after all other appeal processes have failed for them.
Be Bold, be bold, BOLD, WP:BOLD
The exhortation that users should try to improve articles and fix mistakes themselves by editing, rather than complain about them. See
Wikipedia:Be bold in updating pages.
BEANS
Don't stuff beans up your nose
BJAODN
Abbreviation for
Wikipedia:Bad jokes and other deleted nonsense, a now-inactive page. The verb,
BJAODNed, refers to the act of something being posted on the page with that name, and was often used at Wikipedia namespace articles involving heavy user participation, such as the Reference desk or AfD/TfD pages.
Blanking
Removing all content from a page. Newcomers often do this accidentally. On the other hand, if blanking an article is done in bad faith, it is
vandalism. If blanking is done to a vandalized brand-new page, it is maintenance, and the page will be deleted by an
administrator within a few hours if no dispute arises. {{
Delete}} should be added to the blanked page to draw attention to it, rather than just blanking it. Newcomers often mistake blanking for
deletion.
Block
Action by a sysop, removing from a certain IP address or username the ability to edit Wikipedia. Usually done against addresses that have engaged in vandalism or against users who have been banned - see
Wikipedia:Blocking policy. See also:
Ban.
BLP
Abbreviation for
Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons — official Wikipedia policy, whereby articles about living people must be handled with great care.
Blue link, bluelink
A
wikilink to an article that already exists shows up blue (or purple if it has been recently visited by that reader/editor).
See also Sea of blue, red link, Wikipedia:WikiProject Red Link Recovery.
Boilerplate text
A standard message which can be added to an article using a template. For example, {{stub}} is expanded to the following: