Wikipedia:Simplified ruleset
Wikipedia could be around for centuries. Anything you do here remains a visible part of Wikipedia, as every edit there has ever been of every article that was ever created is available for future. But don't worry! While editing, keep in mind the following things, and there's very little that can go wrong.
As well as articles, Wikipedia has spawned its own rules, procedures and culture, and that evolves too. Whilst there are rules and procedures covering everything from serious right down to fun, very few are really important, and those few are mostly commonsense about respecting how Wikipedia works and what it tries to do.
If you follow just these behaviours alone you will likely be treated with kindness and respect. As you gain experience, you might learn of additional style guides, handy ways to do things etc. But don't worry too much if you don't understand at first. Someone will clean up after you, and you'll learn more of the subtleties as time goes on, how to be a great encyclopedist!
So besides a few non-negotiable principles, this is not a strict set of rules, but rather a set of guidelines which you can choose to follow. You might see people do things that are plainly not in accordance with these guidelines, but which may or may not still be well within the actual Wikipedia policies. The be graceful guideline applies in those situations... :-)
Ruleset
Really really important rules
These are the rules that, if you follow them, you'll be respecting the main things needed to edit and build a reputation here. Everything here is basically non-negotiable, and editors are expected to grasp and respect them after being around a while.
- Verifiability. Articles should contain only material that has been published by reputable sources. Editors adding new information into an article should cite a reputable source for that information, otherwise it may be removed by any editor. The obligation to provide a reputable source is on editors wishing to include information, not on those seeking to remove it.
- Neutral point of view (NPOV). Write from a neutral point of view. This is a non-negotiable and fundamental principle of Wikipedia, which allows us to make a fair representation of the world around us. Even if material is verifiable, it is still important to put it into a balanced and representative form so that it conveys a fair impression of the views of the many significant viewpoints on a subject.
- Respect copyright. Wikipedia uses the GNU Free Documentation License. Everything you contribute must be compatible with that license.
- No personal attacks. Don't write that user such and so is an idiot, or insult him/her (even if (s)he is an idiot). Instead, explain what they did wrong, why it is wrong, and how to fix it. If possible, fix it yourself (but see good faith below).
Absolutely all other rules
These are absolutely everything else, from advice to procedures to trivia. Everything here you can get away with bending or ignoring, often to quite an extent. :-)
- BE BOLD! in updating pages. Go ahead, it's a wiki!
Encourage others, including those who disagree with you, likewise to BE BOLD! - Be civil to other users at all times.
- Ignore all rules. If the rules discourage you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia's quality, ignore them.
- When in doubt, take it to the talk page. We have all the time in the world. Mutual respect is the guiding behavioural principle of Wikipedia and, although everyone knows that their writing may be edited mercilessly, it is easier to accept changes if the reasons for them are understood. If you discuss changes on the article's talk (or discussion) page before you make them, you should reach consensus faster and happier.
- Decent edit summaries and clear and transparent explanations are universally appreciated. Other editors need to understand your process, and it also helps you yourself to understand what you did after a long leave of absence from an article. Please state what you changed and why. If the explanation is too long, elucidate on the discussion page. It is a fundamental principle of Wikipedia that anyone may edit articles without registering, so there are a lot of changes to watch; edit summaries simplify this.
- Assume good faith; in other words, try to consider the person on the other end of the discussion is a thinking, rational being who is trying to positively contribute to Wikipedia — unless, and only unless, you have firm, solid, and objective proof to the contrary. Merely disagreeing with you is no such proof.
- Particularly, don't revert good faith edits. Reverting is a little too powerful sometimes, hence the three-revert rule. Don't succumb to the temptation, unless you're reverting very obvious vandalism (like "LALALALAL*&*@#@THIS_SUX0RZ", or someone changing "6+5*2=16" to "6+5*2=17"). If you really can't stand something, revert once, with an edit summary something like "(rv) I disagree strongly, I'll explain why in talk." and immediately take it to talk.
- Be graceful: Be liberal in what you accept, be conservative in what you do. Try to accommodate other people's quirks the best you can, but try to be as polite, solid and straightforward as possible yourself.
- No original research, please. (When referencing one source heavily, put everything into your own words.) See What Wikipedia is not.
- Signing. Sign on talk pages (using ~~~~ which gets replaced by your username and timestamp when you hit submit), but don't sign on mainspace articles.
- Use the preview button; it prevents edit conflicts.
- Foundation issues: There are only 5 actual rules on Wikipedia: NPOV, a free license, the wiki process, the ability of anyone to edit, and the ultimate authority of Jimbo and the board on process matters. If you disagree strongly with them, you may want to consider whether Wikipedia is the right place for you at all. While anything can theoretically be changed on a wiki, the community up to this point has been built on these principles and is highly unlikely to move away from them in the future. A lot of thought has been put into them and they've worked for us so far; do give them a fair shake before attempting to radically change them or leaving the project.
- Minor postscript: The above mainly focuses on practice, rather than actual content; for content discussions, see List of bad article ideas for a discussion of article ideas that show up (and get deleted) frequently on articles for deletion, Wikipedia's method of removing articles that don't constitute vandalism in and of themselves.