Template:Guideline
 | This page documents an English Wikipedia guideline. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page. |
 | Template usage notes
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This template is for formal Wikipedia guidelines that can be classified more specifically by topic. For the rare case of a guideline that does not suit any of these categorizations, you can use {{Guideline}}.
Usage
{{Guideline|section=|guideline category|category sort key|shortcut|...|shortcut5}}
Template parameters
- For guideline category, use one of the following:
- behavioral guideline
- content guideline
- deletion guideline
- editing guideline
- naming convention
- notability guideline
style guideline– use {{MoS guideline}} instead
- For category sort key such as notability or naming conventions guidelines, use what is in the parenthetical disambiguator, and capitalise it. For example:
- Wikipedia:Notability (web): category sort key = Web
- Wikipedia:Naming conventions (people): category sort key; = People
- For the optional shortcut, use an established shortcut; it is not necessary to wrap it in
[[...]]. For example: WP:FOO- For the next optional shortcut, use another established shortcut. You can use up to five shortcuts in total, each as a separate parameter.
- The parameter
|section=ycan be used to tweak the wording to refer to a section instead of the whole page. This is only used when an guideline of a particular sort (e.g. a naming convention) is a section in a larger combined guideline, as at WP:Stand-alone lists; it is not to be used for each section in guideline page that is all of the same category. The template with or without this parameter should not be used on wikiproject advice pages; they are essays not guidelines.
New or greatly modified guidelines require community approval
If you or a wikiproject have drafted a new guideline or substantially revised one, the Wikipedia community must have significant time to consider the proposal and arrive at a consensus about it. See the WP:PROPOSAL policy for the current best practices on neutrally soliciting input on a proposal from as wide a selection of the community as is practical.
This is usually done with a request for comment (RfC) at the proposal's talk page, and advertised at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals) (WP:VPPRO), or the RfC may be hosted at VPPRO itself. Give notice at the talk pages of other relevant parts of Wikipedia, such as those of closely related existing policies and guidelines, as well as wikiprojects likely to have a stake in the outcome. If the proposal is not highly topical and may affect the encyclopedia as a whole, or may be controversial, using WP:Centralized discussion may also be advised.
For more suggestions and background on how to go from a proposal to a Wikipedia guideline, see Category:Wikipedia proposals and Wikipedia:How to contribute to Wikipedia guidance.
See also
- {{MoS-guideline}} – for the style guidelines that are actually part of the Manual of Style (few if any are not)
- {{Supplement}} – for a special kind of Wikipedia essay that is a consensus-accepted supplement to a guideline
- {{Proposed}} – to solicit comments from the wider community before declaring a page to be a guideline; please also notify Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)
- {{Rfc | policy}} – to solicit comments from the community about a proposed guideline, major changes to an existing guideline, or removing guideline status; please also notify Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)
- {{Rfc | style}} – to solicit comments from the community about a proposed style guideline, major changes to an existing style guideline, or removing guideline status; please also notify Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)
- For other Wikipedia header templates (for policies, essays, wikiprojects, etc.), see Template messages/Project namespace.