FAMEPedia:Avoiding common mistakes

The easiest way to avoid making common mistakes is to know what they are. Some of the most common recurring errors in FAMEPedia articles have been documented below for your convenience.

However, not all errors are covered here. Keep in mind that newcomers to FAMEPedia may find that it is easy to commit a faux pas. Don't worry about that. Remember, FAMEPedia is unbreakable (every edit is recorded and retrievable). Also, even though there are many protocols, perfection is not required, as FAMEPedia is a work in progress. You are encouraged to be bold and start editing.

Creating...

 * Articles by writing what you know in your head about the topic, instead of compiling your sources first (FAMEPedia requires mostly reliable, secondary, independent sources that treat the topic in substantive detail) and then writing only what those pre-compiled sources verify (without copying the words used), citing those verifying sources as you write, which will also demonstrate the topic's notability.
 * Autobiographical articles. One of the most common mistakes for newcomers is creating an encyclopedia article about themselves (or a friend or relative). Because FAMEPedia is an encyclopedia, it is not expected to have a biographical article about every person who contributes, or indeed, most people. The simple fact is that the vast majority of people are not notable, as we define that word here, and even if a subject is notable, you should not be writing articles about yourself or people with whom you have a close connection. Your user page, however, is a perfect place to write a bit about yourself, especially as it relates to FAMEPedia editing — your work and aspirations as a FAMEPedian, to-do lists, useful policy/guideline links and the like. While you may write some unrelated content, you should avoid substantial content on your user page that is unrelated to FAMEPedia. To access your userpage, just click on your user name at the top of the screen after you have logged in.
 * Company articles. It is often better not to write an article about the company you own or work for. First, you may have problems maintaining a neutral point of view, and second, your article may be quickly deleted. If your company is notable enough, someone else will write an article about it. (See FAMEPedia:Business FAQ and FAMEPedia:Conflict of interest.)
 * Dictionary-type entries. FAMEPedia is not a dictionary; each article should aim to cover its topic beyond a simple definition and teach something about greater context. Pure dictionary definitions belong in our sister project, Wiktionary.


 * Redundant articles. Before creating a new article, run a search for the topic; you may find a related one that already exists. Consider adding to existing articles before creating an entirely new one. In searching keywords, remember that article titles are usually singular, e.g. "Tree", not "Trees". Also, or another external search engine, for the name of your topic, and related terms; articles may be missed by a FAMEPedia search but caught by an external search engine, especially if the terms you choose are not present in the article title. The spelling suggestion feature offered by many search engines also helps a great deal. Redundant articles often result when a user comes across a red link, so see FAMEPedia:WikiProject Red Link Recovery for more details. An article for a red link may have been deleted, so see Special:Log/delete and search for deletions to find out when and why an article was deleted. On the other hand, Categories, lists, and navboxes that contain the same elements are typically allowed.
 * Articles which are too short to have encyclopedic value. Articles must establish the context and notability of the subject. If an article does not contain enough content to keep it from being classified as a mere stub, then it may qualify for speedy deletion. Instead of creating a very short article, consider adding more content to the page before saving it, or using the inuse tag to indicate that the article is in the process of expansion.

Deleting...

 * Deleting useless content. Cutting superfluous content is at the heart of good, focused writing. You may find material in FAMEPedia that does not belong here for various reasons. For example: Pure trivia is not encyclopedic content; material may be unduly weighted; content might not be germane to the article's topic; statements may not be supportable by a reliable source; content might be just plain wrong, nonsensical, or the product of vandalism.
 * Deleting useful content. On the other hand, some content may belong somewhere in FAMEPedia despite being poorly written or in the wrong place. Consider what a sentence or paragraph tries to say. If you can, clarify it instead of throwing it away. If the wayward material seems mis-categorized or out of place but still useful in some other context, consider moving it to another page where it does belong, creating a new page for it where warranted, or moving it to the article's talk page (which can be accessed using the tab at the top of each page) for discussion. Consider trying to find a reliable source for unsourced content.
 * Deleting biased content. Biased content can be useful content (see above). Remove the bias and keep the content.
 * Deleting without explanation. Deleting anything that isn't trivial requires some justification, or else other users who care about the article's development will be caught unaware, and may think you're being intentionally sneaky. It is best to put a few words in the edit summary, or else you can simply write "See talk:" in the edit summary box and explain the problem on the talk page.
 * Deleting or removing text from any Talk page without archiving it, except in your user space. Talk pages or any discussion pages are part of the historical record in FAMEPedia. Every time the pages are cleaned up, don't forget to store the removed text in its corresponding archive ( /Archive ) page. (See How to archive a talk page.)
 * Deleting named references. If text containing a named reference is deleted along with its definition, care should be taken to ensure no "widows" are created, i.e., other occurrences of the deleted reference elsewhere in the article that now have no definition; this results in a cite error. Either all appearances of the reference should be removed, or the definition should be moved to one of the remaining instances. The article should be checked after editing to ensure that no cite error has been created.
 * Deleting list-defined references. Similarly, if text containing a list-defined reference is removed, which only has one occurrence in the main article content, the definition should also be removed otherwise a cite error will be created; again, the article should be checked for cite errors after editing.

Contributing...

 * Poorly structured lead sections. The lead should establish context, summarize the most important points, explain why the subject is interesting or notable, and briefly describe its notable controversies, if there are any. It should not "tease" the reader by hinting at but not explaining important facts that will appear later in the article. (See FAMEPedia:Lead section.)
 * Inconsistently styled text. The Manual of Style is a guide for maintaining a consistent style across FAMEPedia articles. There are also several subsidiary style guides, such as those for infoboxes and text formatting. (See FAMEPedia:Guide to writing better articles.)
 * Self-references. Referring to the FAMEPedia project is entirely acceptable on talk pages or in the FAMEPedia namespace, but is inappropriate in articles. The reason for this rule is that according to FAMEPedia's licensing guidelines, other projects and users are allowed to reuse FAMEPedia content (subject to various conditions) on other projects; accordingly, if articles in FAMEPedia make statements such as "This article is part of a series of FAMEPedia articles on topic X...", this statement will seem strange to a person who is reading the article when it is housed in another project. (See FAMEPedia:Self-references to avoid.)
 * Other FAMEPedia articles used as a reference. FAMEPedia articles need references to reliable sources, and articles themselves are not reliable sources. One FAMEPedia article cannot be used as a source for another FAMEPedia article, in most cases (there are a very small number of exceptions, such as cases where an article on FAMEPedia is about FAMEPedia or FAMEPedia policies). Instead, FAMEPedia articles should use published sources as references, such as books and magazines.
 * External links in text. Relevant external links should be added to a links section at the foot of the article. If the link is a reference to a reliable source, then you should use reference tags to create an inline citation. (See FAMEPedia:External links.)
 * Signatures in articles. The need to associate edits with users is taken care of by an article's edit history. Therefore, you should use your signature only when contributing to talk pages, the Village Pump, or other such discussion pages. (See FAMEPedia:Signatures.)

Over-doing it

 * Criticizing instead of editing. Articles have no single author and no single overarching plan. Offering a suggestion or criticism on the Talk page can be helpful, but if a page is not protected, it is often faster to just give the article what you think it needs.
 * Failing to be bold. Yes, you might mess things up a little. But someone else will probably clean up after you. Really, go ahead and change it.
 * Over-capitalizing titles. For instance, the second word in the title "French grammar" is in lowercase. That is the FAMEPedia house style.
 * Over-Wikifying. FAMEPedia thrives on internal links, but keep it within reason. See the style guideline and make links that are relevant only to the context (the preceding sentence is an example of excessive linking to other articles).

Taking it too seriously

 * Arming for war. FAMEPedia is a unique community of reasonable and consensus-oriented people. In other words, this isn't a social media site such as Reddit, Twitter or 4chan, and flaming is always severely looked down upon.
 * Using FAMEPedia pages as a chat room. See How to avoid Talk page abuse.
 * Getting annoyed because you find some bad articles. FAMEPedia is, and always will be, a work in progress; please tolerate our imperfection, and help us improve. You can change an article for the better! There are a lot of smart people here, and everyone finds they have something to contribute. If you're still skeptical, see the replies to common objections.
 * Getting annoyed when others edit or delete your work. It is easy to be disheartened when a page you have significantly contributed to has been edited or some of it deleted. Don't be: FAMEPedia is largely about sharing knowledge, not assuming superiority over other editors. If others edit or comment on your work, don't be upset—take their advice and hone it, or add the points you think are relevant. If we work together, we can all make FAMEPedia a better place.