User:Grutness/WP Stub rewrite (draft)

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This page is considered a guideline on Wikipedia. It is generally accepted among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow. However, it is not set in stone and should be treated with common sense and the occasional exception. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

Shortcut: WP:STUB

Information
WikiProject Stub sorting v • d • e
Project page	talk
`-` Stub types (sections)	talk
`-` Stub types (full list)	talk
`-` List of stub redirects	talk
`-` Naming guidelines
`-` To do	talk
Wikipedia:Stub	talk
Discussion
Criteria (A)	talk
Proposals (A)	talk
Discoveries (A)	talk
Deletion (Log)	talk
Category

The objective of this article is to provide a general guide for dealing with stubs. The first section, Basic information, contains information that is recommended for most users. The second half, Additional information contains more specialized material.

[edit] Page summary

1 Page summary
2 Basic information
3 Creating stub types
- 3.1 New stub templates
- 3.2 New stub categories
4 See also

Stubs are articles too short to provide more than rudimentary information about a subject. (More information here)
Anyone can start or expand a stub article. (More information here)
To categorise a stub, place a specific stub template (e.g., {{artist-stub}}) at the end of the article after the category tags. A full list of these templates can be found at Wikipedia: WikiProject Stub sorting/Stub types. (More information here)
If an article has grown beyond stub length, feel free to remove the stub template. (More information here)
If you wish to create a new stub type, feel free to propose it at Wikipedia: WikiProject Stub sorting/Proposals. (More information here)

[edit] Basic information

A stub may be defined as an article too short to provide encyclopedic coverage of the subject, but not so short as to provide no useful information. Stubs usually contain only a few sentences of text, though complicated topics with longer articles may still be stubs.

A stub may also be defined as an article so incomplete that an editor with only rudimentary knowledge of the topic could improve its content after a superficial search online or in a reference library. An article that can be improved by only a more specialized editor, or after significant research, is unlikely to be a stub.

Sizable articles are generally not considered stubs even if they lack wikification or copy editing. The normal procedure is for a cleanup template to be added to these articles instead of a stub template.

Note that small articles with little information may end up being nominated for deletion or be merged into another relevant article.

While a "definition" may be enough to qualify as a stub, Wikipedia is not a dictionary, and if little information beyond a definition is ever likely to be included the entry should go to our sister project, Wiktionary. Such an article may be better served by being moved to Wiktionary rather than being marked as a stub. The distinction between dictionary and encyclopedia articles is best expressed by the use-mention distinction: A dictionary article is about a word or phrase whereas an encyclopedia article is about the subject denoted by that word or phrase. Rather than copying such an article to Wiktionary yourself, you may add {{Copy to Wiktionary}} to it. Do not mark stub encyclopedia articles for copying to Wiktionary - Wiktionary is not an encyclopedia.

[edit] Ideal stub article

See also: Wikipedia:Guide to writing better articles.

Any registered editor may write a stub article.

When you write a stub, bear in mind that it should ideally contain enough information to give a basis for other editors to expand upon. The key is to provide adequate context - having little or no context is a criterion under which articles may be speedily deleted. Your initial research may be done either through books or through a reliable search engine. You may also contribute with knowledge you have acquired from other sources, but it is useful to conduct some research beforehand, in order to make sure that your facts are accurate and written from a neutral point of view. Use your own words - directly copying other sources is a violation of copyright.

Begin by defining or describing your topic. Avoid fallacies of definition. Write clearly and informatively. State, for example, what a person is famous for, where a place is located and what it is known for, or the basic details of an event and when it happened.

Next, try to expand this basic definition. The research methods mentioned above will often give you more information which you can use to extend the article. You should internally link relevant words, so that users unfamiliar with the specifics of a subject can understand what is written on the article. Avoid linking words needlessly - consider which words in the article may require further definition for a casual reader to understand what you have written.

Once you have saved the article, you may edit it further if you so wish. Other editors may also further edit the article to develop it further - anyone can add to a stub article.

[edit] Categorizing stubs

After writing or finding the short article, the editor should insert a stub template. Because the stub identification is rendered on an article page prior to hard coded items like categories and inter-Wiki language links, the template is usually placed at the end of the article, after the External links section and any navigation templates, and after the category tags, so that the stub category will appear last. Stub templates are usually placed before any inter-Wiki links.

Stub templates have two distinct parts: a short message documenting the stub's topic and encouraging editors to expand it, and a category link, which places the article in a stub category, together with other stubs on the same topic. Stub categories are transcluded, not substituted - that is, the templates are placed directly by adding their name between pairs of curly brackets (e.g., {{artist-stub}}). With stub categories, editors can look for articles on specific subjects with which they are familiar.

In general, the naming for stub templates is topic-stub; for a complete list of these templates, refer to Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Stub types. You need not learn all the stub templates - even simply adding {{stub}} is a help. The more accurate a stub you can place on an article, however, the less work it will be for other editors later. If an article overlaps several stub categories, more than one stub template may be used, but it is strongly recommended that only those relating to the subject's main notability be used and a limit of only three or four stub templates is advised. In cases such as biographies, it is also desirable to indicate the subject's nationality. This may be in the form of an additional template, such as {{Egypt-bio-stub}}, or as a refinement of another template, for example {{US-artist-stub}}.

Stub-related activities are centralized at Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting (shortcut WP:WSS). This project should be your main reference when it comes to stubs, and is the site where new stub types should be proposed for discussion prior to creation.

[edit] Removing stub status

Once a stub has been properly expanded and becomes a larger article, any editor may remove the stub tag from it. No administrator action or formal permission is needed. Many articles still labeled as stubs have been expanded beyond what is regarded as stub size. Be bold in removing stub tags that are clearly no longer applicable.

[edit] Locating stubs

Category: Stub categories the main list of stub categories and of articles contained within them
Category: Stubs deprecated, but still receives a few articles periodically
User:Triddle/stubsensor a script which detects long articles with the stub tag attached to them and is used to organize periodic cleanup projects
Wikipedia: Most wanted stubs
Special:Shortpages

[edit] Creating stub types

Do NOT create new stub types before discussing them at Wikipedia: WikiProject Stub sorting/Proposals.

In general, a stub type consists of a stub template and a dedicated stub category, although "upmerged" templates are also occasionally created which feed into more general stub categories.

If you identify a group of stubs that do not fit an existing stub type, or if an existing stub category is growing very large, you can propose the creation of a new stub type which is debated at Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Proposals.

Several guidelines are used to decide whether a new stub type is useful. These include the following:

Is there a stub for this topic already? (Check Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Stub types).
Will the new type be well-defined? (Stub categories are a tool used by editors to expand articles. Good topic definition makes stubs easier to sort accurately).
Does the new stub type cover ground not covered by other type, or create a well-defined subtype that does?
Will there be a significant number of existing stubs in this category? (Ideally, a newly-created stub type has 100-300 articles. In general, any new stub category should have a minimum of 60 articles. This threshold is modified in the case of the main stub category used by a WikiProject).
Would your new stub type overlap with other stub types? (Stub types form a hierarchy and as such are usually split in specific ways. Compare other stub splits at Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Stub types).
If you are breaking a subcategory out of an existing category, will the new stub reduce the size of the parent category by a significant amount? (This is not an absolute necessity, but is often a catalyst for the creation of stub categories).

If you think you have satisfied these guidelines, it is highly recommended that you propose the new stub type at stub type proposals page. This allows for debate on matters relating to the stub type that may not have occurred to the proposer, and also allows for objections if the split does not satisfy stub guidelines. If there are no objections within five days, you may create the new stub type.

[edit] New stub templates

Once the creation of a new stub type has been discussed at Wikipedia: WikiProject Stub sorting/Proposals and agreed upon, a template can be created. The name of this should follow the stub type naming conventions, and will usually be decided during the discussion process.

All stub templates should link to a stub category. This may be a category specific to the topic of the template, or the template might be "upmerged" to one or more less specific categories (for example, a template for Andorran history might link to a stub category for European history and a general Andorran stub category).

It is possible to automate the procedure of creating new stub templates by using the following syntax:

{{subst:Metastub|article=A|category=B}}

This produces a message saying "This A-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it" and will put stubs in category named "B stubs". The terms "A" and "B" should be changed to words or phrases appropriate to the new stub type.

Adding a small image to the stub template (the "stub icon") is discouraged because it increases the strain on the Wikipedia servers but may be used by replacing {{Metastub}} in the above coding with {{MetaPicstub}}. The image must be either in the public domain or have a free license - fair use images must not be used in templates.

[edit] New stub categories

The name of the stub category should also have been decided during the proposal process and will also follow the naming guidelines.

The text of a stub category should contain a definition of what type of stubs are contained in it and an indication of what template is used to add stubs to it. The {{WPSS-cat}} template should also be placed on the category, to indicate that it has been created after debate at Wikipedia: WikiProject Stub sorting/Proposals. The new stub category should also be added to the Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Stub types list.

The new stub category should be correctly added into other categories. These should include at least three specific categories:

The analogous permanent category ("permcat")
At least one higher level ("parent") stub category
Category:Stub categories

Thus, for example, Category:France stubs, should be in an equivalent permcat (Category: France), parent stub category (Category:Europe stubs), and Category:Stub categories.

The creation of stub categories can be partially automated by using {{Stub category}} as follows:

{{Stub Category|article=[[A]]|newstub=B|category=C}}

A: Insert the description of the category here.

B: Insert the name of the new stub template here.

C: Insert the name of an appropriate parent non-stub category.

In the example given above, the formatting would look like this:

{{Stub Category|article=[[France]]|newstub=France-stub|category=France}}

This syntax also automatically adds the new category to Category:Stub categories, though parent stub categories and {{WPSS-cat}} still need to be added manually.

If you have some doubts or comments regarding any part of the process, do not hesitate to address them at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Stub sorting.