Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and its mission is to collect and share the knowledge of humanity. The best Wikipedia articles are written in clear language and thoroughly cover a subject. Under the hood, however, the site's editors use a tremendous amount of jargon when discussing changes, debating article merits, and monitoring behavior in the community. Business writers in particular, many of whom violate Wikipedia's policies within minutes of their very first edit, can find themselves steeped in Wikipedian jargon deep enough to drown the strongest of net surfers.
Abbreviations About Policies and Guidelines
Much of the jargon encountered relates to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, and helpful editors will link to the relevant page to make that meaning clearer. Policies are the rules which should almost always be followed, while guidelines are less strict – they should mostly be followed. For the novice editor, this may mean that a discussion is interrupted by the need to read an entirely new page simply to understand a single term that has been used – and this may occur several times in a single paragraph.
Some of the more common abbreviations for policies and guidelines are listed below with explanations. Wikipedia makes it easy to change the visible text in a link, but most often a policy or guideline is referenced by its shortcut, which is an ALL CAPS abbreviation of the name of the policy or guideline page. They may or may not be preceded by the abbreviation “WP:” to indicate that the page linked is an administrative article, not an encyclopedia article. Any of these may be searched directly on Wikipedia for more information.
- NPOV: neutral point of view, the principle of accurately accounting for disagreements on a subject by acknowledging what different sources claim to be the truth.
- RS: reliable sources, those sources which are unconnected to the subject and have a process of editorial review and fact-checking.
- OR: original research, information that is presented in Wikipedia first instead of being found in a reliable source.
- V: verifiability of a source; the ability to confirm that what it says is accurate.
- IAR: ignore all rules, a very confusing concept for novice editors. If common sense dictates that the rules make no sense in a specific case, an editor may invoke this concept.
- COI: conflict of interest, a common failing of business writers on Wikipedia. No editor should work on an article if he or she is too close to the subject to write from a neutral point of view.
- NOT: what Wikipedia is not, an essay which lists the various types of information which are not acceptable.
- AfD: Articles for Deletion, the process by which editors debate the merits of an article and decide if it should be kept on the site or not. A tremendous amount of Wikipedia jargon is used in this area.
- CSD: criteria for speedy deletion. Some articles are unambiguously inappropriate according to Wikipedia's standards, such as sheer nonsense, pages attacking individuals, and blatant hoaxes.
Other Wikipedia Jargon
Some terms used by editors and administrators on the site are simply shorthand for the internal workings of the site.
- dab: disambiguation page, a page which lists similar terms and includes links to the appropriate page. For example, searching for “B2B” yields a page that directs users to consider reading up on business-to-business, the practice of disc jockeys playing songs back-to-back, and several other concepts.
- diff: a difference between two versions of a Wikipedia page. Every change on Wikipedia is kept, and reviewing a diff allows an editor to quickly see what was modified in a specific edit.
The search bar can always be used to find more information about a specific term, and most editors are willing to explain in clearer language what the jargon they are using means if asked politely.
Further Reading on Wikipedia
When an Article is Deleted from Wikipedia – explains how to obtain the text and improve the article for possible reintroduction
Verifying Business Information on Wikipedia – how to ensure that inaccuracies about a company aren't included in its entry
Neutrality in Wikipedia for Business Writers – details the neutrality policy and offers suggestions for working within its scope
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