[WikiEN-l] Re: HOWTOs/Recipes/Instructions and other imperative content

Mon Feb 23 23:39:54 UTC 2004

That seems like a very convoluted set of sentences; But, whatever the 
wording, many people expressed that they did not agree with such a 
policy. So, please, do not add it to what wikipedia is not, in order to 
ban recipes thereafter. There is no consensus on this, and several 
people expressed the feeling some recipees are perfectly okay to wikipedia.

Typically, rules that are set with no consensus are rules that I do not 
respect :-)

David Friedland a écrit:
> 
> The following seems to be the general idea that people have about how-to 
> type content on Wikipedia. i.e. that it belongs on wikibooks, not 
> wikipedia. I couldn't find anywhere where this was written out as 
> policy, so this is my proposed addition to [[What Wikipedia is not]]:
> 
>  Under what Wikipedia articles are not:
> * Instructions. Wikipedia seeks to be informative, not instructional. 
> Therefore, things like how-tos, recipes, and other types of information 
> that provide instruction on something are not appropriate on Wikipedia. 
> They are appropriate, however, on Wikibooks, and articles that contain 
> only instructional material should be moved to the appropriate area on 
> Wikibooks. It is possible that information about instructions are 
> appropriate on Wikipedia, but it should be presented in the indicative 
> mood, and not the imperative mood that so distinctively marks 
> instructional material.
> 
>  I know the wording is a little weak, but it's my first attempt.
> 
> Since the WikiEN-l is for discussing policy, I thought I'd bring it up here.
> 
> - David