Wikipedia:Principles

The English Wikipedia does not have a single, definitive statement of the community's values and principles. Over the years, several editors have written summaries of these values and principles as well as essays expressing their ideas about what is important. Here's a list of some of these popular pages:

• Wikipedia:Five pillars: Perhaps the most popular, this was written as a simple summary for new editors.
• User:Jimbo Wales/Statement of principles: One of the oldest, this statement of principles was written by a founder.
• Wikipedia:Trifecta: This three-point simplified ruleset was the precursor to the Five Pillars page.
• Wikipedia:Core content policies: Brief summary and a bit of background on our core content policies.
• Wikipedia:Wikipedia is an encyclopedia: Blunt and to the point laying out of what Wikipedia is
• Wikipedia:Wikipedia in brief: Focuses on the encyclopedic nature of the project.
• Wikipedia:Simplified ruleset: A longer page with more detail.
• Wikipedia:Ethics: A list of various ethical codes
• Wikipedia:Ethical Code for Wikipedians
• Wikipedia:Purpose: Wikipedia's purpose
• User:Andrewa/creed: What Wikipedians believe
• Wikipedia:Pledges: Specific principles individual Wikipedians pledge to uphold
• Wikipedia:Product, process, policy: The three Ps
• Wikipedia:Here to build an encyclopedia: Behaviors that build, or destroy, the project.
• Wikipedia:8 simple rules for editing our encyclopedia
• Wikipedia:Ten Simple Rules for Editing Wikipedia
• Wikipedia:Historical archive/Rules to consider

All of these pages are intended to be informative and helpful to editors. None of these pages themselves are official policies or guidelines of the English Wikipedia community (see WP: local consensus for details).

See also

• Wikipedia:Administration, about the human administrative structure, as well as its non-human components.
• Wikipedia:Expectations and norms of the Wikipedia community, supplement
• Wikipedia:Editorial oversight and control, summary of various processes and structures
• Wikipedia:Introduction / Wikipedia:About, introductory pages
• Wikipedia:History of Wikipedian processes and people, historical
• Wikipedia:Governance, directory of links related to Wikipedia governance
• Wikipedia:IPs are human too, an essay
• Wikipedia:The rules are principles, an essay
• Wikipedia:Reasonability Rule, an essay
• Wikipedia:Wikiness, an essay
• Wikipedia:Why Wikipedia is so great, an essay
• Wikipedia:Five pillars of evil, a humorous essay

Further reading (external links)

External video

Jimmy Wales: The birth of Wikipedia, 2005 TED (conference), 20 mins.

• Mission statement - The Wikimedia Foundation
• Wikimedia values - The six values of the Wikimedia Foundation
• In a nutshell, what is Wikipedia? And what is the Wikimedia Foundation? - The Wikimedia Foundation
• Wikimedia founding principles - Principles generally supported by all of the Wikimedia communities
• Wikimedia Ethics - Principles of ethics in-regards to online media