History Website / Wikipedia

Wikipedia was started in 2001 by Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales. In addition to popularizing wikis with Wikipedia, he also started the website Wikicities (later Wikia, and currently Fandom), which is where you'll find most wikis that aren't Wikipedia. Since Wikipedia is one of the most popular websites ever, it gets thrown around in the media sometimes; see WikiTropes. (SmallReferencePools is in full force here.)

Here at Website/TVTropes, we only care about how things apply to fiction. ''Don't'' just tell us the facts; tell us the memes, tell us the archetypes, tell us the catchy ideas and symbolic roles that get planted in people's heads. Got the kernel of an idea bouncing about your head? Throw it down here and see what grows. If we're lucky, our {{neologism}} for it will catch on.

[-[[caption-width-right:260:[[ThatsNoMoon Our memory banks can't repel information of that magnitude!]]]]-]

Wikipedia was started in 2001 by Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales. In addition to popularizing wikis in general with Wikipedia, he also started the website Wikia (nowadays known as Fandom), the king of wikis. Since Wikipedia is one of the most popular websites ever, it gets thrown around in the media sometimes; see WikiTropes. (SmallReferencePools is in full force here.)

Wikipedia was started in 2001 by Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales. In addition to popularizing wikis in general with Wikipedia, he also started the website Wikia (nowadays known as Fandom), the king of TheWikiRule. Since Wikipedia is one of the most popular websites ever, it gets thrown around in the media sometimes; see WikiTropes. (SmallReferencePools is in full force here.)

Wikipedia was started in 2001 by Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales. In addition to popularizing Wikis in general with Wikipedia, he also started the website Wikia (nowadays known as Fandom), the king of TheWikiRule. Since Wikipedia is one of the most popular websites ever, it gets thrown around in the media sometimes; see WikiTropes. (SmallReferencePools is in full force here.)

If you have trouble hopping between the markup on Wikipedia and the markup here, then you're a [[JustForFun/WikipediaBehavior Wikipedia Syntaxer]]!

Here at Wiki/TVTropes, we only care about how things apply to fiction. ''Don't'' just tell us the facts; tell us the memes, tell us the archetypes, tell us the catchy ideas and symbolic roles that get planted in people's heads. Got the kernel of an idea bouncing about your head? Throw it down here and see what grows. If we're lucky, our {{neologism}} for it will catch on.

%%Troping Wikipedia's userbase is all fun and games, but in order to do that, you first need to cite something that either exemplifies or gives us further reading on what you're talking about, otherwise, your entry will be considered Troper Tales and commented out until someone drops by and leaves a citation. Zero-Context examples will also not be tolerated.

----
!!"[=Tropepedia=]":

* AbridgedForChildren: The [[https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Simple English Wikipedia]] has shorter articles with simpler language for children, people with learning and cognitive disabilities, and people learning English as a second language... or just people who want something quicker and simpler to read.
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: The reason for the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Deleted_articles_with_freaky_titles "Deleted articles with freaky titles" page]]:
-->''The Strange titles are rarely added to Wikipedia under the guise of real encyclopedia articles. Occasionally, Wikipedians lose their minds (especially on April Fools' Day) and if their posts are good they wind up here. Silliness can come in the form of creativity, insanity, or just boredom. As with other "silly things", often it seems a shame to delete the best of this humor which has been submitted to us.''
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipe-tan Wikipe-tan]], specifically MoeAnthropomorphism.
* AprilFoolsDay: Since the very beginning, April Fools' pranks have run rampant on Wikipedia, even by established editors. See a list of them [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:APRIL here]]:
** To put a long story short, basically their rules for vandalism get thrown out the window for one day, usually resulting in stuff [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Deleted_articles_with_freaky_titles like this]].
** This is subverted on the main page, but in a fun way: the topics discussed on the front page are lighthearted and absurd but are also actual articles.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: At one point in 2014, the five most contested articles in English were "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush George W. Bush]]", "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism Anarchism]]", "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad Muhammad]]", [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming Global warming]]" and ''"[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WWE_personnel List of WWE personnel]]"''.
* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: In 2020, it was discovered that the Scots Wikipedia had silently been undermined for years by an editor who meant well but unfortunately didn't know what the hell he was doing. User [=AmaryllisGardener=], a self-described teenage "Christian, a North Carolinian, a furry, and an [[UsefulNotes/MyersBriggs INTP]]", had contributed [[https://www.businessinsider.com/scots-wikipedia-page-american-scottish-accent-2020-8 the vast majority of the site's articles]]. His ''modus operandi'' was to write articles in English, [[https://slate.com/technology/2020/09/scots-wikipedia-language-american-teenager.html finger through a Scots language dictionary and replace choice words with the first one he could find that was a match, regardless of context or current usage]]. The damage that was done to the Scots Wikipedia by [=AmaryllisGardener=] over the course of seven years is nothing short of disastrous, to the point he was accused of committing "cultural vandalism". As a result, the very existence of the site was brought into question, as some felt it better to simply tear the Scots Wikipedia down and start again. Fortunately, it survived and is subject to an ongoing cleanup effort.
* BerserkButton: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Don%27t_abbreviate_Wikipedia_as_Wiki Many editors feel physical pain when hearing others refer to Wikipedia as "Wiki".]]
* BleachedUnderpants: The seed funding for Nupedia, which became the Wikipedia project, was initially funded by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomis Bomis]], which was a [[SexSells male-oriented]] [[JustForFun/XMeetsY search engine]].
* BreadEggsBreadedEggs: Many of the categories can become this. For instance, there are "American singers", "American female singers", "American country singers", and "American female country singers".
* BreakingTheFourthWall: The article about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pringles Pringles potato chips]] actually discusses itself at one point, in explaining how the name of the Pringles mascot, Julius Pringles, originated as a joke edit inserted into the Pringles article that [[FakeRealTurn gradually came to be accepted as real]], ultimately leading to the brand's current owner Kellogg's actually trademarking the name.
* CaptainObvious: Wikipedia's attempt to be a thorough information source presented in an easy, accessible format while maintaining a dry and formal tone of language sometimes leads to some unintentionally hilarious examples of this.
* CanonDiscontinuity: Users with the "Oversight" ability can remove individual edits and/or edit summaries from pages, most often due to the edit in question containing extremely inappropriate content. If a page has had an edit Oversighted, then general readers and even most admins can't see the content that got Oversighted.
* {{Conlang}}: Wikipedia has nine editions written in constructed languages.[[note]]Esperanto, Ido, Volapük, Interlingua, Kotava, Interlingue, Lingua Franca Nova, Novial, and Lojban.[[/note]] Most notable is the Esperanto edition, which has over 300,000 pages, more than many natural languages that have tens of millions of speakers.
* DeadpanSnarker:
** Although most such examples get deleted sooner or later by a humorless editor, a few instances manage to survive. For example, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plonk_(wine) page]] for "plonk" features a picture of two covered clear plastic cups with straws filled with wine captioned "Wine (a White Zinfandel) in drinkware befitting plonk."
** The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Top_25_Report Top 25 report]], which lists the top 25 most viewed articles in a single week, tends to ignore the neutral point of view tone and usually adds more personality with the occasional snark.
* DigitalPiracyIsEvil: Apparently, [[https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/FBI_asks_Wikimedia_Foundation_to_remove_seal_from_websites,_Wikimedia_declines the FBI threatened to sue Wikipedia for using its logo]].
* DistractedByTheSexy: There are a lot of things Wikipedia considers to be not notable. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saugeen-Maitland_Hall#The_Saugeen_stripper The Saugeen stripper]] is not one of them.
* DontExplainTheJoke: Wikipedia is often guilty of this. Due to its nature, certain elements are explained in excruciating detail, frequently when it's not necessary.
* {{Doorstopper}}: The English Wikipedia alone has over 6 million articles and 3,000 volumes.
* DubNameChange: {{Enforced|Trope}} on the UsefulNotes/{{Latin|Language}} Wikipedia, where all humans must have their first names translated into Latin.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This can often be seen by checking the edit history of an older article:
** Early articles didn't have wikilinks, categories, images, or footnotes. ''Very'' early articles (dating back to 2001) actually used a CamelCase wikilink style akin to what TV Tropes uses instead of the now-widespread markup used on nearly every other wiki.
** Early articles often contain non-standard formatted lists, and contain links (to at least redirects, if not remaining articles), that would never be created now due to lack of "notability".
** Until 2003, the site's address was wikipedia.com, not wikipedia.org.
** Unregistered users were even allowed to create new articles until [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Seigenthaler_biography_incident an incident in 2005]] resulted in article creation being restricted to registered users only.
** Trivia sections were ubiquitous in articles until approximately 2008 when the site started cracking down on indiscriminate lists of facts in articles.
* FauxtivationalPoster: [[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Findyoursources.jpg WIKIPEDIA / Find your own damn sources]].
* FrivolousLawsuit: Their page about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion legal motions]] has "the defendant failed to greet the plaintiff while passing the latter on the street" as an example of a lawsuit that can be dismissed.
* IconicLogo: The puzzle globe dates to 2003; its first iteration had the pieces in different colors and blocks of text, and in different languages on it. Shortly after that, the more familiar version of the globe debuted, with all of the pieces light gray and each having a letter/glyph on it. It remained this way until May 2010, when a new version debuted (unlike its predecessors, this was an actual 3D rendering), with a darker gray, larger puzzle pieces, and corrected symbols on two of the pieces (i.e., the version pictured above). It was revised again later that month when the shade of gray was lightened to more closely resemble the preceding version.
* InternalRetcon: The Oversight feature was used to erase the nastiest of all edits, even from the page history. This was {{subverted|Trope}} when the Oversight feature was replaced with the Suppression feature, which still removes the edit from view even from the admins, but its existence can still be hinted at in the page history.
* {{Irony}}: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Deletion The Deletion article was up for deletion by the deletion project.]]
* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Wikipedia has a page listing [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictions_of_the_end_of_Wikipedia?wprov=sfti1 Predictions of the end of Wikipedia]].
* JennysNumber: The Wikipedia entry for the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paste_(Unix) Unix command "paste"]] includes 867-5309 as a number for "Jenny Igotit" ("I got it", a reference to the Tommy Tutone song).
* LostInTranslation: [[invoked]] The Wikipedia Project has become so ubiquitous that [[TheWikiRule fans have made their own wikis for specific subjects]]. Sites such as Teletraan 1 (which then became Wiki/TFWikiDotNet) for ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'', Wookieepedia for ''Franchise/StarWars'' or Memory Alpha for ''Franchise/StarTrek'' have become the go-to places for specifics on these franchises. Some cultures have even devoted entire wikis to a ''single person''. In fact, the Japanese equivalent of "Google it" roughly means "check out its wiki".
* {{Meido}}: The various maintenance bots are sometimes personified as such.
* MoeAnthropomorphism: Yes, they have their own. In this case: "Wikipe-tan", as seen on the image for the VisualNovel page.
* {{Omniglot}}: With editions in over 300 languages, Wikipedia is one of the most translated websites on the internet. In fact, many linguists consider Wikipedia [[https://linguapath.com/wikipedia-for-language-learning/ a valid source for language learning]].
* PlayingSick: On Wikipedia, there's a humorous essay referred to as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:ANI_flu "ANI flu"]], where [=ANI=] refers to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents Incidents section of the site's Administrator's noticeboard.]] It dryly notes that on many occasions, when summoned to the [=ANI=] to explain themselves, or if caught in the act of misbehaving, some users may feign falling ill to try to cover their backside and hide from their actions coming back to bite them.
* {{Pothole}}: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sometimes Sometimes]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taken taken]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To to]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludicrous ludicrous]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremes extremes]] - at least early in an article about a complex topic. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Piped_link They call it a "piped link" or "piping"]], after the | character in the Usemod-inspired syntax that potholes on [=MediaWiki=] use.
* {{Pun}}: The article "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cetaceans List of cetaceans]]" contains a thorough list of cetaceans, members of the whale family. In cases where a picture of said species is not available, the placeholder reads "cetacean needed".
* SelfDemonstratingArticle: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disambiguation_(disambiguation) Disambiguation (disambiguation)]].
* SeriousBusiness:
** Wikipedians have long battled over notability and the appropriate range of topics Wikipedia should cover, resulting in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deletionism_and_inclusionism_in_Wikipedia two schools of thought]] called Inclusionism and Deletionism. Deletionism is usually the dominant philosophy in Wikipedia, even against the wishes of its founders. Just look at the flame war that erupted when co-founder Jimbo Wales [[https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-webscout30sep30-story.html tried to start an article about a South African restaurant]], only to have it deleted almost immediately. Ironically, after the article was restored, it ultimately became a good article years later.
** Reading discussion pages on ''any'' topic is likely to result in a lot of serious business.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Played straight in some more technical articles and inverted in Simple English Wikipedia.
* SmallReferencePools: One of the major underlying causes for conflict between Inclusionists and Deletionists, as well as systemic bias. If a Deletionist hasn't heard of something, it's ''obviously'' not notable:
** Wikipedia has had several infamous cases of this causing purges of articles dealing with various forms of new media. The late 2000s saw this primarily happen with webcomics, as was covered [[https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikimedia_fundraiser_highlights_webcomic_community%27s_frustration_with_Wikipedia_guidelines by Wikinews]] and [[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/apr/10/wikipedia.internet an editorial]] at ''The Guardian''. Articles on games, gaming history, and culture [[https://www.raphkoster.com/2009/01/05/losing-mud-history/ are also]] common targets. The 2010s saw this happen more commonly with Website/{{YouTube}}rs and their channels. It's ''especially'' been the case with video game and manga/anime characters, which are likely to be deleted if they don't have several sources discussing the characters themselves in detail, ideally full-page articles on them.
** In 2017, a long-time and major Wikipedia contributor lamented the ongoing prevalence of deletionism, stating that the site was devolving [[https://boingboing.net/2017/02/14/watching-wikipedias-extincti.html "like a dying coral reef."]] According to the author, it's affecting scientific articles, with the fate of an article on the blood protein hemovanadin cited as an example. The author blames the "bleaching of Wikipedia" on auto-flagging bots and people abusing speedy deletion rules without bothering to inspect flagged articles.
* StraightManAndWiseGuy: It's basically the Straight Man to the Wise Guy that is Wiki/ThisVeryWiki. Wikipedia is mostly matter-of-fact, while [=TVTropes=] is TheSnarkKnight by comparison. Wikipedia's encyclopedic style can make it come across as TheComicallySerious at times.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: If anyone's curious, Wikipedia ''does'' have a fun side to it. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_humor Enjoy.]]
* TakeAThirdOption: Most deletion discussions are closed as "keep" or "delete". There is, however, a third option: merge; taking the information in an article and moving it to a subsection of a larger article on the same subject. Some deletion discussions can end up closed for other reasons: either the page qualifies for speedy deletion, so a discussion is redundant; the nominator withdraws without objection; no clear consensus in either direction is formed after several weeks, or the nomination is obvious {{Troll}}ing.
* TropeCodifier: The [=MediaWiki=] software developed for Wikipedia and the style conventions set there have set audience expectations for reference wikis.
* {{Troll}}: Some people put either totally irrelevant things on the page (sometimes [[{{Jerkass}} wiping the whole page in the process]]) or mess it up by doing the summary wrong.
* UnPerson:
** A few topics can end up blacklisted to the point where searching for said topics will give no results and trigger the spam filter. Some websites, notably Examiner.com, are considered so toxic that the site will automatically prevent you from using it as a source.
** The site's notability guidelines have resulted in several popular internet phenomena being barred from having articles for being "non-notable", with internet favorites ''WebVideo/TheTourettesGuy'' (which prompted the creators to ''put up a petition'' protesting the blacklist) and ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' (the latter of which has ''every single'' variation of the title locked from recreation) being infamous examples. WebAnimation/YouTubePoop was also blacklisted for years until the mid-2010s when slews of news reports and analysis of the trend caused the admins to finally relent.
* UntitledTitle: Invoked with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:TenPoundHammer%27s_Law TenPoundHammer's Law]], which was declared after a number of articles on forthcoming music albums were titled "[name of artist]'s [x]th album" and summarily deleted for containing nothing but speculation. The rule, therefore, states that any article with an Untitled Title name of that nature will very likely be deleted.
* WeAllLiveInAmerica: Wikipedians call this "systemic bias." Usually, it's the result of editors adding information on a topic that's only relevant to their culture or country, and not an assumption that the rest of the world works the same way--but it's nevertheless jarring when it results in pages meant to cover topics relevant to another country or culture, instead covering its impact in the editors' own.\\
\\
For that reason, Wikipedians [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Systemic_bias developed templates]] for flagging a page as being too narrow in focus (depending on the country or culture getting excessive representation). In fact, the early versions of these systemic bias templates were an ironic example of this, as their initial designers assumed that ignorant Americans thinking that the rest of the world was like America were the cause of systemic bias (and made some rather patronizing templates as a result). As it happens, editors of ''any'' culture, language group, or country can and do cause systemic bias, especially if they make up the majority of a wiki's user base.
* WeaselWords: They[-[[superscript:[''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle who?]]''[=]=]]]-] hate it when it shows up.
* WhamLine: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ignore_all_rules "If a rule prevents you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia, ignore it."]]
* WikiVandal: Overt vandalism is reverted rapidly, but more subtle vandalism has been known to last months or ''years'', particularly on less-traveled pages. As such, this is one of the common complaints about Wikipedia. Some really outrageous claims in articles are often supported by nothing but the "citation needed" tag.[-[[superscript:[''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle citation needed]]''[=]=]]]-] In fact, hoax articles have stayed up for as long as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_hoaxes_on_Wikipedia#Extant_for_10+_years sixteen years]].
* WikiWalk: While not [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife as big a problem as with us]], you can still go on especially long walks there, since it is the largest wiki out there. There's even a website that turned this into a game, ''VideoGame/TheWikiGame''.
* {{Xenofiction}}: Well, except the "fiction" bit. The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human Human]] article reads as though it was written by alien scientists observing us. It even lists the [[EndangeredSpecies conservation status]] according to the IUCN red list: "least concern".

* LostInTranslation: [[invoked]] The Wikipedia Project has become so ubiquitous that [[TheWikiRule fans have made their own wikis for specific subjects]]. Sites such as Teletraan 1 (which then became Wiki/TFWikiDotNet) for ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' , Wookieepedia for ''Franchise/StarWars'' or Memory Alpha for ''Franchise/StarTrek'' have become the go-to places for specifics on these franchises. Some cultures have even devoted entire wikis to a ''single person''. In fact, the Japanese equivalent of "Google it" roughly means "check out its wiki".

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: In 2020, it was discovered that the Scots Wikipedia had silently been undermined for years by an editor who meant well but unfortunately didn't know what the hell he was doing. User [=AmaryllisGardener=], a self-described teenage "Christian, a North Carolinian, a furry, and an [[UsefulNotes/MyersBriggs INTP]]", had contributed [[https://www.businessinsider.com/scots-wikipedia-page-american-scottish-accent-2020-8 the vast majority of the site's articles]]. His ''modus operandi'' was to write articles in English, [[https://slate.com/technology/2020/09/scots-wikipedia-language-american-teenager.html finger through a Scots language dictionary and replace choice words with the first one he could find that was a match - regardless of context or current usage]]. The damage that was done to the Scots Wikipedia by [=AmaryllisGardener=] over the course of seven years is nothing short of disastrous, to the point he was accused of committing "cultural vandalism". As a result, the very existence of the site was brought into question, as some felt it better to simply tear the Scots Wikipedia down and start again. Fortunately, it survived and is subject to an ongoing cleanup effort.

** Unregistered users were even allowed to create new articles until an incident in 2005 [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Seigenthaler_biography_incident Seigenthaler incident]] resulted in article creation being restricted to registered users only.

* LostInTranslation: [[invoked]] The Wikipedia Project has become so ubiquitous that [[TheWikiRule fans have made their own wikis for specific subjects]]. Sites such as Teletraan 1 (which then became Wiki/TFWikiDotNet) for ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' , Wookieepedia for ''Franchise/StarWars'' or Memory Alpha for ''Franchise/StarTrek'' have become the go-to places for specifics on these franchises. Some cultures have even devoted entire wikis to a ''single person.'' In fact, the Japanese equivalent of "Google it" roughly means "check out its wiki".

** This is subverted on the main page, but in a fun way: the topics discussed on the front page are lighthearted and absurd, but are also actual articles.

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: In 2020, it was discovered that the Scots Wikipedia had silently been undermined for years by an editor who meant well but unfortunately didn't know what the hell he was doing. User [=AmaryllisGardener=], a self-described teenage "Christian, a North Carolinian, a furry, and an [[UsefulNotes/MyersBriggs INTP]]", had contributed [[https://www.businessinsider.com/scots-wikipedia-page-american-scottish-accent-2020-8 the vast majority of the site's articles]]. His ''modus operandi'' was to write articles in English, [[https://slate.com/technology/2020/09/scots-wikipedia-language-american-teenager.html finger through a Scots language dictionary and replace choice words with the first one he could find that was a match - regardless of context or current usage]]. The damage done to the Scots Wikipedia by [=AmaryllisGardener=] over the course of seven years is nothing short of disastrous, to the point he was accused of committing "cultural vandalism". As a result, the very existence of the site was brought into question, as some felt it better to simply tear the Scots Wikipedia down and start again. Fortunately, it survived, and is subject to an ongoing cleanup effort.

* CanonDiscontinuity: Users with the "oversight" ability can remove individual edits and/or edit summaries from pages, most often due to the edit in question containing extremely inappropriate content. If a page has had an edit oversighted, then general readers and even most admins can't see the content that got oversighted.

** The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Top_25_Report Top 25 report]], which lists the top 25 most viewed articles in a single week, tends to ignore the neutral point of view tone and usually adds more personality with the ocassional snark.

** Unregistered users were even allowed to create new articles until the 2005 [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Seigenthaler_biography_incident Seigenthaler incident]] resulted in article creation being restricted to registered users only.
** Trivia sections were ubiquitous in articles until approximately 2008, when the site started cracking down on indiscriminate lists of facts in articles.

* IconicLogo: The puzzle globe dates to 2003; its first iteration had the pieces in different colors and blocks of text, in different languages, on it. Shortly after that, the more familiar version of the globe debuted, with all of the pieces light gray, and each having a letter/glyph on it. It stayed this way until May 2010, when a new version (which, unlike its predecessors, was an actual 3D rendering), with a darker gray, bigger pieces and corrected symbols on two of them, debuted; this is the one pictured above. It was revised again later that month, when the shade of gray was lightened to resemble its predecessor.
* InternalRetcon: The Oversight feature was used to erase the nastiest of all edits, even from the page history. This was {{subverted|Trope}} when the Oversight feature was replaced with the Suppression feature, which still removes the edit from view even from the admins, but its existence can be still be hinted at in the page history.

* LostInTranslation: [[invoked]] The Wikipedia Project has become so ubiquitous that [[TheWikiRule fans have made their own wikis for specific subjects]]. Sites such as Teletraan 1 (which then became Wiki/TFWikiDotNet) for ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' , Wookieepedia for ''Franchise/StarWars'' or Memory Alpha for ''Franchise/StarTrek'' have become the go-to places for specifics on these franchises. Some cultures have even devoted entire wikis to a ''single person''. In fact, the Japanese equivalent to "Google it" roughly means "check out its wiki".

* MoeAnthropomorphism: Yes, they have their own one. In this case: Wikipe-tan, as seen on the image for the VisualNovel page.

* PlayingSick: On Wikipedia, there's a humorous essay referred to as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:ANI_flu "ANI flu"]], where [=ANI=] refers to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents Incidents section of the site's Administrator's noticeboard.]] It dryly notes that on many occasions, when summoned to the [=ANI=] to explain themselves, or if caught in the act misbehaving, some users may feign falling ill to try to cover their backside and hide from their actions coming back to bite them.

** Wikipedia has had several infamous cases of this causing purges of articles dealing with various forms of new media. The late 2000s saw this primarily happen with webcomics, as was covered [[https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikimedia_fundraiser_highlights_webcomic_community%27s_frustration_with_Wikipedia_guidelines by Wikinews]] and [[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/apr/10/wikipedia.internet an editorial]] at ''The Guardian''. Articles on games, gaming history and culture [[https://www.raphkoster.com/2009/01/05/losing-mud-history/ are also]] common targets. The 2010s saw this happen more commonly with Website/{{YouTube}}rs and their channels. It's ''especially'' been the case with video game and manga/anime characters, which are likely to be deleted if they don't have several sources discussing the characters themselves in detail, ideally full-page articles on them.

* TakeAThirdOption: Most deletion discussions are closed as "keep" or "delete". There is, however, a third option: merge; taking the information in an article and moving it to a subsection of a larger article on the same subject. Some deletion discussions can end up closed for other reasons: either the page qualifies for a speedy deletion, so a discussion is redundant; the nominator withdraws without objection; no clear consensus in either direction is formed after several weeks; or the nomination is obvious {{Troll}}ing.

** The site's notability guidelines have resulted in several popular internet phenomena being barred from having articles for being "non-notable", with internet favorites ''WebVideo/TheTourettesGuy'' (which prompted the creators to ''put up a petition'' protesting the blacklist) and ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' (the latter of which has ''every single'' variation of the title locked from recreation) being infamous examples. WebAnimation/YouTubePoop was also blacklisted for years until the mid 2010s, when slews of news reports and analysis of the trend caused the admins to finally relent.
* UntitledTitle: Invoked with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:TenPoundHammer%27s_Law TenPoundHammer's Law]], which was declared after a number of articles on forthcoming music albums were titled "[name of artist]'s [x]th album" and summarily deleted for containing nothing but speculation. The rule therefore states that any article with an Untitled Title name of that nature will very likely be deleted.
* WeAllLiveInAmerica: Wikipedians call this "systemic bias." Usually it's the result of editors adding information on a topic that's only relevant to their culture or country, and not an assumption that the rest of the world works the same way--but it's nevertheless jarring when it results in pages meant to cover topics relevant to another country or culture, instead covering its impact in the editors' own.\\

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: At one point in 2014, the five most contested articles in English were "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush George W. Bush]]", "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism Anarchism]]", "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad Muhammad]]", ''"[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WWE_personnel List of WWE personnel]]"'', and "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming Global warming]]".