From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For instructions on how to suggest new articles for DYK consideration, see .
For the tool, see .
Wikipedia:Did you know (DYK) is the project page for the "Did you know" section on the . The DYK section showcases new or expanded articles that are selected through an informal review process. It is not a general trivia section. The choice of articles is subject to a set of criteria that are set out on this page.
The other sections of changeable content on the Main Page are coordinated at , , ,
(currently Mondays and Fridays), and . More general discussion of the main page takes place at , and errors are reported at .
Over 700 new articles are created and many more expanded each day on the English Wikipedia. DYK showcases new and improved content by presenting a series of facts ("hooks"), some of them accompanied by images, which link to selected articles. The hooks appear for a limited period in the "Did you know...?" box on the Main Page. Editors whose articles appear in DYK will receive an acknowledgement on their user talk pages. The choice of articles is subject to a series of criteria (see
below). Editors may nominate their own or someone else's work for a DYK appearance.
DYK aims to achieve the following five goals:
To showcase new and improved content, illustrating to readers the continuous improvement and expansion of Wikipedia'
To highlight the variety of information on Wikipedia, thereby providing an insight into the range of material that W
To present facts about a range of topics which may not necessarily otherwise receive Main P
To acknowledge the work that editors do to expand and improve Wikipedia, encouraging them to continue their efforts and thereby contributing to editor retention and ongoing
To encourage readers to edit articles that appear on DYK or start their own, thus facilitating the recruitment of new editors.
DYK is not:
A smaller-scale version of either featured content or Good Articles, though selected Good Articles do appear in the DYK box. Articles must meet the basic criteria set out on this page but do not have to be of very high quality. It is fine for articles to be incomplete (though not unfinished), to have red links, to be capable of being expanded or improved further, and so on. As DYK's main purpose is to showcase new and improved content, it is not expected that articles appearing on DYK would be considered among the best on Wikipedia.
A collection of general trivia. The articles featured are specifically new and improved ones which meet the criteria set out below.
A means of advertising, or of promoting commercial or political causes. While it is fine to cover topics of commercial or political interest, DYK must not provide inappropriate advantage for such causes (e.g. during election campaigns or product launches).
Further information:
DYK consists of a series of "hooks", which are interesting facts taken from Wikipedia's newest content, of the format "Did you know that...?" Thus, to nominate something to appear on DYK, an editor must either write or identify new content (see below for what qualifies as "new") and propose an interesting "hook".
DYK is only for articles that, within the past seven days, have been either
expanded at least fivefold
newly sourced and expanded at least twofold (only if the article was an unsourced )
promoted to
For articles initially developed outside of , the date the article first appears in article space is counted as the first day towards the DYK seven-day rule.
Any user may nominate a DYK self-nominations are encouraged.
Four basic criteria are used to determine whether a nomination is eligible for DYK, together with a review requirement. Other criteria may arise as a result of community discussion or policy (more details appear at ), but the following criteria account for most cases:
1. New – A nominated article must be new (when nominated).
a) For DYK purposes, a "new" article is no more than seven days old, and may not consist of text spun off from a pre-existing article.
b) Former redirects, stubs, and other articles in which the prose portion has been expanded
or more within the past seven days are also acceptable as "new" articles. The content with which the article has been expanded must be new content, not text copied from other articles. The length of both the old and new versions of the article is calculated based on prose character count, not word count. Prose character count excludes wiki markup, templates, lists, tables, it is calculated using
or a similar extension.
c) Former unsourced BLPs (such as those in ) that have been thoroughly sourced and in which the prose portion has been expanded twofold or more within the past seven days are also acceptable as "new" articles. The content with which the article has been expanded must be new content, not text copied from other articles. The length of both the old and new versions of the article is calculated based on prose character count, not word count. Prose character count excludes wiki markup, templates, lists, tables, it is calculated using
or a similar extension.
d) Articles that have been worked on exclusively in a user or user talk
and then moved (or in some cases pasted) to the
are considered new as of the date they reach the mainspace.
e) Articles that have been featured (bold link) in a blurb on the main page's
sections are ineligible. (Articles linked at ITN or OTD not in bold, including the recent deaths section, are still eligible.)
f) Articles that are translations from other wikis count as new articles.
g) Articles designated as
within the past seven days, regardless of whether they were expanded, are also eligible.
2. Long enough – The article must be of sufficient length.
a) Articles must have a minimum of 1,500 characters of prose (ignoring infoboxes, categories, references, lists, and tables .) The number of characters may be measured using
(most accurate) or
b) DYK articles may freely reuse public domain text per Wikipedia's usual policy, with proper attribution. However, because the emphasis at DYK is on new and original content, text copied verbatim from public domain sources, or which closely paraphrases such sources, is excluded both from the 1,500 minimum character count for new articles, and from the x5 expansion count for x5 expanded articles.
c) Lists: Proposed lists need 1,500+ characters of prose, aside from the listed items themselves.
d) In practice, articles longer than 1,500 characters may still be rejected as too short, at the discretion of the selecting reviewers.
Cited hook – The fact(s) mentioned in the hook must be cited in the article. (See more information under , below.) Facts should have an
citation. The article as a whole should use inline, .
a) The hook should include a definite fact that is mentioned in the article and interesting to a broad audience.
b) Each fact in the hook must be supported in the article by at least one
to a , appearing no later than the end of the sentence(s) offering that fact. Citations at the end of the paragraph are not sufficient.
4. Within policy – Articles for DYK must conform to the core policies of ,
and . Nominations should be rejected if an inspection reveals that they are not based on reliable sources, violate WP:BLP, or have problems with the
of images and/or text.
a) Articles must meet the
policy. Articles on
are carefully checked to ensure that no unsourced or poorly sourced negative material is included. Articles and hooks that focus unduly on negative aspects of living individuals or promote one side of an ongoing dispute should be avoided.
5. Review requirement (QPQ) – For every nomination you make you must review one other nomination (unrelated to you)—this is called
or QPQ. Exception: If, at the time a nomination is promoted to the main page, its nominator has fewer than five
(whether or not self-nominated) then the nomination is exempt from QPQ.
a) You can do your QPQ review before or after you make your nomination, but for your nomination to be approved you will need to provide a link, at your nomination, to your completed QPQ review. For help in learning the reviewing process, see the .
The title of the new article (or the text that
to it) must be in bold and linked to the new article.
The hook should start with an asterisk (*) to create a bullet, then a space, three periods (not the
character …) and end with a question mark. Example:
* ... that '''[[milk]]''' can come from cows?
The hook should be concise: fewer than about 200 characters (including spaces and the question mark, but not including the ... or any (pictured). While 200 is an outside limit, hooks slightly under 200 characters may still be rejected at the discretion of the selecting reviewers and administrators.
If a passage from a reliable non-English source is quoted in the article as translated by a Wikipedia editor (because no published translation is available) a phrase from that translation can be quoted in the hook, subject to the discretion of the selecting reviewers and administrators. Ideally the nominator will vouch for the translation from their personal knowledge.
A hook is subject without notice to copy-editing as it moves to the main page. The nature of the DYK process makes it impractical to consult users over every such edit. Watch the
to ensure that no issues have been ra if you do not respond to them, your hook may not be featured at all.
About eight hooks are usually selected at once, depending on page balance, so the items selected fit with whatever else is on the main page at that time. Check by using the links on : "See how this template appears on both
and ." to see if the DYK template balances the rest of the main page layout.
The hook should refer to established facts that are unlikely to change, and should be relevant for more than just novelty or newness.
The hook should be .
Articles and hooks that focus unduly on negative aspects of living individuals should be avoided.
Articles and hooks featuring election candidates up to 30 days before an election in which they are standing should be avoided, unless the hook is a "multi" that includes bolded links to new articles on all the main candidates.
If the subject is a work of fiction or a fictional character, the hook must involve the real world in some way.
When you write the hook, please make it "hooky", that is, short, punchy, catchy, and likely to draw the readers in to wanting to read the article. Shorter hooks are preferred to longer ones, as long as they don't misstate the article content.
Pictures and videos accompanying the DYK hook should be:
freely licensed (PD, GFDL, CC, etc.—not fair use): the main page can have only free
suitable, attractive, and interesting at a 100 × 100
relevant to the article.
The first hook in the set must have an associated image.
The standard image and video code is &div style="float:margin-left:0.5"& [[File:filename.jpg|100x100px|ALT TAG]]&/div&.
If there are no suggestions with appropriate images, you can usually use a
for a topic with a national connection.
Fair-use images are not permitted. Please find a related free image (PD, GFDL, CC etc.) as an alternative.
The first item "hook" should be modified to include (pictured) (or perhaps (pictured, flag of Zdxyrastan) or whatever) in the appropriate place to make the connection to the image.
Administrators: when you add an image to DYK, it is automatically protected, so simply add an {{}} notice to the image description page (or {{}} plus a copy of the author attribution and the licence tag if you have uploaded a temporary copy from Commons).
Sounds: Sounds accompanying the DYK hook should have similar qualities to pictures, and should be formatted using {{|filename.ogg|Brief description}}
is where an editor can request that the hook appear in the "Did you know" section on the Main Page on a particular date, such as to coincide with an important or significant event. For example, the DYK project posts
items each year on . The nomination should be made as usual (under the date on which the article was created or the expansion began) with a request, in the nomination comment line, that the hook be run on a given date. The review discussion should address both the usual DYK criteria and the appropriateness of holding the hook for the requested date. Considerations include:
DR1: The hook is part of a DYK special occasion project.
DR2: The hook should not put emphasis on a commercial release date of the article subject.
DR3: Listing a hook on the Main Page during the requested date does not make the hook itself .
DR3a: Listing a hook that mentions a product or company on the Main Page during the requested date does not, by itself, make the hook promotional of that product or company.
The DYK process[]
Rules ( and ) – how DYK works
DYK talk () – for general discussion of the project
Includes issues with current or past nominations which may need wider discussion than on the corresponding nomination page (in which case add a note to the nomination page).
There is also a dedicated ,
Nominations () – where nominations are proposed and discussed
The nomination reviewers may also suggest improvements or alternatives to the hook.
may be a source for potential nominations
Prep areas (, , , and ) – where hook "sets" are assembled and finalized
Queues ( and subpages) – finalized hook sets are moved here from "prep" by an administrator, where they wait for their
appearance
The admin moving the hooks to the live template may edit or reject any hook at their discretion.
Did you know... template () – the hooks currently appear
moves sets here from the Queue area according to a schedule.
Old DYK entries are archived at
after they leave the main page.
Errors () – to report concerns about DYK items currently on the main page
If necessary an admin may edit or replace a hook on main page by changing the .
If a factual error is reported when the hooks are on the front page, try to replace the hook with another fact from the article, rather than just removing it.
In the case it has to be removed, try to replace it with another hook from the suggestions page.
If it is the first hook and hence has an associated picture, you must replace it with another hook with a picture.
Any editor may volunteer and assist with DYK, simply by contributing to the department operations.
The following admins are (or would like to be) actively involved in the DYK process.
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The following admins are not actively involved, but are willing to lend a hand if needed.
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 ( ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  · ) - I slowly rotate between various fields of activity, according to boredom levels, inc. DYK
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 ( ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  · ) - I've made a few edits and willing to help more
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but happy to help if needed.
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 ( ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  · ) - Whatever needs help. I'm also an admin on Commons, so you can ask me to protect images there for DYK, if you'd like. I'm on IRC a lot, under the nick Killiondude (cloak: @wikimedia/Killiondude).
 ( ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  · ) - King_of_Hearts on IRC
 ( ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  · ) - If you ever need help proofreading, copyediting, paraphrasing or checking sources, just post a note on my talk page.
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 ( ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  · ) (whenever there's backlog)
 ( ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  · ) (Always glad to help out when asked)
 ( ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  · ) Will help when I get your query, but I am currently dealing with medical issues and am somewhat infrequently editing
 ( ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  · ) Happy to help if asked - including fixing hooks while they're on the main page.
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 ( ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  · ) whenever I feel like it, I guess...
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 ( ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  · ) Whenever it needs doing. Ping me on my talk or IRC (nick PeterSymonds cloak: Peter@wikimedia/PeterSymonds)
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 ( ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  · ) (can help with backlogs etc a few times a week)
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 ( ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  · ) - Whenever asked/needed or if I notice that it's needed :-)
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 ( ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·  · ) - If I'm around, feel free to ask. I'm a Commons admin too.
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The following users who are not administrators are actively involved in one or more aspects of DYK, including reviewing and vetting nominations, updating the template, and discussing DYK issues: ()
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The following users are frequent nominators and contributors to DYK:
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DYK made its first Main Page appearance on . The article, , was developed by . An April 2004
shows DYK located in the space now occupied by In the News. Credit recognition for article creators started on , DYK began placing DYK notifications on article talk pages on , and nominators started receiving credit on .
For step-by-step instructions on how to calculate whether an expansion is fivefold and whether it is within the past seven days, see .
For discussion of the recent deaths section, see
The timing of this 6-hour changeover is coordinated through manual modifications to
arguments in a {{}} template located on the .
, for other DYK pages
Hidden categories:}