Wikipedia:DYK

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Did you know (T:DYK)
Rules (WP:DYK)
Discussion (WT:DYK)
Next update (T:DYK/N)
Suggestions (T:TDYK)
Archive (WP:DYKA)

Wikipedia:Did you know (DYK) is the project page for coordinating the content of the "Did you know" section on the Main Page. The DYK section gives publicity to newly created or expanded Wikipedia articles, as a way of thanking the editors who create new content and to encourage other editors to contribute to and improve that article and the encyclopedia.

The other sections of changeable content on the Main Page are coordinated at In the news, Picture of the day, Selected anniversaries, and Today's featured article. More general discussion of the main page takes place at Talk:Main Page, and errors are reported at Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors.

DYK

DYK is run by volunteers who work together to process DYK suggestions so that they appear on the Main Page, as guided by rules and regulations which are decided by the DYK participants through consensus. Most tasks relating to DYK can be undertaken by any interested editor, but some require an administrator.

DYK made its first Main Page appearance on February 22, 2004. The article, pencil sharpener, was developed by Raul654 who had been an editor with Wikipedia for about six months at that time and now is a bureaucrat. An April 2004 screen shot shows DYK located in the space now occupied by In the News. Credit recognition for article creators started on November 24, 2004[1], DYK began placing DYK notifications on article talk pages on January 13 2006[2], and nominators started receiving credit on May 13, 2006[3].

The DYK process is divided over sixteen pages:

1. DYK template (Did you know) - T:DYK - the template that appears on the Main Page
2. DYK template talk (Suggestions) - T:TDYK - where new DYK suggestions are proposed and discussed
3. DYK next update (Next update) - T:DYK/N - where suitable DYK candidates are held pending their addition to the live DYK template
4. DYK next update clear (blank Next update) - T:DYK/N/C - a copy of the DYK next update page that lacks DYK candidates, which can be copied over the next update page to restore it to a pristine, empty state, ready for new candidates
5. DYK archive (Archive) - WP:DYKA - where old DYKs are archived
6. DYK archive navigation template - Template:DYK archive nav
7. DYK archive header - Template:DYK archive header
8. DYK navigation box - Template:DYKbox
9. This page (Rules and regulations) - WP:DYK
10. DYK project talk (Discussion) - WT:DYK - where general discussion takes place
11. DYK project guide - WP:DYK/G - general guidance
12. DYK Admins - WP:DYK/A - List of admins with significant interest in DYK
13. Category:Wikipedia Did you know contributors
14. DYK Hall of Fame - WP:DYK/HoF - Wikipedia's online museum established to recognize and honor individuals for noteworthy contributions to the advancement the Did You Know (DYK) project.
15. DYK Hall of Fame talk page - WT:DYK/HoF - talk page for the DYK Hall of Fame.
16. Main Page/Errors in Did you know... - WP:ERRORS - to report DYK errors on the Main Page

DYK admin participants

Any editor may volunteer to assist with DYK simply by contributing to the department operations. There is no formal hierarchy, and no particular editor or administrator has authority over others, although some tasks can only be undertaken by administrators. The following administrators have significant DYK experience and currently are active in contributing to DYK's operations:

(Edit this list)

• Aksi great (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Andrew c (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) (weekdays 14:00, 00:00 UTC +/- 1 hour)
• Anonymous Dissident (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) (will lend a hand when I see an update really needed)
• AQu01rius (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Balloonman (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Bedford (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) I may be around at any time, but if I am, I probably know how late the update is.
• Bencherlite (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) (not currently very active)
• BigHaz (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) (still learning the ropes, though, so you might want to try another admin if there are massive backlogs and time pressures)
• Blnguyen (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) 2:00 UTC, 6:00 UTC +/- 1 hour
• Brian0918 (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Cactus.man (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) *** Currently on long wikibreak, hopes to be back soon. ***
• Carabinieri (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Daniel (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) 06:00—12:00 UTC; IRC: Daniel-Bryant
• Daniel Case (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• DarkFalls (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) Usually on IRC as "darkfalls"
• Elkman (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• EncycloPetey (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• ERcheck (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) 2:00 UTC, 5:00 UTC +/- 1 hour
• Espresso Addict (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Gatoclass (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Grue (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Gurubrahma (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Hersfold (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) mostly whenever - yell at me on my talk page or on IRC if you want me to update
• Howcheng (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) 6:00 UTC, 16:00 UTC, 23:00 UTC +/- 1 hour
• Jreferee (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Majorly (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Mangojuice (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) may be available 15:00-22:00 UTC or so, on weekdays.
• Maxim (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) - 19:00- 01:00 UTC weekdays, and random times between 11:00 and 02:00 UTC weekends. On IRC as Maximr
• Moreschi (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) - feel free to prod me, either here on IRC. Moreschi ^Talk 15:12, 24 June 2007 (UTC)
• Nishkid64 (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) 16:00 UTC to 06:00 UTC
• PDH (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Royalbroil (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Ruhrfisch (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Savidan (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Smurrayinchester (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Srikeit (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• The Placebo Effect (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Victuallers (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) - UK time
• WBOSITG (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) - if it needs doing, I'll be happy to help.
• Wizardman (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)
• Zzyzx11 (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights) - Occasionally, depending on how I am busy in real life.

How a DYK suggestion makes its way to the Main Page

A DYK suggestion goes through three steps before appearing in the Did you know section on the Main Page.

1. First, an editor posts the suggested text for a DYK entry on the DYK template talk page. Discussions about individual suggestions also appear on the DYK template talk page, such as suggested improvements of the proposed DYK text, or comments about the eligibility of the article under the requirements listed on this page.
2. If the suggested DYK meets the requirements, any editor may add the suggestion to the DYK template next update page and then delete the suggestion from the DYK template talk page. In practice, to ensure that all suggestions are given fair consideration, the oldest suggestions listed on the suggestions page are selected first, to ensure that they don't go stale before they are chosen. DYK entries listed on the next update are not final, and may be amended, edited or rejected by any other editor. If they are rejected, they should be returned to the place on the suggestions page where they were originally listed, with their original comments (consultation of the history of the DYK template talk page may be beneficial to restore the original text).
3. When it is time for the live Main Page DYK template to be updated, suggestions are moved from the next update page to the live template, which is transcluded automatically into the Main Page at the same time. The live DYK template is protected, so this move task can only be undertaken by an administrator. An update to the DYK template typically adds about five to eight new suggestions (the number depends on the length and the need for spacing balance on the main page, checking how things will look using the links given in DYK template next update page for versions of the main page is very beneficial). DYK entries appear on the Main Page for at least 6 hours, with up to 4 updates per day. The timing of this 6 hour change over is coordinated through manual modifications to ParserFunctions arguments in a {{DYK-Refresh}} template located on the DYK template talk page. Admins can amend the DYK template while it appears on the Main Page. Non-admins should report errors to the Main Page errors page so they can be dealt with. Old DYK entries that are removed from the Main Page are archived, although in practice this can be a bit backlogged - volunteers welcomed!

How the participants communicate

The DYK project talk page is the main location for discussing issues that affect DYK, including changes to DYK's rules and regulations, questions about the rules and regulations, and other issues that arise.

Discussion about particular DYK suggestions generally appears on the DYK template talk page, although wider issues raised by particular suggestions are also discussed on the DYK project talk page.

Sources for DYK nominations

Any editor may submit DYK nominations from any source. Some DYK nominations may be found at

• List of new article announcement pages
• New pages

The DYK Rules

DYK is not a general trivia section. DYK is only for articles that have been created, or expanded fivefold or more, within the last 5 days. Ideally, they should have been listed on "New Pages" during that time, but former redirects, stubs, or other short articles that have been greatly expanded are also encouraged (as a guideline, an expansion of fivefold or more is acceptable; the decision on whether an expanded article is appropriate for the template will depend on the updating administrator's judgment). For those workpages first developed in user space, the date the workpage is posted to article namespace may be counted as the first day towards the DYK 5 day rule. You may wish to consider adding {{workpage}} to the top of the workpage.

Any user may nominate a DYK suggestion; self-nominations are permitted and encouraged.

Selection criteria

Three basic criteria are used to determine whether a nomination is eligible for DYK. Other criteria may arise as a result of community discussion or policy (more details appear at Template talk:Did you know#Instructions), but the following three criteria account for most cases.

1. New - A nominated article must be new.
   • For purposes of DYK, a "new" article is no more than five days old.
   • Former redirects, stubs, or other short articles that have been expanded fivefold or more within the last five days are also acceptable as "new" articles. Existing articles that have been expanded to only twice or three times their previous length are not eligible for DYK.
   • Try to pick articles that are original to Wikipedia (not 1911 or other data sources) and interesting to a wide audience.
2. Long enough - The article must be of sufficient length.
   • Articles should have a minimum of 1,500 characters (around 1.5 kilobytes) in main body prose (ignoring infoboxes, categories, references, lists, and tables).
   • In practice, articles longer than 1,500 characters may still be rejected as too short, at the discretion of the selecting administrators.
   • The article must not be marked as a stub; DYK features no stubs.
3. Cited hook - The nomination's hook must contain a fact cited in the article. (See more information under The hook, below.)
   • The hook should include a definite fact that must be mentioned in the article.
   • The hook fact must be cited in the article with an inline citation, since inline citations are used to support specific statements in an article. The hook fact must have an inline citation right after it since the fact is an extraordinary claim; citing the hook fact at the end of the paragraph is not acceptable.

     Many submissions are made which fail to satisfy one or both of these points. Nominators should ensure that their submissions meet both of these criteria or their submissions will fail DYK eligibility. Articles with good references and citations are preferred. These sources should be properly labelled; that is, not under an "External links" header. Uncited articles are not likely to be chosen.

The hook

Format

• The title of the new article must be in bold.
• Entries should start with an ellipsis of three full stops (not the ellipsis character …) and a space, and the first sentence should end with a question mark.
• Use {{*mp}} to get bullet points on the Main Page.
• The hook itself should be concise (fewer than about 200 characters, including spaces).
• Between 5 and 8 items (or "hooks") are usually selected at once, depending on the total length of the hooks, so the items selected fit with whatever else is on the Main Page at that time. Check by using the links on T:DYK/N: "See how this template appears on both today's Main Page and tomorrow's Main Page." to see if the DYK template balances the rest of the main page layout.

Content

• The hook should refer to established facts that are not likely to change, and should be relevant for more than just novelty or newness.
• The hook should be neutral.
• The "Did you know?" fact must be mentioned in the article and cited with an inline citation since inline citations are used to support specific statements in an article. A lot of submissions are made which fail to meet one or both of these criteria. Nominators should ensure that their submissions meet both of these criteria or their submissions will fail DYK eligibility.
• Articles and hooks which focus on negative aspects of living individuals should be avoided.
• When you write the DYK item (or "hook") please make it "hooky", that is, short, punchy, catchy, and likely to draw the readers in to wanting to read the article. An interesting hook is more likely to draw in a variety of readers. Shorter hooks are preferred to longer ones, as long as they don't misstate the article content.
• Other editors may propose changes to the suggested hook as follow-ups.

Selecting nominated hooks

• A suggestion rather than a rule: try to avoid picking your own suggestions. Use common sense here, and please avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest. DYK is meant to be something that is motivating to editors creating new content.
• Please keep suggestions NPOV and attempt to have items from different fields of interest in an update.
• Try to avoid country-centrism and topic-centrism. Wikipedia is a general-interest encyclopedia with a global audience. No DYK installment should have more than two entries relating to one country, topic, or issue, and no more than one is even better.
• While we strive for accuracy and neutrality in all articles, articles dealing with living persons are especially sensitive. Please keep the Biography of Living Persons policy in mind.
• Select articles which cite their sources. Uncited articles are unlikely to be chosen.

Images

• The first item in the list must have an associated image.
• The standard image code is <div style="float:right;margin-left:0.5em;"> [[Image:filename.jpg|100x100px|ALT TAG]]</div>.
• If there are no suggestions with appropriate images, you can usually use a flag 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 {{mprotected}} notice to the image description page (or {{C-uploaded}} plus a copy of the author attribution and the licence tag if you have uploaded a temporary copy from Commons).

Updates

• Ideally, updates take place every 6 hours.
• Please archive a new update to Wikipedia:Recent additions, and archive groups of around 50 items to subpages to prevent Wikipedia:Recent additions getting too long.
• For exact guidelines as to how to update see the Guide to Updating DYK (still a work in progress).

Updating the DYK next update page

After confirming that a suggestion meets the requirements listed on this page, any editor may add a suggestion to the DYK template next update page and then delete the suggestion from the DYK template talk page. For transparency, let an independent editor add the suggestion to the next update page.

When updating Template:Did you know, admins may simply paste in the entries from Template:Did you know/Next update and add the talk notices.

After the update, anyone can replace the entries on Template:Did you know/Next update with fresh entries from the suggestions page.

The DYK template next update page can be "cleared" or "blanked", that is, restored to a pristine state with no nominations on it, by copying the contents of the DYK template next update "clear" page (or the old nominations can be cleared manually). Corrections to the instructions or formatting of the next update page should be copied to the "clear" page to ensure that they are not lost when it is next cleared.

Guidance for "next update" editors

• Make sure the entries conform to the rules set out below under "Suggestions".
• If an entry is disputed, don't add it to the template until the problem is resolved.
• Try to include items from varied fields of interest, time periods, and parts of the world.
• Avoid selecting your own suggestions.
• Please disambiguate linked words in the suggestion.
• Try to ensure entries are of appropriate length and make them more interesting, if possible.
• Stale entries are no fun, but please try to give every entry the exposure it deserves.
• Replace the * in each entry with {{*mp}}
• After adding an entry to the next update page, remove it from the suggestions page. Make sure to include the article name, date, nominator, and creator under the "Credits" section to allow others to return it if a dispute arises.

Updating the DYK template

After confirming that a suggestion meets the DYK rules, an administrator may move the suggestion to the the DYK template and then delete the suggestion from the DYK template next update page.

This section describes the steps to perform a full update to the "Did you know" section on the Main Page.

Preparations

• Make sure the template was last refreshed more than 6 hours ago (check the {{DYK-Refresh}} template on the suggestions page, or the edit history of the live DYK template).
• Make sure you have the proper amount of eligible items so as to balance the main page, generally 6 to 8 hooks.
• Make sure you have a suitable picture.

Eligible items

• Are interesting facts based on articles created or substantially expanded less than 120 hours (5 days) ago.
  • Not all suggestions have to be used in the template. Choose the ones that will pull in a variety of readers.
• Are over 1,500 bytes or characters in length.
• Cover a diverse field of topics.

If there are older articles waiting to be listed, try to use those first, unless other users' complaints have not been addressed.

Pictures

• The article that will be listed on the top of the template should have a fitting and appropriate image attached.
• The image must be protected before it goes live. (so long as the image is uploaded to the English Wikipedia, it should be protected automatically by cascading protection, but please check and upload from Commons if necessary)
  • Add {{mprotected}} to the image description page if the image has been uploaded to English Wikipedia.
  • If you are an admin at Commons, you may protect the Commons version of an image, and add {{En main page}} there. However, you must also add {{mprotected}} on the English Wikipedia's image description page and protect the image here to prevent vandals from uploading a local version.
  • If the image is on Commons and you cannot protect it there or get it protected there, download the image manually on to your computer and upload it under the same file name as on commons to the English Wikipedia. Use {{C-uploaded}} if you have uploaded a temporary copy from Commons, but make sure you also copy the author attribution and the licence tag.

• Don't forget to UNprotect the previously used image AFTER you change the template to the new picture.
• If you remove a {{C-uploaded}}-tagged image from the template, please speedy delete it. Don't forget to immediately check the deleted history of its image description page and restore any relevant Wikipedia-specific edits, category links, and tags (such as {{FeaturedPicture}}) that were on there beforehand.
  

Process

1. Make sure that the old entries and the picture have been copied from Template:Did you know to the DYK archive.
2. Cut the picture and questions out of the next update page, and place them in the live template's edit page, replacing the previous entries but making sure not to remove any other coding.
3. Preview the template and make sure everything is correct, and that the image is protected. Save the template.
4. Purge the Main Page to force the Wikipedia servers to show everyone the new version of the template.
5. Edit the timer template at the top of the suggestions page so that it displays the time six hours from your update edit (in UTC time).

Archiving

DYK entries that are added to the Main Page template should be copied by hand to Wikipedia:Recent additions. After copying DYK entries to Template:Did you know, please also copy them to Wikipedia:Recent additions. Please archive Did you know entries thematically at the relevant portal:

• Main Portals: Arts, Culture, Geography, History, Mathematics, Biography, Philosophy, Science, Society, Sports, Technology

• Countries: Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Wales

• Regions: Illinois, London, Vancouver

• Other: Architecture, Aviation, Cars, The Beatles, Communism, Food, Internet, Medicine, Music, Pokémon, Schools, Swimming, Trains, Tropical cyclones, United States Marine Corps, War

Recognition

The article, article's creator(s), and the DYK nominator may be recognized as contributing to DYK through the credit templates posted by DYK on user talk pages. When an article is first nominated for DYK, the hook may be followed by (i) 'article by XXX; nom by YYY' or (ii) 'self-nom.' These help DYK determine which user talk pages to post credits. For instructions on providing recognition, see DYK credits.

The following templates are used to credit the article creator and the article nominator as well as give notice on the article talk page that the article appeared on the Main Page:

• Article creator's talk page: ({{UpdatedDYK}}) {{subst:UpdatedDYK|6 July|2008|Article name}} --~~~~
• Nominator's talk page: ({{UpdatedDYKNom}}) {{subst:UpdatedDYKNom|6 July|2008|Article name}} --~~~~
• Article talk page: ({{dyktalk}}) {{dyktalk|6 July|2008}} (check if small style templates in use, if so add small=yes parm)

These awards may be given to recognize a user's contributions :

1. -- {{The DYK Medal}} -- Award for significant contributions to DYK.
2. -- {{The 25 DYK Medal}} -- Award for (25) or more contributions to DYK.
3. -- {{The 50 DYK Medal}} -- Award for (50) or more contributions to DYK.
4. -- {{The 100 DYK Medal}} -- Award for (100) or more contributions to DYK.
5. -- {{The 200 DYK Medal}} -- Award for (200) or more contributions to DYK.

Wikipedians are listed by top number of DYKs, at User:Anonymous Dissident/List of Wikipedians by number of DYKs. Also, successful submission of a Did you know? piece is one part of Wikipedia's triple crown, an award for outstanding editing contributions.

DYK credits, medals, etc may be recognized on a userpage through the following userboxes:

1. -- {{User DYK}} -- Userbox, user has authored/created x articles featured on DYK.
2. -- {{User Did You Know}} -- Userbox, highlights an individual DYK article created by a user.
3. -- {{User Did You Know2}} -- Userbox, user has been a significant contributor to X articles on DYK; the total number of DYK article's created + DYK article's nominated.
4. -- {{User Did You Know3}} -- Userbox, user has successfully nominated x articles created by others to be featured on DYK.

Errors

Notification of DYK errors regarding what is currently on the main page may be posted at Errors in Did you know.... DYK errors on the main page may be addressed by an admin through changes to the DYK template.

Admins

• 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.