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If you have edited Wikipedia, you probably already know some basics, but Wiktionary does have a few conventions of its own. Please take a moment to learn our basics before jumping in.

First, all articles should be in our standard format, even if they are not yet complete. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with it. You can use one of our pre-defined article templates by typing the name of a non-existent article into the search box and hitting 'Go'. You can link Wikipedia pages, including your user page, using [[w:pagename]], {{pedia}}, or {{wikipedia}}.

Notice that article titles are case-sensitive and are not capitalized unless, like proper nouns, they are ordinarily capitalized (Poland or January). Also, take a moment to familiarize yourself with our criteria for inclusion, since Wiktionary is not an encyclopedia. Don't go looking for a Village pump – we have a Beer parlour. Note that while Wikipedia likes redirects, Wiktionary deletes most redirects (especially spelling variations), in favor of short entries. Please do not copy entries here from Wikipedia if they are in wikipedia:Category:Copy to Wiktionary; they are moved by bot, and will appear presently in the Transwiki: namespace.

A further major caveat is that a "Citation" on Wiktionary is synonymous with a "Quotation", we use these primary sources to construct dictionary definitions from evidence of the word being used. "References" (aka "Citations" on Wikipedia) are used predominantly for verifying Etymologies and usage notes, not the definitions themselves. This is partly to avoid copyright violation, and partly to ensure that we don't fall into the trap of adding "list words", or words that while often defined are never used in practice.

Note for experienced Wikipedians:
Wiktionary is run in a very different manner from Wikipedia and you will have a better experience if you do not assume the two are similar in culture. Please remember that despite your experience on Wikipedia, that experience may not always be applicable here. While you do not need to be an expert, or anything close to one, to contribute, please be as respectful of local policies and community practices as you can. Be aware that well-meaning Wikipedians have unfortunately found themselves blocked in the past for perceived disruption due to misunderstandings. To prevent a similar outcome, remember the maxim: be bold, but don't be reckless!
Having said that, we welcome Wikipedians, who have useful skills and experience to offer. The following are a couple of the most jarring differences between our projects that Wikipedians may want to learn up front, so things go smoothly for everyone. Changing policy pages on Wiktionary is very strongly discouraged. If you think something needs changing, please discuss it at the beer parlour, after which we may formally vote on the issue. You should also note that Wiktionary has very different user-space policies, we are here to build a dictionary and your user-page exists only to facilitate that. In particular we have voted to explicitly ban all userboxes with the exception of {{Babel}}; please do not create or use them.

We hope you enjoy editing Wiktionary and being a Wiktionarian. --Connel MacKenzie 00:12, 26 November 2006 (UTC)Reply

Alternate idiom forms edit

I like the redirects you did for grasp at straws. Do you have a method for finding common idiom variants? I don't think anyone has made a hobby of entering that type of redirect yet...certainly everything in Category:Idioms could use similar treatment, particularly if you've found a really clever method for finding the other common forms. --Connel MacKenzie 00:12, 26 November 2006 (UTC)Reply

Thanks! I haven't, really. I just looked at what other dictionaries seemed to include as alternates. Quadell 18:46, 4 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

Word histories edit

Please remember not to enter comeplete word histories. The etymological roots of a word are meaningful, but the full word history is far too prone to copyright violation complaints for en.wiktionary.org to seriously contemplate at this time. While short dictionary definitions cannot individually get copyright protection, etymologies and word histories certainly can. Please keep that in mind when entering etymologies (with or without references.) If you are unsure about the copyright status of a particular etymology, it is better to leave it out, or reduce it severely.

Looking at these: dork doughboy doughnut dry run dunce bailiwick bandwagon jump on the bandwagon grasp at straws, I don't see a single one that can't be considered a copyright violation. I like the wordorigins.com website, but they have no usable content at all for en.wiktionary.org. Please remove the portions that you added to them. Thank you. --Connel MacKenzie 00:23, 26 November 2006 (UTC)Reply

Actually, I rewrote everything in my own words. None of the word origins for these words is a copyright violation. Remember: facts cannot be copyrighted, but the presentation of facts can. In all those cases, I used facts from wordorigins, but not the presentation of those facts (the specific words they used). Thanks, Quadell 18:48, 4 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

Origin edit

The heading you just used is not a standard Wiktionary heading. We don't include word histories, nor word origins, only etymologies. --Connel MacKenzie 19:31, 18 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

Which word? Quadell 19:41, 18 January 2007 (UTC)Reply
You've edited shirk, shark and quirk today (quirk, after you read this.) I'd say it is a 50/50 chance you'd figure out which one, shirk or shark...but then, you did it wrong on both.  :-)   It took me a while to learn the Wiktionary formats too, though, so no big deal.
Please read WT:ELE. The etymology section goes above the others. --Connel MacKenzie 19:54, 18 January 2007 (UTC)Reply