Wikipedia talk:Content disclaimer

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Wikipedia:Content disclaimer is permanently protected from editing, as it is a page which should not be edited significantly for legal or other reasons.

Substantial changes should be proposed here, and made by administrators if the proposal is uncontroversial, or has been discussed and is supported by consensus. Use {{editprotected}} to attract the attention of an administrator in such cases.
Wikipedia:Options to not see an image
Wikipedia:Options to not see an image

Contents

[edit] New stuff at the bottom please.


[edit] Interwiki links

Please add the following two interwiki links:

[[sv:Wikipedia:Förbehåll för innehåll]]
[[vi:Wikipedia:Ph%E1%BB%A7 nh%E1%BA%ADn v%E1%BB%81 n%E1%BB%99i dung]]

Thanks. – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs, blog) 05:17, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Done. jni 09:02, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

As an administrator in Chinese Wikipedia, I just linked here therefrom. Please add an interwiki to Chinese:

[[zh:Wikipedia:内容声明]]

Thanks. --Jusjih 07:11, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Proposal: Option to disable ALL inline images

(I think I saw that this has been proposed and rejected before, but what the hey...)

Whereas:

  • Some people, for various reasons, don't want to see images of sex or violence. (For instance, I often browse Wikipedia at school, and I don't want everyone in the classroom to see me looking at a big Autofellatio.jpg vandalism.)
    • These same people might not mind seeing text describing the same thing, becase (a) people across the room can't see what you're reading (easily) and (b) images have a greater impact on people - they're more disturbing to the viewer, and much more likely to upset other people in the room, than text would be.
  • Proposals have been made to flag images as "sexual" or "violent" or otherwise objectionable, but the topic is so fraught with politics and emotion that any such system will be inherently POV and lead to massive edit wars, and thus has been rightly turned down.
  • Turning off images globally is incredibly inconvenient if you browse other sites at the same time. Even in browsers that let you disable images from just wikipedia.org (and I don't think MSIE is one of these), it still presents a number of inconveniences:
    • You can't see the nice images in the skin.
    • You can't see LaTeX-rendered math, which isn't likely to be that obscene.
    • You can't see the tool buttons on the edit form. Etc.
    • If you do want to see an image in an article, you have to unblock images. In Firefox, this is just a right-click operation, but it's almost certainly harder in IE and other browsers.

Therefore, I suggest having an option in Preferences that would allow users to disable showing any inline images in pages. (I mean things included from the Image: namespace, not LaTeXified equations, skin images, tool buttons, etc.) The description and a link to the Image: namespace would be shown, and if they wanted to see the image they could click on the link.

  • It's still inconvenient and impedes viewing, but far superior to blocking all images, either from all sites or from wikipedia.org.
  • Yes, images could still be uploaded over and vandalized. There's a solution to that, too: have an option that would:
    • When the link in the article to the Image: namespace is clicked on, go to a page with a thumbnail (max 100px in either dimension, scaled down a minimum of 3x) image.
    • The user would then look at the thumbnail. It's easy to tell whether or not it's objectionable this way, but a thumbnail is less likely to be disturbing to the viewer and to other people in the area.
    • If the user then clicks on the thumbnail, they see the full-size image.
  • Having this option off by default is fine, in case anyone sees having it on by default as censorship.
  • This could also help with the (so far hypothetical, I hope) problem of filtering software blocking all of Wikipedia because it might contain naughty pictures.

Comments?

Nickptar 20:54, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Sure, I'd support such a thing. But such a proposal would need to be ran by wikipedia's technical people, as well as policy people, where ever that is Borgs8472 15:04, 3 September 2005 (UTC)
A worthy idea --Temporitron (talk) 20:15, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Please add category...

Please add to Category:Wikipedia disclaimers. Thanks! -- Beland 01:24, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Minor wording change

I changed the sentence saying that "essentially all" articles are written by non-experts to a statement that "the great majority" are written by non-experts. The experts are a small minority here, but there are a fair number of them floating around, and some are very active. Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits has two Ph.D.s in mathematics in the top 15, and I suspect that the majority of our math articles are by mathematicians or math grad students. "Essentially all" in my mind means that there might be a handful of exceptions, not entire broad subject areas of exceptions. Isomorphic 08:16, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I don't think this is controversial so I was bold and just changed it, but I thought I ought to note my reasoning since the page is protected. Isomorphic 08:16, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Interwiki

Please add [[it:Wikipedia:Disclaimer sui contenuti]] Snowdog 23:02, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

Done. The Uninvited Co., Inc. 22:07, 6 August 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Censorship option in prefs

How about an option in user prefs that allows text censorship? Those who don't want to see swearing could have it masked or have the page blocked completely, depending on the options. --Adbabypenguin 11:04, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Interwiki

Please, someone add interwiki to pt:Wikipedia:Aviso de conteúdo. --555pt 12:22, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Many Thousands?

Perhaps it should now read "over a million articles". —Cuiviénen (Cuivië) 15:08, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Ditto. I was on my way over here but you beat me. :) —CliffHarris (-T|C-) 02:00, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] İnterwiki addition request...

Would you please add the interwiki link for tr: ?

--Doruk Salancı 15:30, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

  • Check! Uncle G 16:44, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Make wikipedia understandable to everybody

Salve, "graphical depiction" is a strange expression for "picture" or "image". Why not use the simple alternative? NOTE: A depiction is always graphical. There's no need for that adjective. IP

[edit] clarification

We've got:

Wikipedia contains many thousands of articles on a vast array of topics. A relatively small fraction of these topics are frequently censored by educational, governmental, corporate, parental and other filtering schemes.

On first reading, this makes it sound like governments et al. are actively editing Wikipedia to perform their censorship. Can someone with write access change the second sentence to

A relatively small fraction of these articles are on topics which various educational, governmental, or corporate institutions would wish to censor. Some or all Wikipedia articles may therefore be blocked and unavailable to some readers due to such an institution's automated filtering schemes.

—Steve Summit (talk) 13:58, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

I can't do anything about it, but I just wanted to say that (a year late though I may be) I support this. In particular, even if it has an alternative definition in the dictionary, "scheme" tends to imply something illegitimate or malicious in nature, which strikes me as ironically bordering on POV. Caswin 01:35, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Interwiki request

Please add interwiki link for Serbian language Wikipedia. The link is:

[[sr:Википедија:Одрицање за садржај]]

Thank you. --Branislav Jovanovic 09:48, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Done, thanks. JesseW, the juggling janitor 18:08, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] post-traumatic stress disorder

What is the source for this claim: "Wikipedia may contain triggers for people with post-traumatic stress disorder."? --AHA2 14:06, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps we should add "* Do not taunt happy fun encyclopedia." in there some place. :) ... The mention of PTSD is a bit too specific an off the wall, Wikipedia might also provide paranoid schizophrenics with with fodder for their delusions. Perhaps we should add a more generic "Some content in Wikipedia may upset pre-existing mental illnesses", or the like. --Gmaxwell 23:28, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
I'm thirding this. How many wikipedia users suffer from PTSD, and how many of these have specific triggers that correspond to an internet encyclopaedia? Checking the PTSD article reveals little discussion of specific PTSD attack triggers, and it's a grey area for many people, even after reading the article. Why, then, does the content disclaimer reference post traumatic stress disorder in particular, and without further explanation? It is impossible to generalise this unusual claim about mental health triggers across all mental illnesses ("Wikipedia includes material that may trigger LSD flashbacks"), and so I vote that this line is removed entirely. --Sebastian Wolf 128.86.144.81 23:55, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
  • I just found the Wikipedia may contain triggers for people with post-traumatic stress disorder statement myself and did a big Scooby-Doo HUH?! I'm removing it as There was no contention to its removal discussion here, nor did anyone provide citation. David Spalding (☎ ✉ ✍) 19:31, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
But the page is protected so I CAN'T remove it. Is there an admin in the house? David Spalding (☎ ✉ ✍)
I asked the user who added it to give us a clue as to why it's there..... David Spalding (☎ ✉ ✍)

Okies, so by triggers I wasn't thinking that folks would be triggered by reading an encyclopedia, due to a traumatic experience in a library. Rather I was thinking that, for example, someone with war-caused PTSD might be triggered by a photograph of a bomb site. I have no objection to its removal. Alternatively, one might change the line below it as follows:

Wikipedia may contain images and videos which can trigger epileptic seizures, post-traumatic stress and other medical conditions.

Hope that helps. Martin 14:24, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WP:V is no more

The link to Wikipedia:Verifiability needs to be changed to Wikipedia:Attribution. --Xyzzyplugh 01:41, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Y Done - Harryboyles 04:22, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Censorship

I think that there should be clarification on the censorship aspect of Wikipedia. Even though illustrations, pictures, etc. of human organs might be okay, I think that as for private parts, only illustrations should be used. (Wikimachine 19:23, 8 March 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Att no longer policy

{{editprotected}}

Att is currently proposed policy, not policy. WP:V link should be put back. Miss Mondegreen | Talk   07:45, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

this seems to already be done. CMummert · talk 21:06, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] interwiki to RU

{{editprotected}} please add interwiki to RU

[[ru:Википедия:Содержимое Википедии может вызвать у Вас протест]]

--One half 3544 18:38, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

done. CMummert · talk 22:51, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Photosensitive epilepsy

{{editprotected}}

There's been some discussion at the pump regarding animations being used in articles. I figured we might want to add something to this disclaimer regarding photosensitive epilepsy and other possible medical conditions triggered by such images. We might as well be better safe than sorry now that we have people complaining about the issue. I suggest the following addition:

"Wikipedia contains images and videos which may trigger epileptic seizures and other medical conditions."

Of course, I am not a lawyer. --- RockMFR 05:56, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Done. I am not a lawyer either, but this seems appropriate and is highly similar to the post-traumatic stress disorder disclaimer. Nihiltres(t.c.s) 18:05, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] aaaaaahhhh!

Im scared to look at wikipedia again! T.Neo (talk) 14:32, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "documenting all human knowledge"

I imagine somewhere there's some essay-long refutation to what I'm about to say, but doesn't the early statement that Wikipedia has an "ambitious mission of documenting all human knowledge" blatantly violate WP:NOT#INFO and the first "not" statement of WP:ENC? A disclaimer is the last place any misinformation should be, and since WP:About doesn't state that to be Wikipedia's mission, it doesn't seem to me like it should be here. Sticky Light (talk) 07:42, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spoilers

I think the following portions of text should be removed from the content disclaimer:

WIKIPEDIA CONTAINS SPOILERS AND CONTENT YOU MAY FIND OBJECTIONABLE

The text "WIKIPEDIA CONTAINS SPOILERS AND CONTENT YOU MAY FIND OBJECTIONABLE" was added August 31, 2006 by JzG after PseduoSudo added that text to a copy of the content disclaimer in his own userspace, and requested [1][2] it be added to the content disclaimer. I think that text needs further discussion on this talk page.

The "Wikipedia contains spoilers" bulletpoint was added added June 9, 2003 by MartinHarper. As of June 9, 2003, Wikipedia:Spoiler warning looked like this.

Currently, the fact that the content disclaimer mentions spoilers is being used by editors to say that spoiler warnings are disclaimers, which is then being used to say spoiler warnings should be not be in articles because of the no disclaimers in articles guideline.

I believe those two items merit more discussion on this talk page.

If the removal of those two items is not controversial, I will be placing an {{editprotected}} template on this page in a few days. --Pixelface (talk) 09:02, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Belated response.
I have no opinion on whether spoiler warnings should be in articles. That discussion is for WP:NDA.
I feel that the existence of spoilers should be mentioned in this page. It is one of the things that readers may find upsetting or objectionable about our articles. It therefore should be mentioned amongst this list of such things.
On the other hand, I can't imagine that anyone would sue over spoilers. If one sees the purpose of the disclaimer pages as pure lawsuit-avoidance, then I can understand the removal of the mention of spoilers.
Hope that helps.
Martin (talk) 13:14, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

{{editprotected}}

The following two items need to be removed from the content disclaimer:

WIKIPEDIA CONTAINS SPOILERS AND CONTENT YOU MAY FIND OBJECTIONABLE

I've seen no consensus on this talk page for the addition of those items. It looks to me like two users wanted the items added but there needs to be a consensus on this talk page before the items are added again. --Pixelface (talk) 00:14, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry Pixelface, but the edit protected template is for uncontroversial edits - given the problems associated with this page in the past, this clearly is a controversial edit. I'm not going to go above the protection and make that change - if you want to make it, please get consensus first. Ryan Postlethwaite 00:25, 3 February 2008 (UTC)
I understand, but the presence of those two items is controversial itself. There was never any consensus on this talk page to add them, so why do I have to demonstrate consensus to remove them? I asked to remove two items that never had consensus. --Pixelface (talk) 12:03, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Obscure

(Darth Vader needed here...! ;-)

Wikipedia contains obscure information that would not be covered in a conventional encyclopedia.

(added here) What does that mean? Is it from reliable sources? If yes, the word is misused, Thx. Or, is it WP:OR? — STAR TREK Man [Space, the final frontier...] 21:42, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

There's lots of information from reliable sources that is not original research that one would not expect to find in a conventional encyclopedia. A lot of it is "fancruft". Other stuff comes from Wikipedia not being subject to the same space constraints as printed encyclopedias. Martin (talk) 13:14, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Exams, test and other "unseen" material

There is an argument here that images connected to this test must be hidden and a in-article disclaimer added to prevent spoiling the test. Is there a more general application here? In regards to factual material or images that may spoil a test (be it schooling or of this nature? is it already covered? --Fredrick day (talk) 00:22, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image:Plot warning.png

Is there a need for Image:Plot warning.png? GregManninLB (talk) 16:36, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

What's wrong with it? It was uploaded during the "Great Spoiler Debate" to highlight how ridiculous spoiler warnings had become. I like to use it as an example of pointing out the obvious. .:Alex:. 17:14, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] spoiler warnings

I see nothing wrong with bringing back the Spoiler Warning as a courtesy to readers. Kingturtle (talk) 17:28, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia isn't fucking censored.

If you don't fucking like it, get your bastard ass the hell out of here. I'll be god-damned if I let a bunch of shit-stained commies' bitching fag up my sea of piss. Ziggy Fucking Sawdust 20:44, 14 May 2008 (UTC)