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Wikipedia:Alternative outlets

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"WP:OUT" redirects here. For the outing policy, see WP:OUTING.
There is more than one path to take to get something accomplished. Maybe you should choose an alternative outlet other than Wikipedia for some types of content.

When content (text, pages, images, etc.) is deleted, various policies and guidelines such as "What Wikipedia is not", notability, verifiability and our prohibition on original research are often cited as reasons the material does not belong here, in an encyclopedia, and rightly so. Unfortunately, this is not particularly helpful or calming to the person(s) who put in time and effort to write the material. They often see it as their hard work being casually tossed away. The phrase "try another wiki" is also sometimes used, for similar intent.

In an effort to foster a general spirit of collegiality, this page provides some referrals to alternative outlets which do allow content that Wikipedia does not. Sometimes material is submitted that is perfectly factual and verifiable, but simply outside of the scope of Wikipedia. Just because the content does not belong here does not mean it does not have value, and it is worth preserving valuable free content if we can.

Please consider directing people to these sites (or this page), rather than simply telling them that their contributions are WP:NOT wanted.

For example, Wikipedia contains a significant amount of information about the "Star Wars" media franchise, but for an even more detailed treatment, try Wookieepedia—a wiki dedicated to the "Star Wars universe". Similarly, information on the "Star Trek" franchise can be found at Memory Alpha. JurisPedia focuses on legal topics. There also are wikis devoted to specific languages or localities that may be more appropriate for a given topic.

There may be legal or ethical restrictions on the copying of content from Wikipedia to other sites. It is up to individual contributors to familiarize themselves with the procedures and policies of other outlets and to examine their licensing arrangements, which may differ from Wikipedia in significant ways.

It is also sometimes the case that new or inexperienced users will post an excessive amount of personal details or otherwise inappropriate content in their userspace. While such userpages may be nominated for deletion at WP:MfD, it may be appropriate (and courteous) to first open a dialogue with the user, and give them notice to revise the userpage and/or move its content to a more appropriate site, such as Neocities or Tumblr. If the user responds favorably to such a request, opening a deletion discussion about their userpages may not be necessary.

Sister projects

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Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteer projects:

Other websites

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There are Wikipedia articles, lists, and categories which provide information on other websites:

This page also has links to external sites which provide similar information.

There are also Wikipedias in many other languages, including a Simple English Wikipedia.

Non-Wikimedia Foundation

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  • Everything2, a collaborative community repository of moderated user-generated content on a variety of topics and genres, including encyclopedic articles, reviews, fiction, as well as a large amount of non-fiction.
  • Fanlore, a wiki created to preserve the history and activities of fandoms.
  • Fandom, a wiki hosting service which hosts wikis on entertainment (i.e. video game and movie wikis).
  • Flickr - an online image hosting site that will take image that are out of scope for Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons.
  • MicroWiki, an encyclopedia about micronations.
  • Neocities is a web hosting service primarily for personal websites, which offers 1GB of free storage to users
  • OpenStreetMap, a worldwide map, which also includes business listings, local monuments, notable trees, etc.
  • Quora, a question and answer site on multiple topics
  • SourceWatch, a collaborative project to produce a directory of public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests. Sponsored by the Center for Media and Democracy.
  • Reddit - Discussion forums on a multitude of topics
  • Stack Exchange, a network of question-and-answer websites on topics in diverse fields
  • TV Tropes is a wiki where common conventions in fiction, called tropes, can be described. Almost all creative works can be written about there. If you want to describe patterns in fiction, you should do it there.
  • WordPress.org - a free blog hosting site

License restrictions

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Content (text, images, etc.) Text submitted to Wikipedia is required to be licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA); Media submitted to Wikipedia is required to be licensed under the terms of the CC BY-SA or a similar free license. Other sites (especially non-WMF sites) may require a different license. Do not copy content from Wikipedia to other sites unless you are sure the licenses are compatible. If they are not, try contacting the copyright holder of the content to obtain permission to re-license the content. Typically the user who submitted the content to Wikipedia in the first place is the copyright holder. Check the page's edit history to help identify the user.

For CC BY-SA content being deleted from Wikipedia, the edit history should also be copied or preserved in some way. For example, if the target site uses talk pages in the style of Wikipedia, copy the edit history there.

For more information, see: Reusing Wikipedia content.

See also

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Moving content

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Deletion

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