Wikipedia:Alternative outlets

This is an essay on Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

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This page in a nutshell: There are other places for potentially useful or valuable content which is not appropriate for Wikipedia.

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.