Wikipedia:Barnstars

This page in a nutshell: A barnstar is an award intended to show appreciation for an editor or for their contributions to Wikipedia, given by their fellow editors.

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The barnstar is not unique to Wikipedia. Some years ago, some wiki-based communities began to give their users awards called barn stars, using a star anchor to represent the concept of the shared work experience, as in barn raising. The concept of the barnstar as a Wiki award was created by SunirShah on MeatballWiki.^[1]^[2] Web designers were invited to incorporate a similar barn star design into their project as Easter eggs.^[3]

Wiki barnstars were introduced to Wikipedia in December 2003 by MartinHarper.^[4] Since then, the concept has become ingrained in the Wikipedia culture. These awards are also part of the Kindness Campaign and are meant to promote civility and WikiLove. They are meant as a form of warm fuzzy: they are free to give and are intended to bring joy to the recipient.

And please remember that there are also other ways of showing simple appreciation to someone, such as a comment on the user's talk page, a "thank" notification from an article's history page, as well as alternative awards displayed in Personal user awards.

^ Shah, Sunir. "Wikimania 2006 : Archived Toronto bid". Wikimedia meta-wiki. Retrieved April 30, 2013. [I] created the BarnStar[...]
^ "User:SunirShah". Wikipedia talk pages. Retrieved April 30, 2013. A BarnStar, for bringing us the modern wonder that is the BarnStar.
^ "Barnstar Subterfuge". April 1, 2003. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
^ "MeatballWiki: WikipediaExile". 2003. Archived from the original on November 8, 2004. Retrieved July 10, 2013. Attempting to use Meatball's BarnStar on Wikipedia might help here. I've uploaded it – must add some appropriate text and start awarding it. --MartinHarper

[1] Shah, Sunir. "Wikimania 2006 : Archived Toronto bid". Wikimedia meta-wiki. Retrieved April 30, 2013. [I] created the BarnStar[...]

[2] "User:SunirShah". Wikipedia talk pages. Retrieved April 30, 2013. A BarnStar, for bringing us the modern wonder that is the BarnStar.

[3] "Barnstar Subterfuge". April 1, 2003. Retrieved August 26, 2012.

[4] "MeatballWiki: WikipediaExile". 2003. Archived from the original on November 8, 2004. Retrieved July 10, 2013. Attempting to use Meatball's BarnStar on Wikipedia might help here. I've uploaded it – must add some appropriate text and start awarding it. --MartinHarper

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