WP:Purpose

File:Wikipedia Community cartoon - high quality.png

Wikipedia's purpose is to benefit readers by acting as a widely accessible and free encyclopedia; a comprehensive written compendium that contains information on all branches of knowledge.

Encyclopedias are designed to introduce readers to a topic, not to be the final point of reference. Wikipedia, like other encyclopedias, is a tertiary source and provides overviews of a topic.

The goal of a Wikipedia article is to present a neutrally written summary of existing mainstream knowledge in a fair and accurate manner with a straightforward, "just-the-facts style". Articles should have an encyclopedic style with a formal tone instead of essay-like, argumentative, promotional, or opinionated writing.

Concept of an encyclopedia

{{cquote|Indeed, the purpose of an encyclopedia is to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe; to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live, and transmit it to those who will come after us, so that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come; and so that our offspring, becoming better instructed, will at the same time become more virtuous and happy, and that we should not die without having rendered a service to the human race.|author=Denis Diderot, chief editor and contributor of Encyclopédie (Paris, 1755){{cite encyclopedia |last=Diderot |first=Denis |author-link=Denis Diderot |translator=Philip Stewart |year=1755 |title=Encyclopédie |volume=5 |location=Paris |page=[http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.004 635] }} University of Michigan Library: Scholarly Publishing Office and DLXS. Retrieved on: November 17, 2007}}

Wikipedia's goal

{{cquote|Our goal with Wikipedia is to create a free encyclopedia; indeed, the largest encyclopedia in history, both in terms of breadth and in terms of depth. We also want Wikipedia to be a reliable resource.|author=Larry Sanger{{citation | last=Sanger| first=Larry | author-link=Larry Sanger | url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_policy&direction=next&oldid=68263 | date=1 November 2001 | publisher=Wikipedia |

title=Wikipedia Policy | archive-date=2007-12-11 | archive-url=http://www.webcitation.org/5U0Rx8xAc}}}}

{{cquote|Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing.|author=Jimmy Wales{{cite web|last=Roblimo|title=Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Responds|url=http://slashdot.org/story/04/07/28/1351230/wikipedia-founder-jimmy-wales-responds|publisher=Slashdot|access-date=28 April 2014|date=28 July 2004}}}}

{{cquote|Wikipedia is first and foremost an effort to create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language.|author=Jimmy Wales{{cite web |url=https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2005-March/020469.html |title=Wikipedia is an encyclopedia |publisher=Wikimedia |date= March 8, 2005 |access-date= March 5, 2017}}}}

{{cquote|The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.|author=Wikimedia Foundation{{cite web | title=Wikimedia Foundation Mission – Wikimedia Foundation | website=Wikimedia Foundation | date=2023-10-10 | url=https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/mission/ | access-date=2025-04-18}}}}

Wikipedia's content

Content is governed by three principal core content policies – neutral point of view, verifiability, and no original research.

{{cquote|Wikipedia has an important policy: roughly stated, you should write articles without bias, representing all views fairly.|author=Larry Sanger{{cite web|url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Neutral_point_of_view/draft&oldid=777|title=Neutral point of view/draft - Meta|website=meta.wikimedia.org}}}}

{{cquote|A general-purpose encyclopedia is a collection of synthesized knowledge presented from a neutral point of view. To whatever extent possible, encyclopedic writing should steer clear of taking any particular stance other than the stance of the neutral point of view.|author=Jimmy Wales{{cite web|url=http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/NeutralPointOfView|title=Wikipedia: NeutralPointOfView|date=16 April 2001|publisher=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010416035757/http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/NeutralPointOfView |archive-date=16 April 2001 }}}}

{{cquote|Wikipedia's volunteer editors make reference to reliable publications that support what Wikipedia contains, so readers can verify the facts at source. For content to remain on Wikipedia, it must be written from a neutral point of view and attributed to sources that are reliable.|author=Wikimedia Foundation{{cite web | title=Frequently asked questions | website=Wikimedia Foundation | date=2024-06-03 | url=https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/FAQ#What_is_Wikipedia? | access-date=2025-04-18}}}}

References

External links

{{external media | width = 210px| float = right

| video1 =[https://www.ted.com/talks/jimmy_wales_on_the_birth_of_wikipedia Jimmy Wales: The birth of Wikipedia], 2005 TED (conference), 20 mins.}}

What is Wikipedia? – The Wikimedia Foundation.
Mission statement – The Wikimedia Foundation.
Statement of Purpose – Wikimedia Foundation Bylaws Article II .
Foundation Guiding Principles – The Wikimedia Foundation.
Wikimedia founding principles – Principles generally supported by all of the Wikimedia communities.