User:Angela/What Wikipedia is not

Policy is not set in stone. Policy pages such as "Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not" are, for the most part, the opinions of just a few important people. Tim Starling

Wikipedia is not...
... a mental health treatment facility. Vicki Rosenzweig

... a creche. Tarquin

... a pulpit. Kingturtle

... Usenet. Jimbo Wales

... a database. Tarquin

... a free for all. Alex756

... a swimming pool. Martin

... a place for jokes. Angela

... a place to stick random notes or whatnot. Danny

... a phone book. Mav

... a collection place for trivia. Andre Engels

... a repository for all human knowledge. Tim Starling

... just another Britannica. BL

... a place to post your point of view or argue about it. Ed Poor

... Google. Anon

... the only wiki. Mav

... your mother. Koyaanis Qatsi

... in the business of book promotion. Electicology

... meant to be a group experience. Eloquence

... a derivative work of itself. The Cunctator

... an educational textbook. Rotem Dan

... here to set trends. Hephaestos

... a landscape for honorary pages. Kingturtle

... a word. Alex756

... the place for preaching. Morwen

... a place to post lectures. Mav

... the only Wikimedia project. Eloquence

... a programming guide. Taku

... a place to list editors' favorite websites. Tim Starling

... a repository of predictions of what will happen in years to come. Tarquin

... an almanac. Danny

... an American project. Secretlondon

... a place for crusades. BL

... a place to decide which side is right and wrong. Taku

... like a traditional encyclopedia. Eloquence

... suitable for hosting executable program downloads! Brion

... for aiding translations. Angela

... a Spellchecker. Tarquin

... CNN. Mav

... deteriorating. AxelBoldt

... a strategy guide. Martin

... a one stop source for any information about anything. Robertoalencar

... our employer. Matthew Woodcraft

... a household name yet. Erik Zachte

... a place for indepth analysis. Kingturtle

... a place to evangelize your beliefs. Stephen Gilbert

... a place for slogans. Jerzy

... a development playground. Eloquence

... about finding absolute truth. Chuck Smith

... an author. Toby Bartels

... the only project that runs MediaWiki. Mav

... for-profit. Martin

... a tool to maintain willful suspension of disbelief. Eloquence

... a chat room. RickK

... supposed to voice a POV. Koyaanis Qatsi

... Wiki. Stephen Gilbert

... the easiest place to navigate. Jack Lynch

... Project Gutenberg. Bryan Derksen

... a legal advice service. Alex756

... a place to put your own opinions. Enchanter

... a place to be making advocacy for one position or the other. Mic

... everything 2. Damian Yerrick

... a jokebook. Martin

... only the English Wikipedia. Kpjas

... about copyright activism. Jimbo

... a social club. 142

... a book. Fagan

... a tabla rasa anymore. Alex756

... a catholic encyclopedia. Karl Eichwalder

... Nupedia. Eloquence

... the only GFDL-using open content project. Wouter Vanden Hove

... just about the US. Jtdirl

... only about science. Anthère

... about winning kudos and stroking egos. Larry Sanger

... an adversarial endeavor, nor a marketplace. Jimbo

... paying me enough to put up with constant abuse. Stan Shebs

... for financial gain. Alex756

... a game. Jamesday

... a list of citations. Anthère

... Meatball. Angela

... IRC. Silsor

... a place for wikipedia users to insert their personal interpretations of what wikipedia is. BL

... a dumpster. Viajero

... entirely populated by sane people. DJ Clayworth.

... a long, ordered sequence of carefully categorized articles. [1]

... guaranteed to be accurate. [2]

... a safe sex guide. [3]

... a substitute for seeking the help of a professional. [4]

... uniformly peer reviewed [5]

... a web directory. [6]

... a substitute for first aid training. [7]

... a democracy. [8]

... a place to prove you are right and your opponents are wrong. [9]

... a style guide. [10]

... a vanity press. [11]
Officially, Wikipedia is not...
... a dictionary

... a usage guide

... a slang or idiom guide

... paper

... a genealogical or biographical dictionary

... a soapbox or discussion forum

... a link repository

... a mirror

... a lists of definitions

... propaganda or advocacy of any kind

... a mere vehicle for testing anarchism

... encomia/fan pages, nor critical pans.

... a personal essay

... primary research

... a list repository

... a mere collection of external links

... a mere collection of internal links

... a mere collection of public domain or other source material

... a personal homepage and/or file storage area

... a news report

... a vehicle for advertising

... a collection of photographs with no text

... a resource for conducting business

The "Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not" guidelines are just that: guidelines, subordinate to the goal of creating a good, complete, and consistent encyclopedia. The Cunctator