Meta:About - Meta-Wiki Jump to content Main menu Main menu move to sidebar hide Navigation Main page Wikimedia News Translations Recent changes Special pages Random page Help Babel Community Wikimedia Forum Mailing lists Requests Babylon Reports Research Planet Wikimedia Beyond the Web Meet Wikimedians Events Movement affiliates Search Search English Appearance Donate Create account Log in Personal tools Donate Create account Log in Contents move to sidebar hide Beginning 1 Purpose 2 What Meta is not 3 Community 4 Origins 5 Meta policies 6 See also 7 Notes Toggle the table of contents Meta:About 141 languages Аԥсшәа Afrikaans Alemannisch Алтай тил Aragonés अंगिका العربية الدارجة مصرى অসমীয়া Asturianu Azərbaycanca تۆرکجه Башҡортса Boarisch Bikol Central Беларуская (тарашкевіца) Беларуская Български भोजपुरी Banjar ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏ বাংলা བོད་ཡིག Català Нохчийн Cebuano کوردی Словѣньскъ / ⰔⰎⰑⰂⰡⰐⰠⰔⰍⰟ Чӑвашла Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Zazaki ދިވެހިބަސް Ελληνικά English Español Euskara فارسی Suomi Føroyskt Français Nordfriisk Frysk Gaeilge 贛語 Galego Avañe'ẽ Bahasa Hulontalo 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌹𐍃𐌺 ગુજરાતી עברית हिन्दी Magyar Հայերեն Interlingua Bahasa Indonesia ꆇꉙ Ilokano ГӀалгӀай Íslenska Medžuslovjansky Italiano 日本語 Jawa Qaraqalpaqsha Tyap Қазақша ភាសាខ្មែរ ಕನ್ನಡ 한국어 کٲشُر Kurdî Кыргызча Lëtzebuergesch Lietuvių Latviešu Māori Македонски Монгол Bahasa Melayu Malti မြန်မာဘာသာ مازِرونی नेपाली Nederlands Norsk nynorsk Norsk bokmål Diné bizaad Chi-Chewa ଓଡ଼ିଆ Ирон ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Kapampangan Polski Português Runa Simi Română Русский Саха тыла Scots سنڌي Davvisámegiella Sängö Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски တႆး සිංහල Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Soomaaliga Shqip Српски / srpski Sunda Svenska Kiswahili ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ தமிழ் తెలుగు Тоҷикӣ ไทย Türkmençe Tagalog Türkçe Татарча / tatarça Удмурт ئۇيغۇرچە / Uyghurche Українська اردو Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча Tiếng Việt Walon Winaray Wolof 吴语 მარგალური ייִדיש Yorùbá 粵語 中文 Edit links Project page Discussion English Read View source View history Tools Tools move to sidebar hide Actions Read View source View history General What links here Related changes Permanent link Page information Get shortened URL Print/export Create a book Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Abstract Wikipedia Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Foundation MediaWiki Wikimedia Outreach Multilingual Wikisource Wikispecies Wikidata Wikifunctions Wikimania Wikipedia Wikiquote Wikisource Wikivoyage Wiktionary Wikidata item Appearance move to sidebar hide From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki Translate this page Other languages: Afrikaans Bahasa Indonesia Bahasa Melayu Basa Bali Batak Toba Boarisch Cebuano Chi-Chewa Cymraeg Deitsch Deutsch Deutsch (Sie-Form) Emiliàn English Esperanto Interlingue Kiswahili Kreyòl ayisyen Latina Lëtzebuergesch Malagasy Minangkabau Naijá Nederlands Oromoo Plattdüütsch Scots Soomaaliga Sunda Taclḥit Tiếng Việt Türkçe Yorùbá aragonés asturianu azərbaycanca bosanski català dansk eesti emiliàn e rumagnòl español euskara français hrvatski isiZulu italiano kabuverdianu lietuvių magyar norsk bokmål occitan oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча polski português português do Brasil română shqip sicilianu slovenčina suomi svenska toki pona vèneto čeština ślůnski Ελληνικά Ποντιακά авар башҡортса беларуская български кыргызча македонски русский српски / srpski татарча / tatarça тоҷикӣ українська қазақша Արեւմտահայերէն հայերեն ייִדיש עברית ئۇيغۇرچە / Uyghurche اردو العربية سنڌي عراقي فارسی مصرى پښتو अंगिका अवधी नेपाली भोजपुरी मगही मराठी मैथिली हिन्दी অসমীয়া বাংলা ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ગુજરાતી தமிழ் తెలుగు ಕನ್ನಡ മലയാളം සිංහල ไทย ລາວ བོད་ཡིག ပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏ ဖၠုံလိက် ဘာသာမန် မြန်မာဘာသာ ქართული ትግርኛ አማርኛ ភាសាខ្មែរ ᱥᱟᱱᱛᱟᱲᱤ ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ ⵜⴰⵏⴰⵡⴰⵢⵜ 中文 吴语 客家語 / Hak-kâ-ngî 日本語 粵語 ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ ꯃꯤꯇꯩ ꯂꯣꯟ 조선말 한국어 Wikimedia Meta-Wiki About Meta Discussion pages Request pages Policies and guidelines Information and statistics Categories Help pages Meta-Wiki discussion page This box: view · talk · edit Welcome to the Wikimedia Meta-Wiki (often shortened to Meta-Wiki or simply Meta), a wiki for coordinating amongst the Wikimedia projects. Purpose Meta serves three distinct roles, which are all closely related but often involve different subsets of users. Discussion and formulation of Wikimedia projects, in particular policy discussion relevant across projects, such as open-content licensing. The central venue for discussion is the Wikimedia Forum. Some high-level discussions, held mainly in 2009, were split off to Strategy Wiki. A place for interlingual (cross-wiki) and international coordination concerning the Wikimedia projects and the Wikimedia movement in general, including discussion in languages other than English. This includes requests and proposals (for pan-Wikimedia or other wikis), technical changes, translations and news, and the description, documentation, and discussion of real-life activities and facts related to the Wikimedia Foundation and affiliates. See also reports, events, outreach, and grants. A forum for personal essays about Wikimedia projects. Because these are usually not delivered from a neutral point of view, they should be summarized on neutral issues pages from multiple points of view using formats such as TIPAESA or its subset IPA. There is a degree of freedom in determining what is related to Wikimedia projects, which makes Meta also a meatball wiki of sorts, discussing such matters as wiki culture and patterns. Documentation of MediaWiki is mainly excluded now (see below). This role includes more formal research and related discussion. The categories provide a big-picture representation of Meta's content. What Meta is not Main article: Meta:What Meta is not A disposal site for uncorrectable articles from different Wikipedias If you want to build your own wiki, check out the list of wiki software on Wikipedia. If you're looking for a wiki-based community, check out other wiki communities on Wikipedia, or MeatballWiki's community list. If you're looking for free webspace, you can find out more about that at web hosting service on Wikipedia. A place to describe the MediaWiki software. The software has its own wiki at MediaWiki.org. Content and pages such as these should be transferred. Community It has often been discussed whether Meta has a community. What's sure is that it doesn't have a community of its own, separate from the communities of the Wikimedia projects: as someone said, «a meta-project—existing for and about the other Wikimedia wikis, not as a content project to itself—a community of communities, rather than its own little island community».[1] This also means that many discussions, processes and other activities happen on Meta, with different participants and people in charge (if any)—for instance, among many, some Wikimedia committees, the stewards, the WMF staff for grants—: none of them, and all of them, is Meta. Meta is the space and the tool for their participants to achieve their objectives, not an actor in them; and even less a power over them. Strictly speaking, however, there is a community specific to Meta: it's a loose group of people regularly active in some or many such activities (especially as "gardeners"), who care about Meta serving the purpose above, and who are more likely to intervene to ensure it does.[2] "Metawikian" is a term also sometimes used, to indicate a member of the specific "Meta community", that is the community of Meta regulars who are more often active on Meta, for instance as contributors to its content pages or as facilitators of other discussions and processes. Origins Meta-Wiki was first created as "Meta-Wikipedia" in November 2001 to make the English Wikipedia less cluttered, by moving all meta-content (content about the Wikipedia website and its users), as opposed to actual content (encyclopedia articles), to a new wiki. Since its upgrade to Wikipedia's custom MediaWiki software, Meta has become a multilingual discussion forum used by all Wikimedia language communities. As the number of Wikimedia projects and translations increased, so too did Meta's scope. Meta comprises 167,255 articles. Many of the older pages here are still worded as being specific to Wikipedia, but arguably many now apply to all Wikimedia projects. Meta policies Meta:Inclusion policy Meta:Deletion policy Policies and guidelines Privacy policy Steward policies New project policy (historical) See also Goings-on Meta:Categories – introductory page for browsing Meta:Babel templates – language competence of Meta users Meta:Cleanup Meta:Requests for deletion Meta:Requests for undeletions Project portals – a list of Wikimedia project portals Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia projects. Notes ↑ Adapted from Pathoschild, 29 September 2011. ↑ Adapted from Anthere, 29 March 2006; see also MeatBall:CommunityMember for general principles. v t e Basic information Policies, resources, Meta site information Meta Info About News List of projects Research index Wikimedia Resource Center Program coordinators Contributors Developers Help Help Help Contents Readers Editors Researchers Help Forum Request help from admins Wikimedia Policies Wikimedia Movement Mission statement Values Principles Foundation Policies Privacy Stewards New projects Foundation Foundation Wiki Policies Bylaws Foundation website News Advocacy Annual plan, 2021-2022 Groups, forums Site forums List of forums "Forum," re WMF "Babel," re Meta website "Babylon," re translations Help Forum "Cafe" Services Ask a question Requests and proposals Dispute resolution Embassy for multi-languages Groups Mailing lists "Connect" page, re external groups Volunteers network WMF projects General Projects: Sustainability Strategy Governance Team Newsletter FAQ Termbase Projects Network Committees Ongoing: WMF "Growth" Team Closed Communications insights, 2020 Movement Organizers About Assets Team Community Capacity Research Leadership Development 2016 values discussion Organization and governance Movement strategy Main pages Movement Strategy Updates Initiatives Grants About Recommendations Principles Meetings: Hubs June 2022 Telegram groups: Main Hubs Forums Forum site Topical area for hubs equity Pilot Hubs thread Forum goals Wikimedia Main Budget Annual Plan Tuning sessions Check-ins 2021 WMF Resolutions Board of Trustees Noticeboard Affiliate Board seats Board elections Current [2020s] 2022 Annual plan draft Goals Two-way planning Your input Video of Trustees' Zoom call, April 2022 Committees Overview of elections Affiliations Committee Arbitration Committee Elections Elections committee Communications committee Community Affairs Committee Language committee Governance Stewards Elections Adm…