 | This page documents an English Wikipediacontent guideline. Editors should generally follow it, thoughexceptionsmay apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflectconsensus.When in doubt, discuss first onthis guideline's talk page. |
 | This page in a nutshell:Warnings should not generally appear in articles. All articles are already covered by the Wikipedia disclaimers. |
For the purpose of this guideline, adisclaimeris some text or template within an article that editors may attempt to insert as a warning to readers. Although suchcontent warningshavefrequently been proposed,community consensus is that disclaimers donotbelong in encyclopedia articles and should be deleted.
Warnings are often redundant with the standard Wikipedia disclaimers. Were they to be permitted, they could create a false sense of security, creating a misleading impression that all potentially problematic content is flagged, and that articles without disclaimers are inherently "safe". The community consensus to ban such warnings also avoids time-consuming debates over culturally subjective issues such as what constitutes "adult content". By longstanding policy,Wikipedia is not censoredfor theprotection of minors.
Standard Wikipedia disclaimers
editEvery Wikipedia page includes, right at the bottom, a link to theWikipedia:General disclaimer(Wikipedia makes no guarantee of validity), which itself provides further links to five other standard disclaimers that apply to all articles:
- Wikipedia:Content disclaimer:Wikipedia contains content that may be objectionable
- Wikipedia:Legal disclaimer:Wikipedia does not give legal opinions
- Wikipedia:Medical disclaimer:Wikipedia does not give medical advice
- Wikipedia:Risk disclaimer:Use Wikipedia at your own risk
- Wikipedia:Survey disclaimer:Wikipedia has some rights when you participate in one of their surveys
Unacceptable disclaimers
editHere are some examples of unacceptable disclaimers. These are not permitted in articles, whether in template form (as illustrated here) or as text:
 | Spoiler alert This article contains spoilers. |
| Warning This article containsvulgar, profane, or otherwise offensive language. |
| Content warning This article contains media that may potentially trigger seizures for those diagnosed with photosensitive epilepsy. |
| Malware warning Opening this link may expose you tomalware. |
 | This article contains content that is suitable only for ages 18 and older. Viewer discretion is advised. |
Acceptable disclaimers
editCertain specific warnings are considered acceptable.
- "Technical" warnings assisting the user with display problems, such as{{contains special characters}}.These refer not to article content but to display issues that some readers might run in to.
- Temporarycurrent event and temporal templatessuch as{{current}}or{{recent death}}.These alert the reader that the article may be subject to a flux of recent and upcoming significant changes for reasons beyond the control of Wikipedia.
- Temporarycleanup templates,such as{{POV}},{{original research}}or{{cleanup}}.These point to deficiencies in the article that should be corrected promptly. Maintenance templates should not be used to "warn the reader" that a Wikipedia editor disagrees with the current state of the article.
See also
edit
- Wikipedia:Perennial proposals
- Wikipedia:Spoilers
- Wikipedia:Offensive material
- Wikipedia:Trigger warnings
- Wikipedia:Not a how-to guide
- Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not Fandom(difference 4)