Wikipedia:WikiGnome

This page contains material that is kept because it is considered humorous. Such material is not meant to be taken seriously.

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WikiGnome
A WikiGnome in its natural habitat
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Suborder:	Haplorhini
Family:	Hominidae
Genus:	Homo
Species:	H. smalluseditus
Binomial name
Homo smalluseditus WikiWikiWeb, c. 2001

A WikiGnome is a wiki user who makes useful incremental edits without clamoring for attention. WikiGnomes work behind the scenes of a wiki, tying up little loose ends and making things run more smoothly. Typical behaviors include ticking the "This is a minor edit" box before saving any edit, and not providing an edit summary. The WikiGnome is the original example of WikiFauna, having originated in the first wiki WikiWikiWeb.[1] A WikiGnome is also known as a WikiGardener[2] (not to be confused with a WikiFarmer).

Many highly active wiki contributors exhibit WikiGnome-like behavior as part of their work, while others may limit themselves to WikiGnome activity.

WikiGnomes are considered to be friendly like WikiFairies and WikiElves. The rough opposite of a WikiGnome is a WikiOgre.

WikiGnomes love to work in the shadows making what are called minor edits in various nooks and crannies of Wikipedia. Look at recent changes and you may even spot one at work.

WikiGnomes who are feeling familial or desirous of a grander sense of purpose often adopt a typo, gaining fulfillment by raising themselves into existence on the article namespace. That said, editors are also encouraged to make their edits openly and without reservation, as a gesture of straightforward friendliness.

The list of Wikipedians who wish to advertise their status as WikiGnomes is at Category:Wikipedian WikiGnomes.

If they so choose, users can advertise their WikiGnome-like qualities on their pages by adding one of the following userboxes to their user page:

Wikitext	userbox	where used
}	This editor is a WikiGnome.	linked pages
}	This editor is a WikiGnome.	linked pages
}	This editor is a WikiGnome.	linked pages
}	This editor is a WikiGnome.	linked pages
}	This editor is a WikiGnome	linked pages

If editors prefer not to use userboxes, they can still list their user pages in the WikiGnomes category by putting the following on it:

[[Category:Wikipedian WikiGnomes|{{PAGENAME}}]]

Another way for someone who self-identifies as a WikiGnome to advertise this is to display a small picture of a mushroom or WikiGnome at the top of the page next to their username, which can be done by adding the following to your user page:

{{WikiGnome topicon}}

If editors do not wish to advertise themselves unduly, they can make a simple textual note of their interest in wikignomic activities.

WikiGnomes have a humble and very unassuming nature, yet Wikipedians should know that they still need to be told that their work is valued from time to time. If WikiGnomes don't occasionally feel the love from the people whom their work has helped, they might sneak into the kitchens of such users at night and sit on their dairy products. Their needs are modest in this regard, however, and it only takes a brief word to them once in a while to avert such an unfortunate event. A collection of kind messages to be left for the WikiGnomes can be found at Wikipedia:WikiGnome/Kudos.

Examples of WikiGnome-like work include:

• Adding ISBNs of books that people mention.
• Making an entry for their articles in the list of books by title.
• Tracking down the authorship of "someone once said" quotations.
• Organizing word pairs into tables.
• Repairing links to disambiguation pages.
• Adding text links already in an article or to useful categories.
• Adding redirects and/or redirect categories.
• Finding sources for "citation needed" tags.
• Adding examples and details to information referred to in the text (for example, adding "such as Silence and Deep River" to the line "Shūsaku Endō has written important books").
• Clarifying vague information in the text (for example, replacing "the 2009 flu pandemic was the first in 40 years" with "the 2009 flu pandemic was the first since the 1968 Hong Kong flu").
• Fixing lint errors.
• Improving punctuation, fixing typos, and correcting poor grammar.
• Creating redirects and adding categories.
• Repairing broken links.
• Providing helpful advice to new editors, or alternately posting welcome messages.
• Providing help to other editors at various forums and pages around Wikipedia, such as WP:Help Desk.
• Helping to maintain "project pages", i.e. pages, essays, and resources that may be outside the main namespace (i.e. outside of the article namespace).

• Wikipedia:WikiFauna
• Wikipedia:Gnome Week
• Wikipedia:WikiGnomes United
• Wikipedia:WikiFairy
• Wikipedia:WikiElf
• Wikipedia:Minor edit

• Media related to WikiGnomes at Wikimedia Commons