Wikipedia:Did you know

For instructions on how to suggest new articles, see Template talk:Did you know § Instructions for nominators.

See also: Learning DYK: The Unofficial Guide

"Did you know ...?"
Introduction and rules	WP:DYK
General discussion	WT:DYK
Supplementary rules	WP:DYKSG
Nominations (awaiting approval)	WP:DYKN
Reviewing guide	WP:DYKR
Nominations (approved)	WP:DYKNA
Preps and queues	T:DYK/Q
Currently on Main Page	T:DYK
Main Page errors	WP:ERRORS
Archive of appearances	WP:DYKA
Statistics	WP:DYKSTATS
April 1 hooks	WP:DYKAPRIL
April 1 talk	WT:DYKAPRIL
Monthly wraps	WP:DYKW

Wikipedia:Did you know (DYK) is the project page for the "Did you know" section on the Main Page. The DYK section showcases new or expanded articles that are selected through an informal review process. It is not a general trivia section. The choice of articles is subject to a set of criteria that are set out on this page.

The other sections of changeable content on the Main Page are coordinated at In the news, Picture of the day, Selected anniversaries, Today's featured list (currently Mondays and Fridays), and Today's featured article. More general discussion of the main page takes place at Talk:Main Page, and errors are reported at Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors.

Aims and objectives

Wikipedia's goal is to build and maintain an encyclopedia covering all branches of human knowledge. Hundreds of new articles are created and many more expanded each day on the English Wikipedia. DYK showcases new and improved content by presenting a series of facts ("hooks"), some of them accompanied by images, which link to selected articles. The hooks appear for a limited period in the "Did you know...?" box on the Main Page. Editors whose articles appear in DYK will receive an acknowledgement on their user talk pages. The choice of articles is subject to a series of criteria (see DYK rules below). Editors may nominate their own or someone else's work for a DYK appearance.

DYK aims to achieve the following five goals:

• To showcase new and improved content, illustrating to readers the continuous improvement and expansion of Wikipedia's corpus of articles;
• To highlight the variety of information on Wikipedia, thereby providing an insight into the range of material that Wikipedia covers.
• To present facts about a range of topics which may not necessarily otherwise receive Main Page exposure;
• To acknowledge the work that editors do to expand and improve Wikipedia, encouraging them to continue their efforts and thereby contributing to editor retention and ongoing content improvement;
• To encourage readers to edit articles that appear on DYK or start their own, thus facilitating the recruitment of new editors.

What DYK is not

DYK is not:

• A smaller-scale version of either featured content or Good Articles, though selected Good Articles do appear in the DYK box. Articles must meet the basic criteria set out on this page but do not have to be of very high quality. It is fine for articles to be incomplete (though not unfinished), to have red links, to be capable of being expanded or improved further, and so on. As DYK's main purpose is to showcase new and improved content, it is not expected that articles appearing on DYK would be considered among the best on Wikipedia.
• A collection of general trivia. The articles featured are specifically new and improved ones which meet the criteria set out below.
• A means of advertising, or of promoting commercial or political causes. While it is fine to cover topics of commercial or political interest, DYK must not provide inappropriate advantage for such causes (e.g. during election campaigns or product launches).

DYK rules

Further information: Wikipedia:Did you know/Supplementary guidelines and Wikipedia:Did you know/Onepage

DYK consists of a series of "hooks", which are interesting facts taken from Wikipedia's newest content, of the format "Did you know that...?" Thus, to nominate something to appear on DYK, an editor must either write or identify new content (see below for what qualifies as "new") and propose an interesting "hook".

DYK is only for articles that have achieved one of the following within the past seven days:

• Created
• Expanded at least fivefold
• Promoted to good article status

For articles initially developed outside of article namespace, the date the article first appears in article space is counted as the first day towards the DYK seven-day rule.

Any user may nominate a DYK suggestion; self-nominations are encouraged. To make a nomination submit it here.

Eligibility criteria

Four basic criteria are used to determine whether a nomination is eligible for DYK, together with a review requirement. Other criteria may arise as a result of community discussion or policy (more details appear at Wikipedia:Did you know/Supplementary guidelines), but the following criteria account for most cases:

1. New – A nominated article must be new (when nominated).
   1. For DYK purposes, a "new" article is no more than seven days old, and may not consist of text spun off from a pre-existing article.
   2. Former redirects, stubs, disambiguation pages, and other pages in which the prose portion has been expanded fivefold or more within the past seven days are also acceptable as "new" articles. The content with which the article has been expanded must be new content, not text copied from other articles. The length of both the old and new versions of the article is calculated based on prose character count, not word count. Prose character count excludes wiki markup, templates, lists, tables, and references. See WP:DYKcheck for instructions and details.
   3. Articles that have been worked on exclusively in a user or user talk subpage or at articles for creation or in the Draft namespace and then moved (or in some cases pasted) to the article mainspace are considered new as of the date they reach the mainspace.
   4. An article is ineligible for DYK if it has previously appeared on the main page as bold link in "Did you know", "In the news", or the prose section of "On this day". (Bolded names with dates listed at the bottom of the "On This Day" column do not count.)
   5. Articles that are translations from other wikis count as new articles.
   6. Articles designated as Good articles within the past seven days, regardless of whether they were expanded, are also eligible.
2. Long enough – The article must be of sufficient length.
   1. Articles must have a minimum of 1,500 characters of prose (ignoring infoboxes, categories, references, lists, and tables etc.) The number of characters may be measured using this script (most accurate) or this one or this tool.
   2. DYK articles may freely reuse public domain text per Wikipedia's usual policy, with proper attribution. However, because the emphasis at DYK is on new and original content, text copied verbatim from public domain sources, or which closely paraphrases such sources, is excluded both from the 1,500 minimum character count for new articles, and from the ×5 expansion count for ×5 expanded articles.
   3. Lists: Proposed lists need 1,500+ characters of prose, aside from the listed items themselves.
   4. In practice, articles longer than 1,500 characters may still be rejected as too short, at the discretion of the selecting reviewers.
3. Cited hook – The fact(s) mentioned in the hook must be cited in the article. (See more information under The hook, below.) Facts should have an inline citation. The article as a whole should use inline, cited sources.
   1. The hook should include a definite fact that is mentioned in the article and interesting to a broad audience.
   2. Each fact in the hook must be supported in the article by at least one inline citation to a reliable source, appearing no later than the end of the sentence(s) offering that fact. Citations at the end of the paragraph are not sufficient. This rule applies even when a citation would not be required for the purposes of the article.
4. Within policy – Articles for DYK must conform to the core policies of Verifiability, Living Person Biographies, and Copyright. Nominations should be rejected if an inspection reveals that they are not based on reliable sources, violate WP:BLP, or have problems with the close paraphrasing or copyright violations of images and/or text.
   1. Articles must meet the neutral point of view policy. Articles on living individuals are carefully checked to ensure that no unsourced or poorly sourced negative material is included. Articles and hooks that focus unduly on negative aspects of living individuals or promote one side of an ongoing dispute should be avoided.
5. Review requirement (QPQ) – For every nomination you make you must review one other nomination (unrelated to you)‍—‌this is called quid pro quo or QPQ. The review must address all five criteria listed here. If the nomination is for multiple articles, a QPQ must be done for each article.
   Exception: If you have previously nominated fewer than five articles (whether self-nominated or otherwise), no QPQ is required.
   The community may also choose to activate an "unreviewed backlog mode"; when active, editors who have nominated more than twenty articles are required to provide an extra QPQ in every nomination.
   1. You can do your QPQ review before or after you make your nomination, but for your nomination to be approved you will need to provide a link, at your nomination, to your completed QPQ review. For help in learning the reviewing process, see the reviewers' guide.
   2. Qualifying QPQs need to be full reviews, and not simply a "check mark." Ideally, a QPQ should be submitted within a week of a nomination. After one week, and a reminder to the nominator, a nomination may be closed as "incomplete." QPQs do not expire and may be used at any time for a future DYK nomination.

The hook

Format

• The title of the new article (or the text that pipes to it) must be in bold and linked to the new article.
• The hook should start with an asterisk (*) to create a bullet, then a space, three periods (not the ellipsis character …), a space, and the word "that"; and end with a question mark. Example:
  • * ... that '''[[milk]]''' can come from cows?
• The hook should be concise: no more than about 200 characters (including spaces and the question mark, but not including the ..., the space immediately following the ..., or any (pictured)). While 200 is a hard limit, hooks near or at this limit may still be rejected at the discretion of reviewers and administrators. This tool can be used for counting words.
• If a passage from a reliable non-English source is quoted in the article as translated by a Wikipedia editor (because no published translation is available) a phrase from that translation can be quoted in the hook, subject to the discretion of the selecting reviewers and administrators. Ideally the nominator will vouch for the translation from their personal knowledge.
• A hook is subject without notice to copy-editing as it moves to the main page. The nature of the DYK process makes it impractical to consult users over every such edit. Watch the talk page to ensure that no issues have been raised about your hook; if you do not respond to them, your hook may not be featured at all.
• About eight hooks are usually selected at once, depending on page balance, so the items selected fit with whatever else is on the main page at that time. Check by using the links on T:DYK/P1: "See how this template appears on both today's Main Page and tomorrow's Main Page." to see if the DYK template balances the rest of the main page layout.

Content

• The hook should refer to established facts that are unlikely to change, and should be relevant for more than just novelty or newness.
• The hook should be neutral.
• Articles and hooks that focus unduly on negative aspects of living individuals should be avoided.
• Articles and hooks featuring election candidates up to 30 days before an election in which they are standing should be avoided, unless the hook is a "multi" that includes bolded links to new articles on all the main candidates.
• If the subject is a work of fiction or a fictional character, the hook must involve the real world in some way.
• When you write the hook, please make it "hooky", that is, short, punchy, catchy, and likely to draw the readers in to wanting to read the article – as long as they don't misstate the article content.

Images

• The first hook in the set on the main page must have an associated image.
  1. Commons:Copyright rules by subject matter
  2. Commons:Photographs of identifiable people
  3. Commons:Copyright rules by territory
  4. Fair-use images are not permitted on the main page. The image must be free and properly licensed (PD, GFDL, CC, etc.).
  5. The image must be suitable, attractive, interesting, and must display well at 120 x 133 px resolution.
  6. It must already be in the article; and
  7. It must be relevant to the article.
• The first hook should be modified to include (pictured) in the appropriate place to make the connection to the image. If necessary, a slightly longer addition can be made if unclear from context, e.g., (pictured, flag of Zdxyrastan).
• Pictures and videos used in all DYK articles should be suitably licensed: PD, GFDL, CC, etc., including fair use where appropriately applied.
• The standard image and video code is <div style="float:right;margin-left:0.5em;" id="mp-dyk-img">{{main page image|image=filename.jpg|caption=Caption|width=120x133}}</div>.
• Administrators: when you add an image to DYK, it is automatically protected, so simply add an {{mprotected}} notice to the image description page (or {{C-uploaded}} plus a copy of the author attribution and the licence tag if you have uploaded a temporary copy from Commons).
• Sounds: Sounds accompanying the DYK hook should have similar qualities to pictures, and should be formatted using {{DYK listen|filename.ogg|Brief description}}

Date requests

Individual special date requests should be made on the nomination template at the time it is created, or at WT:DYK. For upcoming special commemoration dates that would include multiple nominations, the request should be made as early as possible at WT:DYK,

Articles intended to be held for special occasion dates should be nominated within seven days of creation, start of expansion, or promotion to Good Article status. The nomination should be made at least one week prior to the occasion date, to allow time for reviews and promotions through the prep and queue sets, but not more than six weeks in advance. The proposed occasion must be deemed sufficiently special by reviewers. The timeline limitations, including the six week maximum, may be waived by consensus, if a request is made at WT:DYK, but requests are not always successful. Discussion clarifying the hold criteria can be found here: Wikipedia talk:Did you know/Archive 161#Revision 3; discussion setting the six week limit can be found here: Wikipedia talk:Did you know/Archive 65#Rhacophorus vampyrus.

April Fools' Day hooks are exempted from the timeline limit; see Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/Did You Know.

The review discussion should address both the usual DYK criteria and the appropriateness of holding the hook for the requested date. Considerations include:

• DR1: The hook is part of a DYK special occasion project.
• DR2: The hook should not put emphasis on a commercial release date of the article subject.
• DR3: Listing a hook on the Main Page during the requested date does not make the hook itself non-neutral.
  • DR3a: Listing a hook that mentions a product or company on the Main Page during the requested date does not, by itself, make the hook promotional of that product or company.

The DYK process

• Rules (WP:DYK and WP:DYKAR) – how DYK works
• DYK talk (WT:DYK) – for general discussion of the project
  • Includes issues with current or past nominations which may need wider discussion than on the corresponding nomination page (in which case add a note to the nomination page).
• Nominations (T:TDYK) – where nominations are proposed and discussed
  • The nomination is checked against DYK criteria; reviewers may also suggest improvements or alternatives to the hook.
  • List of promising new articles generated by AlexNewArtBot may be a source for potential nominations
• Preps and Queues (T:DYK/Q)
  • Prep areas – where hook "sets" are assembled and finalized – See How to promote a hook.
  • Queues – to which finalized hook sets are moved from "prep" by an administrator, and where they wait to be moved (by a bot) to the Main Page – The admin moving the hooks to the live template may edit or reject any hook at their discretion.
  • Rotation – After 120 or more approved nominations, we rotate to two sets a day and when we drop below 60, we rotate to one set a day.
• Did you know... template (T:DYK) – the hooks currently appearing on the main page; DYKUpdateBot moves sets here from the Queue area according to a schedule.
• Old DYK entries are archived at Wikipedia:Recent additions after they leave the main page.
• Errors (WP:ERRORS) – to report concerns about DYK items currently on the main page – If necessary an admin may edit or replace a hook on main page by changing the DYK template.
  • If a factual error is reported when the hooks are on the front page, try to replace the hook with another fact from the article, rather than just removing it.
  • In the case it has to be removed, try to replace it with another hook from the suggestions page.
  • If it is the first hook and hence has an associated picture, you must replace it with another hook with a picture.

DYK participants

Active editors

Any editor may volunteer and assist with DYK, simply by contributing to the department operations.

(Edit this list)

Actively involved

The following admins are (or would like to be) actively involved in the DYK process.

• Casliber (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• Cwmhiraeth (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• Daniel Case (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• Gatoclass (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• Mifter (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• Lee Vilenski (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• ONUnicorn (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• Schwede66 (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)

Willing to help

The following admins are not actively involved, but are willing to lend a hand if needed.

• Berig (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• BD2412 (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) - I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out.
• Graeme Bartlett (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) I have helped out in the past
• HJ Mitchell (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) - active around ITN and WP:ERRORS but happy to help if needed.
• Juliancolton (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• Killiondude (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) - Whatever needs help. I'm also an admin on Commons, so you can ask me to protect images there for DYK, if you'd like. I'm on IRC a lot, under the nick Killiondude (cloak: @wikimedia/Killiondude).
• King of Hearts (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) - King_of_Hearts on IRC
• Kingturtle (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) - If you ever need help proofreading, copyediting, paraphrasing or checking sources, just post a note on my talk page.
• KTC (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• Mailer diablo (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) (whenever there's backlog)
• Nick-D (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) Happy to help if asked - including fixing hooks while they're on the main page.
• Nihonjoe (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• Orlady (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• Panyd (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) if I get a talk page message I'll come over - it will email me and I'm always on that damn thing
• Rlendog (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• Ruhrfisch (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) (can help with backlogs etc a few times a week)
• Samir (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) (was active in maintaining DYK in 2006, happy to help out anytime)
• Shubinator (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• SoWhy (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) - Whenever asked/needed or if I notice that it's needed :-)
• Stifle (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) - If I'm around, feel free to ask. I'm a Commons admin too.
• Vanamonde93 (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) I'll do my best to help every so often, but my activity is limited by RL.
• Victuallers (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• Wehwalt (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)

Other editors

The following users who are not administrators are actively involved in one or more aspects of DYK, including reviewing and vetting nominations, updating the template, and discussing DYK issues: (edit this page)

• 28bytes (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA)
• AmericanAir88 (talk · contribs)
• BlueMoonset (talk · contribs)
• Capankajsmilyo (talk · contribs)
• DannyS712 (talk · contribs)
• Double Plus Ungood (talk · contribs)
• EdChem (talk · contribs)
• Epicgenius (talk · contribs)
• evrik (talk · contribs)
• Feminist (talk · contribs)
• Heythereimaguy (talk · contribs)
• I JethroBT (talk · contribs)
• Jeff G. (talk · contribs)
• Kavyansh.Singh (talk · contribs)
• Kingsif (talk · contribs)
• MeegsC (talk · contribs)
• Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contribs)
• Theleekycauldron (talk · contribs)
• Vaticidalprophet (talk · contribs)
• Volunteer Marek (talk · contribs)
• Vincent60030 (talk · contribs)
• Wilhelmina Will (talk · contribs)

The following users are frequent nominators and contributors to DYK:

• Alansohn (talk · contribs)
• Captain Assassin! (talk · contribs)
• Cbl62 (talk · contribs)
• Hassocks5489 (talk · contribs)
• Hunter Kahn (talk · contribs)
• P199 (talk · contribs)
• Soman (talk · contribs)
• SounderBruce (talk · contribs)
• TonyTheTiger (talk · contribs)
• West Virginian (talk · contribs)
• 3family6 (talk · contribs)
• Leomk0403 (talk · contribs)
• 7&6=thirteen (☎)

• Trillfendi (talk · contribs)

History

Pencil sharpener

DYK made its first Main Page appearance on 22 February 2004. The article, "Pencil sharpener", was developed by Raul654. An April 2004 archived copy shows DYK located in the space now occupied by "In the news". Credit recognition for article creators started on 24 November 2004, DYK began placing DYK notifications on article talk pages on 13 January 2006, and nominators started receiving credit on 13 May 2006.

Userboxes

• Did you know
• Personal statistics

Awards

DYK Awards

Main page: Wikipedia:Did you know/Awards

Recognitions for editors who make a valued contribution to Wikipedia:Did you know.

• Wikipedia:Did you know/Hall of Fame
• DYK user templates

See also

• Category:Wikipedia Did you know, for other DYK pages
• Category:Pending DYK nominations
• Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of DYKs
• Wikipedia:Did you know/Statistics