Editing Eurovision Wiki:Village pump (idea lab) (section)

== Show new users what an encyclopedia is! ==
[[File:Wikipedia and Encyclopædia Britannica.jpg|thumb|right|Laptop displaying the Wikipedia article for "Encyclopedia" next to 15th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica showing the same article.]]
Ever since I've read [[Wikipedia_talk:What_Wikipedia_is_not/Archive_60#When_you_wonder_what_to_do|this talk page comment]], I've been wondering about a possible generational problem for Wikipedia -- newer users, having grown up in a world where paper encyclopedias are not used much, don't have much of an idea of what an encyclopedia is -- and they may take Wikipedia's quirks and humorous areas as encyclopedic, or, if Wikipedia severely declines in popularity, have no idea of what is encyclopedic at all.

I think this has happened to some extent now -- just check venues like the Teahouse, the Help Desk, and the Reference desk for many confused people who, despite our nagging, are treating Wikipedia like an [[everything app]] and don't get why people are so hung up on this quality of "encyclopedic". Beyond simply telling the new editor what not to do, or having them read through policy, I'm wondering if it would make sense to have some sort of notification occur upon creating an account, saying something like "Welcome to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia! If you're not sure what an encyclopedia is, you can look at these examples:" and then have a link to perhaps Britannica's website, or, if we wish to stay local to Wikimedia, links to Wikisource's archives of old editions of Britannica or other encyclopedias. (This could also boost Wikisource editing, but it could have the side effect of users thinking encyclopedias must be written about old fashioned topics, and could result in duplication of academic biases if that's what they pick up on in the encyclopedias).

Whatever we do, I really think we need to take this step as a clear way to show what our source of information is ''meant to be'', something very important when people are reading more ChatGPT conversations than textbooks. [[User:OmegaMantis|✨ΩmegaMantis✨]]<sup>(he/him) </sup> <small>  [[User talk:OmegaMantis|❦blather]] &#124; [[Special:Contributions/OmegaMantis|☞spy on me]]</small> 21:55, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

:This has occured to me too. Would all these people writing [[WP:VANISPAMCRUFTISEMENT|vanispamcruftisements]] be as eager to shoehorn then into Wikipedia if it was explained to them that that would be like barging into the Encyclopaedia Britannica writers' room and demanding they publish their garbage? Honestly, some of them probably would, but quite a lot might reconsider what they're doing. [[User:JustARandomSquid|JustARandomSquid]] ([[User talk:JustARandomSquid|talk]]) 22:49, 13 March 2026 (UTC)
::Maybe we should, but I don't think it will make much difference. POV-pushers will still push their POVs and spammers will still spam, while good-faith editors will still think that an encyclopedia article has to be long and written in glowing prose, an idea which is disagreed with by the encyclopedias which I have on my bookshelves. [[User:Phil Bridger|Phil Bridger]] ([[User talk:Phil Bridger|talk]]) 23:23, 13 March 2026 (UTC)
:::[[Collector's item]]s! Fear not; nearly half of all Wikipedia articles are [[Wikipedia:stub|stub]]s. [[User:Hawkeye7|<span style="color:#800082">Hawkeye7</span>]] [[User_talk:Hawkeye7|<span style="font-size:80%">(discuss)</span>]] 23:57, 13 March 2026 (UTC)
:Encyclopedias are outdated/obsolete, so I don't think we should give them any more attention than necessary. I also wonder how many new/younger users think Wikipedia is the more "serious" version of the different [[Fandom (website)|Fandom]] wikis. [[User:Some1|Some1]] ([[User talk:Some1|talk]]) 14:31, 14 March 2026 (UTC)
::I assume you mean ''print'' encyclopaedias, because, well, Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia. [[User:JustARandomSquid|JustARandomSquid]] ([[User talk:JustARandomSquid|talk]]) 15:28, 14 March 2026 (UTC)
:Monobook was great at doing so by utilising an open book as page's background.  [[user:sapphaline|<span class="skin-nightmode-reset-color" style="color:#c20;text-decoration:underline">sapphaline</span>]] ([[user talk:sapphaline|<span class="skin-nightmode-reset-color" style="color:#236;text-decoration:underline">talk</span>]]) 11:55, 16 March 2026 (UTC)
:This feels somewhat condescending. If I were a new user I'd be a bit put off by the implication that I don't know what an encyclopedia is. [[User:Gnomingstuff|Gnomingstuff]] ([[User talk:Gnomingstuff|talk]]) 16:56, 16 March 2026 (UTC)