User:Me, Myself, and I are Here/To-do

Common abbreviations for edit summaries (with thanks to the original legend)

I've compiled a list of my most common edit summaries to help me keep track of them and to remind me to make edits consistent with the intent of the policy and the spirit of good communication. Budding WikiGnomes can also use this as a cheat sheet, though please take the statements written here with a grain of salt, as style guides are subject to change and my interpretations may be flawed! Another great guide is the Help:Introduction to the Manual of Style/All page (which goes over the most common elements of the full Manual of Style).

add to ref

adding any information to references, often author, publication, digital object identifier, title, archive links, etc.

name ref for naming duplicate references

ref fmt/tweak ref for correcting formatting issues/errors, ensuring consistency, etc.

alpha: alphabetize see also, unless it is deliberately arranged in a certain order

ce

copyedit, anything that affects readability, grammar, tone, adjusting text to conform to the Wikipedia Manual of Style (MoS), etc.

amp: spell out "and" instead of using an ampersand
- APA parenthetical in-text citations use an ampersand, but if the authors are mentioned in the prose itself then an ampersand should not be used ("Foo and Bar found..." vs. "The study found that... (Foo & Bar, 2096)")
- In a list, use commas or rewrite for greater clarity
cap = change case, usually to lowercase/caps for uppercase
sp = spelling
Punctuation changes (see below)
Avoiding first person (I, we) and second person (you, and for those of a more medieval mentality, thou) pronouns (drawing the reader into the text or directly addressing the reader) in Wikipedia's voice
- e.g. in an article that takes a global perspective on the subject, referring to one country as "our" or "your" country would be inappropriate
Concision, removing redundant legalese-esque constructions like "not limited to"
Define/use the full version of an acronym or abbreviation before using the acronym in text, avoid jargon
Editing per WP:ENGVAR: consistency within articles, and using the variant associated with the topic if there is a strong link
Except to save space, spell out the full year
Gender neutral terms where appropriate (see also WP:GENDERIDENTITY)
Use full versions of words instead of contractions per WP:N'T
Remove editorializing, euphemisms, inflammatory/non-neutral diction, puffery, etc. to maintain encyclopedic tone

c. abbrev: circa is abbreviated c. and not ca. per the MoS, and is preferred over contractions such as approx.

el

external link

rm el: remove external links in the body text (usually links to primary sources like the official website of a non-notable establishment or an establishment with an existing / potential Wikipedia page), see also WP:ELNEVER
move el: move external links intended to be a reference into reference tags to use as a citation, or move an external link in the see also section to the external link section

fmt

any changes to formatting, wiki syntax, etc.

italics: see the MoS section on italics
- Italicize major works of artifice that can be published alone, like films and novels, and use quotation marks for smaller works that are published as part of a greater whole like articles, short stories, chapters of books, and poems published as a part of a volume.
- Italicize genus and species names.
- Italicize all accepted virus names.
- May be used for non-English text in the Latin alphabet.
- May very sparingly be used for emphasis.
bold: bold the title and synonyms of the title, including abbreviations. Only bold the name, and not the punctuation surrounding it. Do not use for emphasis
boldavoid: do not link articles in the bolded text of the title
titleabsentbold: do not force the title into the first sentence if it is not natural, and do not bold parts of it if the full title is not present
date fmt: in text, dates should not appear as hyphenated constructions. The year should come first in citation parameters, or use words. Don't use "3rd" or "2nd" or "of" (e.g. December of 2020). Dates should use a consistent format, and dmy and mdy are both acceptable formats. Use the full year in year ranges unless space is a problem
% fmt: follow this format: number, en dash without the space, number, percent symbol without the space. Some examples:
- Incorrect: 1-5%
  Correct: 1–5%
- Incorrect: 20 % - 30 %
  Correct: 20–30%

headings

simplify heading: per MOS:HEAD
- Headings generally should not include the title except when needed for clarity
No need to use articles like "the" or "a" to introduce the subject of the section
Generally should not include ampersands to replace the word "and"
Should not include internal wikilinks or external links
Generally should not include questions
No need to bold them, they are automatically formatted using the heading formatting
Use sentence case
Avoiding pseudo headings made using semicolons
Follow general rules of style and clarity

layout

reorganize page per MOS:LAYOUT

Put short descriptions above redirects and disambiguations, templates, info boxes etc.
End matter order goes: see also, notes / footnotes / inline references, bibliography / further reading / sources, then external links
Occasionally used to mean general reorganization

links

add relevant/useful links to the topic, use clear and simple formatting ([[dog]]s and not [[dog|dogs]])

Avoid sea of blue/blue sea: try not to have multiple blue links right next to each other (MOS:SEAOFBLUE)

notusa: change USA to US, etc. per WP:NOTUSA

overlink

I usually use this to mean removing excessive/duplicate links, though that falls under MOS:DL.

Remove common or off-topic links, such as apple in an article discussing an anecdote in which an apple figures as a peripheral character
rm items linked in body: generally, the see also should not include links that also appear in the body, though it can duplicate links from the captions/templates since readers are not necessarily going to look at those

pipe

pipe link, i.e. adding a redirect to a link to clarify target (e.g. based on evidence→ based on evidence) or adding text different from the target link to make it fit better with the prose (e.g. Grammy Awards held in 2000...)

Be sure to make the text understandable even without the link (WP:LINKCLARITY)

punct

any change to punctuation

dash: unspaced en-dash (–) represents range/replaces the word "to" (e.g. 1–2% or 1998–1999), used with spaces, it resembles the way em dashes offset clauses
- Remove spaces around em dashes (—) and add spaces around en dashes
LQ: Use logical quotation, which leaves the punctuation outside of the quotation marks (the word "bird".) unless it is an important part of the original quote ("bird.") can eliminate duplicate forms of punctuation
CQ: Use straight quotes (' ") rather than curly (‘’ “”) per MOS:CQ
Turn :- → :
Avoid double parentheses (like this) (and then this) → (like this; and then this)
Add commas / fix comma splices by adding semicolons
Remove periods/full stops from captions if the caption is not a full sentence, and add periods if any clause is a full sentence
Consistency between double and single quotes
It's → it is, its for possession
Use three periods/full stops instead of the ellipsis symbol
Use [...] sparingly

refpunct: moving punctuation before the reference and eliminating any space between the reference and punctuation per MOS:REFPUNCT

rm prenoms/credentials: avoid using titles like Dr, or prenominal addresses like Ms.; in the actual biography, describe their role and affiliation instead

rv: revert, usually vandalism (rvv)

spaces

anything with adding or removing spaces outside of MOS:REFPUNCT, e.g. between words, between words and punctuation, removing double spaces/unintentional line feeds

nbsp: non-breaking space to prevent values from ending up on different lines on the screen, such as numbers and units (e.g. 5 °C)

tags

Remove tags that are no longer applicable and add tags that are applicable
Convert unformatted notes (citation needed, discuss, by whom, when, etc.) to templates

template

... date: {{as of}} template for potentially dated statements

...hat: template statements intended to be hatnotes (e.g. "for X, see Y") so they don't show up in print versions of text, tweak formatting of hatnotes etc.

... lang: template text not in English (e.g. {{lang}}) to help devices to correctly display scripts/symbols and screen readers to recognize different languages if they use the Latin alphabet

... ref: add a reference template

... slink: {{section link}} for links to section → replaces # with §

... url: {{url}} or {{official website}}

Mobile editing

I'm increasingly finding myself relying on mobile devices to edit, so I'll put points to remember here to refer to and to easily catch up after taking a wikibreak.

Visual editor points to watch (mobile browser version)

Pros (over source editing):

Keeps track of old edit summaries to auto-fill, gives reminders when blank, can mark edits as minor
Easier to distinguish prose from other syntax and find particular issues, more newbie-friendly
Can insert special characters and basic text formatting easily
Easy to add/remove internal and external links and make sure it reaches the correct webpage

Cons (general):

Cannot use scripts or wikEd

Cons (compared to source editing):

Difficult to copy and paste things sometimes in the right place
Going from source editing a section to visual editing and then back to source editing opens the full page's edit form, while going from visual editing to source editing stays on the same section
- Easy to forget to re-enter edit summaries or mark as minor when switching
Links are often inserted with redundant or incorrect formatting, e.g. plurals, part italics – double check before posting
Difficult to select portions of links to italicize
Tricky to edit multiple citations at once, and the parameters may not reflect the latest accepted parameters used in the template (e.g., cite book template edit form offers work parameter, which is ignored)

(Any special formatting options might be out of date)

(May be issue on my end) After putting cursor in one position, it is difficult to scroll away to another section without being taken back to that position
Previews are hard to parse

The Wikipedia app has the same pros and syntax highlighting on top of that, though I occasionally get logged out despite choosing to stay logged in (some quirk of setting I forgot to deal with?) and it's harder to quickly check the hidden categories for any citation maintenance messages.

Tricks

Formatting issues: switch to Source editing and fix errors
Using scripts: change to desktop mode and site (remove .m from URL after enabling desktop mode)
Double check changes and summaries (autocorrect hates wikispeak)

Reminders to self

Check if the citation you're templating is in fact spam/not appropriate or not reliable
Check the formatting of the citations for consistency
Check if WP:LQ applies (i.e., is it part of the quote?)
Check if WP:WE applies (is it an appropriately used academic we?)
Check if the heading makes less sense after simplification (e.g. even taking into account that readers will assume the "...and (page title)" part)
Check if the reference order is deliberately non-ascending (read the references carefully to assess importance/relevance)
Check that no image files were disrupted after auto-replacing all dashes
Spell-check all edit summaries for embarrassing typos
Edit when fully awake, read the selection carefully, and preview multiple times

To-do list

Various low-visibility technical articles:

Capitals (acronyms and initialisms when spelled out often capitalized unnecessarily)
References often formatted inconsistently and/or possible to expand
- Journal cites in particular
Section headings (often contain questions, are long, redundant or capitalized unnecessarily)
Typos and other style errors

Lily plants and Iris plants

Same issue with comma splices, poor grammar and use of prepositions across the article, overload of references that interrupt the flow of reading. Can reduce or move to the end of the sentence for better readability
- Lede section: comma splice when reporting the subgenus (and series)
- Description & distribution section: many unnecessary commas, such as before a parenthesis, subject–verb disagreements, redundancies, comma splice when discussing chromosome count, incorrect use of colon, and NOTUSA
Incorrect formatting of specific names (usually lacking italics, sometimes incorrect capitalization)
- Especially with var., f. and ssp.
- Often missed in image captions (also periods for sentence fragments)
CQ and MOS:DASH issues, not using minus sign

List of minerals

Usually have dash issues in the lede and infobox; may also have problems with punctuation in the body text
Add references and format links
Duplicate links