This page tries to give the foundational principles of the policies and guidelines of the English Wikipedia. This page (along with the simplified ruleset) was a prototype for the five pillars. Some people prefer this page, because it is simpler. See the page itself for instructions on use.

Shortcuts: WP:TRI WP:TRIFECTA

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia created by a community using a wiki. Those three basic characteristics suggest three basic guiding principles for editors, of which all others are corollaries:

• as an encyclopedia: Neutral point of view (NPOV) – our basic editorial policy

• Corollaries: Conventions on living people, verifiability, citation, original research, style, deletion, etc.

• as a community: Don't be a dick – our basic social principle

• Corollaries: Be civil, Keep your cool, assume good faith, avoid personal attacks.
• Strongly implied are the one revert rule and adhering to consensus

• as a wiki: Ignore all rules – the suggested personal policy

• Corollaries: Be bold, avoid instruction creep, Snowball clause

This page itself is not a policy, nor a guideline, but you are welcome to demonstrate that you subscribe to it by adding {{User:Seth Ilys/Trifecta}} or {{User:Lawilkin/UBX/Trifecta}} to your userpage.

[edit] See also

v • d • e   Wikipedia's principles Five pillars Simplified ruleset List of policies Jimbo's statement Wikimedia principles Statement of our principles Synopsis of our conventions Wikipedia's policy pages Historic principles Common to all projects